My dear, Alain, there is some of the best blood of Europe in the Jockey Club; they would exclude a plain bourgeois like me.

But it is all the same: in one respect you are quite right.

Walk in a blouse if you please: you are still Rochebriant; you would only be called eccentric.

Alas! I am obliged to send to London for my pantaloons: that comes of being a Lemercier.

But here we are in the Palais Royal.".