'"Abbe - oh, Abbe!" I says. "Don't you remember Toby and
Hundred and Eighteen Second Street?"
'He said not a word. He just crooked his long white finger to
the guard at the door while the carriage steps were let down, and I
skipped into the house, and they slammed the door in the crowd's face.
'"You go there," says a soldier, and shoves me into an empty
room, where I catched my first breath since I'd left the barge.
Presently I heard plates rattling next door - there were only
folding doors between - and a cork drawn. "I tell you," some one
shouts with his mouth full, "it was all that sulky ass Sieyes' fault.
Only my speech to the Five Hundred saved the situation."
'"Did it save your coat?" says Talleyrand. "I hear they tore it
when they threw you out. Don't gasconade to me. You may be in
the road of victory, but you aren't there yet."
'Then I guessed t'other man was Boney. He stamped about and
swore at Talleyrand.
'"You forget yourself, Consul," says Talleyrand, "or rather
you remember yourself- Corsican."
'"Pig!" says Boney, and worse.
'"Emperor!" says Talleyrand, but, the way he spoke, it
sounded worst of all. Some one must have backed against the
folding doors, for they flew open and showed me in the middle of
the room.
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