"Here's something that is innocuous and too devoid of meaning to contain the slightest falsehood."
Pradel rose and said:
"Believe me, my dear doctors we should not have asked you to tell a lie."
"Why not? I am a medical man. I keep a lie-shop. I relieve, I console. How is it possible to relieve and console without lying?"
Then, with a sympathetic glance at Nanteuil; he added:
"Only women and physicians know how necessary untruthfulness is, and how beneficial to man."
And, as Pradel, Constantin Mate, and Romilly were taking their leave, he said:
"Pray go out by the dining-room. I've just received a small cask of old Armagnac. You'll tell me what you think of it!"
Nanteuil had remained behind in the doctor's consulting room.
"My little Socrates, I have spent an awful night. I saw him."