have it signed this morning by the
king. Moreover, there is a vacant place at the Academy of
Sciences, and if you are not a candidate for it--"

"I, in the Academy!" I interrupted, with the frankness of speech
you know I always use; "I execrate academies; they are stiflers,
extinguishers, assemblages of sloths, idlers, shops with big signs
and nothing to sell inside--"

"Well, then," said the minister, smiling, "I think that at the
next election Monsieur Felix Phellion will have every chance, and
among those chances I count the influence of the government which
is secured to him."

There, my poor boy, is all that I have been able to do to reward
your good intentions and to prove to you that I am no longer
angry. I think the relations are going to pull a long face. Come
and talk about it to-day at four o'clock,--for I don't dine after
bedtime, as I saw some people doing last night in a house where I
had occasion to mention your talents in a manner that was very
advantageous to you. Madame Lambert, who does better with a
saucepan than with pen and ink, shall distinguish herself, though
it is Friday, and she never lets me off a fast day. But she has
promised us a fish dinner worthy of an archbishop, with a fine
half-bottle of champagne (doubled if need be) to wash it down.

Your old professor and friend,

Picot (Nepomucene),

Chevalier of the Legion of honor.

P.S.--Do you think you could obtain from your respectable mother a
little flask of that old and excellent cognac you once gave me?
Not a drop remains, and yesterday I was forced to drink some stuff
only fit to bathe horses' feet, as I did not hesitate to say to
the beautiful Hebe who served it to me.

"Of course he shall have some," said Madame Phellion; "not a flask, but
a gallon."

"And I," said Minard, "who pique myself on mine, which didn't come from
Brigitte's grocer either, I'll send him several bottles; but don't tell
him who sent them, Monsieur le chevalier, for you never can tell how
that singular being will take things."

"Wife," said Phellion, suddenly, "get me my black coat and a white
cravat."

"Where are you going?" asked Madame Phellion. "To the minister, to thank
him?"

"Bring me, I say, those articles of habiliment. I have an important
visit to make; and Monsieur le maire will, I know, excuse me."

"I myself must be off," said Minard. "I, too, have important business,
though i