from you."

"Monsieur Bombarnac," replied the major in French, without a trace of
accent, "I quite agree with you."

Then he added with a smile:

"As to learning from me, one of your most eminent critics, if I
remember rightly, has said that the French only like to learn what they
know."

"I see that you have read Sainte Beuve, Major Noltitz; perhaps this
sceptical academician was right in a general way. But for my part, I am
an exception to the rule, and I wish to learn what I do not know. And
in all that concerns Russian Turkestan, I am in a state of ignorance."

"I am entirely at your disposal," said the major, "and I will be happy
to tell you all about General Annenkof, for I was all through the work
with him."

"I thank you, Major Noltitz. I expected no less than the courtesy of a
Russian towards a Frenchman."

"And," said the major, "if you will allow me to quote that celebrated
sentence in the _Danicheffs_, 'It will be always thus so long as there
are Frenchmen and Russians.'"

"The younger Dumas after Sainte Beuve?" I exclaimed. "I see, major,
that I am talking to a Parisian--"