Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 1835
‘an old goat is an old abi’ (ami, friend).
‘Especially in the mouth of a man whose head is stuffed
up,’ said Grantaire.
‘Grantaire,’ demanded Laigle, ‘have you just come from
the boulevard?’
‘No.’
‘We have just seen the head of the procession pass, Joly
and I.’
‘It’s a marvellous sight,’ said Joly.
‘How quiet this street is!’ exclaimed Laigle. ‘Who would
suspect that Paris was turned upside down? How plainly
it is to be seen that in former days there were nothing but
convents here! In this neighborhood! Du Breul and Sauval
give a list of them, and so does the Abbe Lebeuf. They were
all round here, they fairly swarmed, booted and barefooted,
shaven, bearded, gray, black, white, Franciscans, Minims,
Capuchins, Carmelites, Little Augustines, Great August-
ines, old Augustines—there was no end of them.’
‘Don’t let’s talk of monks,’ interrupted Grantaire, ‘it
makes one want to scratch one’s self.’
Then he exclaimed:—
‘Bouh! I’ve just swallowed a bad oyster. Now hypo-
chondria is taking possession of me again. The oysters are
spoiled, the servants are ugly. I hate the human race. I just
passed through the Rue Richelieu, in front of the big public
library. That pile of oyster-shells which is called a library is
disgusting even to think of. What paper! What ink! What
scrawling! And all that has been written! What rascal was
it who said that man was a featherless biped?[51] And then,