He has become an amateur detective for the sake of popularity, just like an author; and, as he is vainer than a peacock, he is apt to lose his temper and be very obstinate.

As soon as he finds himself in the presence of a crime, like this one, for example, he pretends he can explain everything on the instant.

And he manages to invent a story that will correspond exactly with the situation.

He professes, with the help of one single fact, to be able to reconstruct all the details of an assassination, as a savant pictures an antediluvian animal from a single bone.

Sometimes he divines correctly; very often, though, he makes a mistake.