Part 21 (1/2)

Dutocq. ”Then come home with me; for I must put the doc.u.ment into safe keeping.”

Bixiou. ”You go first alone.” [Re-enters the bureau Rabourdin.] ”What Dutocq told you is really all true, word of honor! It seems that Monsieur Rabourdin has written and sent in very unflattering descriptions of the clerks whom he wants to 'reform.' That's the real reason why his secret friends wish him appointed. Well, well; we live in days when nothing astonishes me” [flings his cloak about him like Talma, and declaims]:--

”Thou who has seen the fall of grand, ill.u.s.trious heads, Why thus amazed, insensate that thou art,

to find a man like Rabourdin employing such means? Baudoyer is too much of a fool to know how to use them. Accept my congratulations, gentlemen; either way you are under a most ill.u.s.trious chief” [goes off].

Poiret. ”I shall leave this ministry without ever comprehending a single word that gentleman utters. What does he mean with his 'heads that fall'?”

Fleury. ”'Heads that fell?' why, think of the four sergeants of Roch.e.l.le, Ney, Berton, Caron, the brothers Faucher, and the ma.s.sacres.”

Ph.e.l.lion. ”He a.s.serts very flippantly things that he only guesses at.”

Fleury. ”Say at once that he lies; in his mouth truth itself turns to corrosion.”

Ph.e.l.lion. ”Your language is unparliamentary and lacks the courtesy and consideration which are due to a colleague.”

Vimeux. ”It seems to me that if what he says is false, the proper name for it is calumny, defamation of character; and such a slanderer deserves the thras.h.i.+ng.”

Fleury [getting hot]. ”If the government offices are public places, the matter ought to be taken into the police-courts.”

Ph.e.l.lion [wis.h.i.+ng to avert a quarrel, tries to turn the conversation].

”Gentleman, might I ask you to keep quiet? I am writing a little treatise on moral philosophy, and I am just at the heart of it.”

Fleury [interrupting]. ”What are you saying about it, Monsieur Ph.e.l.lion?”

Ph.e.l.lion [reading]. ”Question.--What is the soul of man?

”Answer.--A spiritual substance which thinks and reasons.”

Thuillier. ”Spiritual substance! you might as well talk about immaterial stone.”

Poiret. ”Don't interrupt; let him go on.”

Ph.e.l.lion [continuing]. ”Quest.--Whence comes the soul?

”Ans.--From G.o.d, who created it of a nature one and indivisible; the destructibility thereof is, consequently, not conceivable, and he hath said--”

Poiret [amazed]. ”G.o.d said?”

Ph.e.l.lion. ”Yes, monsieur; tradition authorizes the statement.”

Fleury [to Poiret]. ”Come, don't interrupt, yourself.”

Ph.e.l.lion [resuming]. ”--and he hath said that he created it immortal; in other words, the soul can never die.

”Quest.--What are the uses of the soul?

”Ans.--To comprehend, to will, to remember; these const.i.tute understanding, volition, memory.