"Well said, Marquis! you are not made anymore than myself to breathe the odor of worm-eaten books. . . . We love the air of the forests!" "Figure to yourself then, baron . . . that this old Spectre--I like best to call him Spectre, because that tells his face as well as his name--had the insolence to ask me, at the end of a conversation of two minutes, if I spoke Latin!" "You, Marquis, you speak Latin!" said the baron, sharing the indignation of his guest. "I wonder where he had put his spectacles? As if you looked like one who spoke Latin! Did any one ever see such an impudent old thing! What the devil did he take you for?" "You understand that one cannot hear such things with coolness,--even from his judge. 'Ah well,' said I to him, 'do I look like a rat that gnaws old books? an ink-drinker? a vulgar pedant? To speak Latin! A thousand devils! If I had not come to ask your support in my lawsuit, . . . I would let you see how I treat those who tell me that I speak Latin!'" "Well said, my guest! I would have given a hundred florins to be present at that scene," said the baron, shouting with laughter. "Then the doctor declared to me distinctly, that he had nothing to say about my lawsuit, and I could consider my cause as lost, because _I was known!_ S'death, baron, I was known!!! It was too much. He had already asked me if I spoke Latin; I could contain myself no longer, and so I challenged him at once. . ." "Sphex! a challenge!" cried the governor, laughing until he lost his breath; . . . "the old ape must have looked funny! but what did he say?" "He said nothing at all; he raised his hands towards Heaven, and disappeared, as if by enchantment, behind a pile of great books. . . . Then I left, not doubting that the doctor owed me a grudge, but devil take me if I know for what, for two gentlemen can cross swords, and still be friends notwithstanding." "He has rare simplicity," said the governor, aside; "he little knows how he appears." Létorière went on. . . . "Then I had to see the councillor Flachsinfingen. I reached his house and asked for him, and was introduced into the presence of an old sorceress, dressed in black, who might have passed for a female savant, so dry and thin was she. She had, into the bargain, a Bible in her hand. 'I have business with the councillor, and not with his wife,' said I to the lacquey. 'Me or the councillor, 'tis all the same,' said the old witch. 'Tell me, sir, what you have to say to my husband?' Then, baron, I, who know how to do such things, devised a way to send off the wife and bring forward the husband." "Let's hear, Marquis," said the governor; adding, aside: "when he shall become quick and adroit in such matters, I will drink pure water . . . he is rough and knotty as an oak, but pliable as a willow. Ah, well! what was this scheme, Marquis?"