Thaddeus, too, had been once in Paris and he returned with an
enthusiastic liking for the French demoiselles.

"Vos gogottes, monsieur," he said, appearing very amiable and
leaning on each word, with a guttural emphasis such as is common
in the western provinces, "ah, vos gogottes!"

Matrena Perovna tried to silence him, but Thaddeus insisted on his
right to appreciate the fair sex away from home. He had a turgid,
sentimental wife, always weeping and cramming her religious notions
down his throat.

Of course someone asked Rouletabille what he thought of Russia, but
he had no more than opened his mouth to reply than Athanase
Georgevitch closed it by interrupting:

"Permettez! Permettez! You others, of the young generation, what
do you know of it? You need to have lived a long time and in all
its districts to appreciate Russia at its true value. Russia,
my young sir, is as yet a closed book to you."

"Naturally," Rouletabille answered, smiling.

"Well, well, here's your health! What I would point out to you
first of all is that it is a good buyer of champagne, eh?" - and
he gave a huge grin. "But the hardest drinker I ever knew was born
on the banks of the Seine. Did you know him, Feodor Feodorovitch?
Poor Charles Dufour, who died two years ago at fete of the officers
of the Guard. He wagered at the end of the banquet that he could