"Of your plan, you mean, my dear brother; you cannot have forgotten that—far from being mine—"
Bonaparte interrupted him with good-natured scorn.
"Well, well, preacher, I don't need to discuss that with you; you are so obstinate. I like better to talk about serious things with Lucien; for, although he sometimes takes it into his head to go against me, he knows how to give up to my idea when I think fit to change his."
Joseph's color rose quickly, and he spoke with some spirit:
"You are unjust enough to attribute to obstinacy what is the effect of wise reflection."
Lucien was evidently afraid of an outbreak, and he interposed quickly and laughingly:
"Then that means, brother Joseph, that I hold my ideas so lightly I can easily be reasoned out of them."
"Ah, my dear boy," said Bonaparte, with affectionate raillery, "fear not that any one will accuse thee of lightness. Thou art more likely to be named 'Iron-head.'"
For a few minutes the two brothers playfully called each other nicknames, going back to the days of their boyhood in Corsica, while Joseph stood by, looking bored and every moment growing more impatient. Finally he broke in quite brusquely:
"Well, you say nothing more about your famous plan!"