"Voltaire, Parny, Bertin, Demoustier, Legouvé, Colardeau." "Good! forget the lot." "Really?" "Read Homer as representative of antiquity; Virgil among the Latin poets; Dante in the Middle Ages. I am giving you giants' marrow to feed on." "And among the moderns?" "Ronsard, Mathurin, Régnier, Milton, Goethe, Uhland, Byron, Lamartine, Victor Hugo, and especially a little volume which has just been published by Latouche." "What is the name of it?" "_André Chénier_." "I have read it...." "You have read Marie-Joseph.... Do not confuse Marie-Joseph with André." "But how am I to read foreign authors when I do not know either Greek or English or German?" "The deuce! Why, that is simple enough: you must learn those languages." "How?" "I do not know; but remember this: one can always learn what one wants to learn. And now I think it is time we gave our attention to business. One more piece of advice." "What is it?" "If you mean to follow the instructions I give you...." "Indeed I do!" "You must not say a word to M. Arnault of this little scheme of study." "Why?" "Because you would not be a friend of his for long." "You think not?" "I am certain of it." "Thanks.... I will keep my mouth shut." "You will do well. Now, a second word of advice." "I am listening." "You must not repeat a word of our conversation either to Oudard or to M. de Broval." "Why?" "Because they would not leave us long in the same office." "The devil! I want to stay in it dreadfully." "Then it depends on yourself." "Oh, if it depends on me, we shall be together for many years." "So be it." At this point M. Oudard entered, and I set to my task with an avidity that won me many compliments from him at the end of the day. I made a splendid discovery--which was that I could copy without thinking of what I was copying, and consequently I was able to think of other things whilst copying. By the second day I had advanced as far as others who had been at work for four or five years. As will be seen, I was making rapid progress. CHAPTER III Adolphe reads a play at the Gymnase--M. Dormeuil--_Kenilworth Castle_--M. Warez and Soulié--Mademoiselle Lévesque--The Arnault family--The _Feuille--Marius à Minturnes_--Danton's epigram--The reversed passport--Three fables--_Germanicus_--Inscriptions and epigrams--Ramponneau--The young man and the tilbury-_Extra ecclesiam nulla est salus_--Madame Arnault It was well I could copy without taking in what I was doing; for Lassagne's conversation, as may be imagined, gave me much to think about. Every day showed me my deplorable ignorance more and more, and, like a traveller lost in a marshy, unstable bog, I did not know whereon to place my feet in order to find that solid ground which would lead me to the end I was trying to reach.