I saw that he attached great importance to the quality of his snuff. Indeed, when one has a nose of such dimensions, it is natural enough to give much thought to the question of snuff. I took an enormous pinch, and resigned myself to the necessity of inhaling it with all my force. The snuff caught in my nose and throat and eyes all at once. I choked and sneezed, but I tried to dissemble my inexperience and to appear well pleased. My friend shook his head knowingly, as he asked: "Well! what do you think of it?" "Excellent! delicious! I have never taken any so good." "Parbleu! I believe you. Do you recognize it?" "No, frankly, I do not. But, perhaps, by trying to--wait a moment." I did what I could to prolong the conversation, for I was determined not to part with my interlocutor until the orchestra played the first measure of the waltz. Unluckily, I was not well posted on the subject of snuff. "It's of no use for you to think," continued the man with the snuffbox. "It's a mixture that I make myself. There's _robillard_ in it, and Belgian, and caporal." "Ah! I thought there was some caporal. I recognized that." "There's very little of it. When I have mixed them in just the right proportions, I add two or three drops, no more, of _eau de mélisse_." "Ah! that's what it is; I said to myself: 'It seems to me that I recognize that taste.'" "The taste is barely perceptible; but it lessens the strength of the _robillard_, which makes people sick sometimes." "_Fichtre!_ _robillard_ is quite capable of it, especially on an empty stomach. I have known people, who--but, after all, it depends on whether you're used to it." At that moment, I cut such an idiotic figure in my own eyes that I was tempted to laugh in my own face. Luckily, I had to do with a party who seemed to be of about the same calibre. "Monsieur," he said, as he closed his snuffbox, "this is the result of protracted study; and yet, I never studied chemistry!" "You astound me! I would have sworn that you were a chemist, simply on the strength of your snuff." "That is what many people have said; but I ought to tell you that I have taken snuff ever since I was thirteen years of age." "You are quite capable of it!" "It was prescribed for a disease of the eyes--which, by the way, it didn't cure. I tried to make Anna take it for an ear trouble she had at seven years of age; but I couldn't do it. You can't imagine, monsieur, all of that child's devices to avoid taking snuff. In the first place, she used to hide my snuffbox, and more than once she threw it out of the window; then she filled it with very--unpleasant things; I prefer not to say what they were, but she spoiled my snuff, and she tried to disgust me with it. Ah! what a mischievous little witch! Who would believe it now, eh?"