"Do you remember me, by any chance?"
"Perfectly, monsieur. Indeed, you are not at all changed, except in respect to your dress, which I congratulate you upon having renewed."
"Ah! you notice that? You look at a man's dress, I see?"
"Why, I should say that it was impossible not to notice it."
"I mean to say that you attach importance to it, that you judge the man by his coat."
"Was it to ascertain my opinion on that subject that you called on me, monsieur?"
"No; oh, no! I snap my fingers at other people's opinions. I know my own value, and that's enough for me."
"I congratulate you, monsieur, on knowing your own value; it is quite possible that the world at large doesn't suspect it."
Cherami bit his lips and twisted his whiskers, muttering:
"This devil of a fellow hasn't changed, either—still sarcastic, mocking. I don't despise intellects of that type; they prick and stir one up. You retort, and the conversation is all the more highly spiced."