As soon as he got back to the class-room, George told his two friends of Edouard’s warnings. Everything his uncle had said about his pilferings slipped off the child’s mind, without causing him the slightest emotion; but, when it came to the false coins, which ran the risk of getting them into trouble, he saw the importance of getting rid of them as quickly as possible. Each of the three boys had on him a certain number which he intended disposing of the next free afternoon. Ghéridanisol collected them and hurried off to throw them down the drains. That same evening he warned Strouvilhou, who immediately took his precautions. XVII ARMAND AND OLIVIER THAT same evening, while Edouard was talking to his nephew George, Olivier, after Bernard had left him, received a visit from Armand. Armand Vedel was unrecognizable; shaved, smiling, carrying his head high; he was dressed in a new suit, which was rather too smart and looked perhaps a trifle ridiculous; he felt it and showed that he felt it. “I should have come to see you before, but I’ve had so much to do lately!... Do you know that I’ve actually become Passavant’s secretary? or, if you prefer it, the editor of his new review. I won’t ask you to contribute, because Passavant seems rather worked up against you. Besides the review is decidedly going more and more to the left. That’s the reason it has begun by dropping Bercail and his pastorals....” “I’m sorry for the review,” said Olivier. “And that’s why, on the other hand, it has accepted my _Nocturnal Vase_, which, by the bye, is, without your permission, to be dedicated to you.” “I’m sorry for me.” “Passavant even wished my work of genius to open the first number; but my natural modesty, which was severely tried by his encomiums, was opposed to this. If I were not afraid of fatiguing a convalescent’s ears, I would give you an account of my first interview with the illustrious author of _The Horizontal Bar_, whom I had only known up till then through you.” “I have nothing better to do than to listen.” “You don’t mind smoke?” “I’ll smoke myself to show you.” “I must tell you,” began Armand, lighting a cigarette, “that your desertion left our beloved Count somewhat in a fix. Let it be said, without flattery, that it isn’t easy to replace such a bundle of gifts, virtues, qualities as are united in your....” “Get on,” interrupted Olivier, exasperated by this heavy-footed irony. “Well, to get on, Passavant wanted a secretary. He happened to know a certain Strouvilhou, whom I happen to know myself, because he is the uncle of a certain individual in the school, who happened to know Jean Cob-Lafleur, whom you know.” “Whom I don’t know,” said Olivier.