"Oh! nothing new," replied Michel Perrin; "I am beginning to know all these places as well as I do my own pocket."
"This man cannot be of a sane mind," said Desmarest to himself. Then taking patience—
"Do me the favor of telling me where you dined yesterday, citizen Perrin."
"At a restaurateur's in the Palais-Royal," replied the pastor, whom this kind of interrogatory surprised to the utmost.
"And afterwards?"
"I went to take my coffee at the cafe du Caveau."
"And whilst you were taking your coffee, what passed there? I beg of you to tell me."
"Oh! nothing that I know."
"What! did you not remark three young fellows who were talking just beside you, whose table was next to yours?"