“Thirteen! I had just as soon sit thirteen at table. Truffles, champagne, chambertin and thirteen at table every day—I’ll subscribe for that if I don’t have to pay in advance.”
“Or if you don’t have to pay afterward, perhaps?” said Monsieur Dufournelle.
“Oh! what a spiteful thing to say, big Dufournelle! How fat the fellow is growing! If he keeps on he won’t be able to go into any house; partitions of decent dimensions no longer conceal him—he will have to have some made expressly for him.”
“Hold your tongue, advocate without causes!”
“I an advocate? Oh! I have abandoned the profession; I wasn’t loquacious enough, and then I was too good a fellow. I settled disputes on the instant. I induced the parties to dine together and I dined with them; we all got tipsy; after dinner they embraced and that was the end of their litigation. My confrères begged me to give up practice—I was ruining the profession.”
“Whom else do you expect, Monsieur Glumeau?” inquired Monsieur Camuzard.
“A lady—a charming lady—not very young, but very good-looking still.”
“And her name?”
“The Baronne de Grangeville.”
“A baroness! the deuce! a real baroness?”