"That is exactly what Granet said to me when he told me of the new combination."
"Granet expressed in that more of an after-thought than your old Ramel."
"My best friend," said Sulpice with emotion, grasping this man's hands in his.
"It is so much more meritorious on your part to tell me that," said Ramel, "seeing that now you do not lack friendships."
"You are still a pessimist, Ramel?"
"I—A wild optimist, seeing that I believe everything and everybody! But I must necessarily believe in the stupidity of my fellows, and upon this point I am hardly mistaken."
"But what brings you to Madame Marsy's, you who are a perfect savage?"
"Tamed!—Because, I repeat to you, I knew that you were coming and that Monsieur de Rosas was to speak on the subject of savages, and these please me. If I had been rich or if I only had enough to live on, I should have passed my life in travelling. And in the end, I shall have lived between Montmartre and Batignolles: a tortoise dreaming that he is a swallow—"
"Ramel, my dear fellow," said the minister, "would you wish me to give you a mission where you could go and study whatever seemed good to you?"
"With my rheumatism? Thanks, your Excellency!" said Ramel, smiling. "No, I am too old, and never having asked any one for anything, I am not going to begin at my age."