After luncheon, I set out by myself and went to the Musée. At six o'clock, I had tramped the tourists' round--that is to say, having entered the Tuileries by the gate of the rue de la Paix, I had passed under the Arch, visited the Musée, gone along the Quays, examined Nôtre-Dame inside and out, made Martin climb up his tree and, under cover of being a stranger--a title which only a blind man or an evilly disposed person could dispute--I had forced my way through the gates of the Luxembourg. I returned at six o'clock to the hotel, where I found Paillet. Upon my word, we dined well! Our host was a conscientious man, and he gave us soup, a _filet_ with olives, roast beef and potatoes _à la maître d'hôtel_, the worth of two hares and four partridges, which we absorbed under other guises. I urged Paillet in vain to come to the Français with us: Paillet was formerly a second clerk in Paris; he had friends, or perhaps it would be more truthful to say girl-friends, of other days, to see again; he refused the offer, pressing though it was, and I set off for the _Café du Roi_, not comprehending how there could be anything more vitally important than to see Talma, or, if one had already seen him, than to see him again. I reached our rendezvous some minutes before Adolphe. Paillet had foreseen that I should probably have some indispensable expenses: he had generously drawn three francs from the common purse and given them to me. After this, a total of twenty francs fifty centimes remained to us. I went into the _Café du Roi_ and sat down at a table; I calculated what would cost me the least; I concluded that a small glass of brandy would give me the right to wait, and at least to look as though I was a habitué of the establishment; so I ordered one. Now, I had never managed to swallow one drop of that abominable liquor; however, although obliged to order it, I was not obliged to drink it. I had scarcely taken my seat when I saw one of the regular customers (I judged he was a regular attender, because I saw that he had nothing at all on the table before him) get up and come towards me. I uttered a cry of surprise and joy: it was Lafarge. Lafarge had gone a step lower towards poverty: he wore a coat shiny at the elbows, trousers shiny at the knees. "Why, surely I am not mistaken, it is really you?" he said. "It is really I. Sit down here." "With pleasure. Ask for another glass." "For you?" "Yes." "Take mine, my dear fellow. I never touch brandy." "Then why did you ask for it?" "Because I did not like to wait till Adolphe came in without asking for something." "Is Adolphe coming here?" "Yes. We are going to see _Sylla_ together." "What! you are going to see that filth?" "Filth, _Sylla_? Why, it is an enormous success!" "Yes, the success of a wig." "The success of a wig?" I echoed, not understanding. "Certainly! Take away from Sylla his Napoleonic locks, and the piece would never be played through." "But surely M. de Jouy is a great poet?"