Fortnoye, I should surmise,
was not too desirous to abandon this magnificent companion at
Schwetzingen; but the serpent, he knew, was left behind, in company
with two or three of his and my friends: it was necessary to take
the youth by the ear, as it were, and dismiss him from the country,
without loss of time, to his future of counter-jumping. His dueling
experience may be of some use to him among the bowie-knives of
Louisiana. If his subsequent path is not strewn with roses, let him
rejoice that it is at least lubricated with cologne-water.
[Illustration: INTERRUPTED REPOSE.]
An hour had passed, and into my room from his own adjoining one now
ambled amicably my friend the baron. He greeted Joliet as an old
friend. Many a smoking-match had they had in my garden at Marly. But
Hohenfels this morning was in robes of state, with shoes that shone
even beside old Father Joliet's, and as a concession to elegance he
had abandoned his cavernous pipes in favor of cigarettes. A scroll of
this description, flavored with his Cologne pastille and very badly
rolled, was trying to exhale itself between his lips.
"What a genius for conversation you have to-day, my Flemming! This
hour I have rocked back and forth in bed, trying to understand your
observations or to cover my ears and go to rest. Your tongue has been
like the tongue of a monastery-bell summoning all hands to penance."
But I had hardly spoken ten consecutive words.
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