anything that I have not seen, I will allow you to buy me a pair of
spectacles."




II

The young police agent to whom Gevrol abandoned what he thought an
unnecessary investigation was a debutant in his profession. His name
was Lecoq. He was some twenty-five or twenty-six years of age, almost
beardless, very pale, with red lips, and an abundance of wavy black
hair. He was rather short but well proportioned; and each of his
movements betrayed unusual energy. There was nothing remarkable about
his appearance, if we except his eyes, which sparkled brilliantly or
grew extremely dull, according to his mood; and his nose, the large full
nostrils of which had a surprising mobility.

The son of a respectable, well-to-do Norman family, Lecoq had received
a good and solid education. He was prosecuting his law studies in Paris,
when in the same week, blow following blow, he learned that his father
had died, financially ruined, and that his mother had survived him only
a few hours. He was left alone in the world, destitute of resources,
obliged to earn his living. But how? He had an opportunity of learning
his true value, and found that it amounted to nothing; for the
university, on bestowing its diploma of bachelor, does not give an
annuity with it. Hence of what use is a college education to a poor
orphan boy? He envied the lot of those who, with a trade at the ends of
their fingers, could boldly enter the office of any manufacturer, and
say: "I would like to work." Such men were working and eating. Lecoq