consenting to do his bust, so that at the next exhibition the son of the
nail-dealer would have his portrait in marble by the same great
artist who had signed that of the Minister of State. Was it not the
satisfaction of all his childish vanities?

And each pondering his own thoughts, sombre or glad, they continued to
walk shoulder to shoulder, absorbed and so absent in mind that the Place
Vendome, silent and bathed in a blue and chilly light, rang under their
steps before a word had been uttered between them.

"Already?" said the Nabob. "I should not at all have minded walking a
little longer. What do you say?" And while they strolled two or three
times around the square, he gave vent in spasmodic bursts to the immense
joy which filled him.

"How pleasant the air is! How one can breathe! Thunder of God! I would
not have missed this evening's party for a hundred thousand francs.
What a worthy soul that Jenkins is! Do you like Felicia Ruys's style of
beauty? For my part, I dote on it. And the duke, what a great gentleman!
so simple, so kind. A fine place, Paris, is it not, my son?"

"It is too complicated for me. It frightens me," answered Paul de Gery
in a hollow voice.

"Yes, yes, I understand," replied the other with an adorable fatuity.
"You are not yet accustomed to it; but, never mind, one quickly becomes
so. See how after a single month I find myself at my ease."

"That is because it is not your first visit to Paris. You have lived
here."