M. Kangourou relates, without seeing anything wrong in it whatever,
that formerly this talent was of great service to M. Sucre. It appears
that Madame Prune,--how shall I say such a thing, and who could guess
it now, on beholding so devout and sedate an old lady, with eyebrows
so scrupulously shaven!--however, it appears that Madame Prune used to
receive a great many visits from gentlemen,--gentlemen who always came
alone, and it led to some gossip. Therefore, when Madame Prune was
engaged with one visitor, if a new arrival made his appearance, the
ingenious husband, to make him wait patiently, and to while away the
time in the ante-room, immediately offered to paint him some storks in
a variety of attitudes.

And this is how, in Nagasaki, all the Japanese gentlemen of a certain
age, have in their collections two or three of these little pictures,
for which they are indebted to the delicate and original talent of M.
Sucre.




XXXIV.


_Sunday, August 25th_.

At about six o'clock, while I was on duty, the _Triomphante_ left her
prison walls between the mountains and came out of dock. After a great
uproar of maneuvering we took up our old moorings in the roadstead, at
the foot of the Diou-djen-dji hills. The weather was again calm and
cloudless, the sky presenting a peculiar clearness as though it had