"What! you fought a duel--you?" "Just a little, nephew--I mean, uncle. Indeed, I administered to the young husband a very neat sword-thrust in the arm. However, he's a stout fellow; but he holds himself back too much in fencing; that's very dangerous." "You fought with Monsieur Monleard?" "Why, yes! what of it? You open your eyes like porte cocheres! One would say that it was a most extraordinary thing!" "But, monsieur, it's a horrible thing for you to have done! You have compromised that young woman, you have compromised my nephew, you have----" "Sacrebleu! do you know that you make me tired! Where the devil did I get an uncle like this, who doesn't appreciate the services I have rendered his nephew?" "A little less noise, monsieur, if you please!" "Ah! you don't like that! Very good! but, no! You are Gustave's uncle; I cannot fight with you; it would grieve him. After all, my business isn't with you; and if that old baked apple out yonder had told me where I could find your nephew, you wouldn't have had a call from me. Tell me at once, and I'll make my bow." "You want to see Gustave?" "That was my only reason for coming here." "My nephew is not now in France, monsieur; he is in Spain." "In Spain? Do you mean it? it isn't a sell?" Monsieur Grandcourt made a gesture of impatience, whereupon Cherami continued: "Don't you like the word? You surprise me! It is adopted now in the best society. It's like _balance._ You say: 'I have _balance_ So-and-so,' which means: 'I have sent him about his business.' We have enriched the French language with a lot of such locutions, more or less picturesque. Ah! the Latin tongue is much more forcible, much more complete. You can say things in Latin that you'd never dare to say in French. Look you, for example, Plautus, in his comedies,--in _Casina_, I believe,--makes an amorous old man say, when he thinks of his mistress: "'Jam, Hercle, amplexari, jam osculari gestio!' Ah! they were great jokers, those Latin and Greek authors! Write comedies now like those of Aristophanes--you'd have a warm reception! They are beginning already to find Moliere too free! We are becoming very refined, very severe, in the matter of language! Does that mean that we are growing more virtuous? Frankly, I don't think it. Habits, customs, and manners change; but passions, vices, absurdities, are always the same!" The banker's brow lost some of its wrinkles as he listened to Cherami. He scrutinized him more carefully, and said: "How does it happen, monsieur, that, having received a good education, knowing your classics as you do, in short, being a well-informed man, you do not make use of your knowledge, to----" "To do what? To buy a coat? Is that what you mean?" "Faith! something like it." "I love independence, liberty, monsieur."