shows traces of Arab manners."

"Oh!" said the journalist, laughing, "the mania for cutting off arms
is an old one there. It turns up every now and then like some of our
newspaper hoaxes, for the subject has given plots for plays on the
Spanish stage so early as 1570--"

"Then do you think me capable of inventing such a story?" said
Monsieur Gravier, nettled by Lousteau's impertinent tone.

"Quite incapable of such a thing," said the journalist with grave
irony.

"Pooh!" said Bianchon, "the inventions of romances and play-writers
are quite as often transferred from their books and pieces into real
life, as the events of real life are made use of on the stage or
adapted to a tale. I have seen the comedy of _Tartufe_ played out
--with the exception of the close; Orgon's eyes could not be opened
to the truth."

"And the tragi-comedy of _Adolphe_ by Benjamin Constant is constantly
enacted," cried Lousteau.

"And do you suppose," asked Madame de la Baudraye, "that such
adventures as Monsieur Gravier has related could ever occur now, and
in France?"

"Dear me!" cried Clagny, "of the ten or twelve startling crimes that
are annually committed in France, quite half are mixed up with
circumstances at least as extraordinary as these, and often outdoing