Having quickly completed these operations, he drew his chair
vis-a-vis to his companion's, and waited until the latter should open
the conversation. But plans even the most skilfully matured are often
thwarted in the outset of their application- and the restaurateur
found himself nonplussed by the very first words of his visiter's
speech.
"I see you know me, Bon-Bon," said he; "ha! ha! ha!- he! he! he!-
hi! hi! hi!- ho! ho! ho!- hu! hu! hu!"- and the devil, dropping at
once the sanctity of his demeanor, opened to its fullest extent a
mouth from ear to ear, so as to display a set of jagged and
fang-like teeth, and, throwing back his head, laughed long, loudly,
wickedly, and uproariously, while the black dog, crouching down upon
his haunches, joined lustily in the chorus, and the tabby cat,
flying off at a tangent, stood up on end, and shrieked in the farthest
corner of the apartment.
Not so the philosopher; he was too much a man of the world either to
laugh like the dog, or by shrieks to betray the indecorous trepidation
of the cat. It must be confessed, he felt a little astonishment to see
the white letters which formed the words "Rituel Catholique" on the
book in his guest's pocket, momently changing both their color and
their import, and in a few seconds, in place of the original title the
words Regitre des Condamnes blazed forth in characters of red.
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