the refinements of modern civilization are summed up in the phrase. It
is monumental."

"Look here, my dear Nathan, what farrago of nonsense is this?" asked
the Marquise in bewilderment.

"Madame la Marquise," returned Nathan, "you do not know the value of
these 'precious' phrases; I am talking Sainte-Beuve, the new kind of
French.--I resume. Walking one day arm in arm with a friend along the
boulevard, he was accosted by a ferocious creditor, who inquired:

"'Are you thinking of me, sir?'

"'Not the least in the world,' answered the Count.

"Remark the difficulty of the position. Talleyrand, in similar
circumstances, had already replied, 'You are very inquisitive, my dear
fellow!' To imitate the inimitable great man was out of the question.
--La Palferine, generous as Buckingham, could not bear to be caught
empty-handed. One day when he had nothing to give a little Savoyard
chimney-sweeper, he dipped a hand into a barrel of grapes in a
grocer's doorway and filled the child's cap from it. The little one
ate away at his grapes; the grocer began by laughing, and ended by
holding out his hand.

"'Oh, fie! monsieur,' said La Palferine, 'your left hand ought not to
know what my right hand doth.'

"With his adventurous courage, he never refuses any odds, but there is
wit in his bravado. In the Passage de l'Opera he chanced to meet a man