Thus Thuillier had become, once more, morally speaking, the son of a concierge.

He now made use of many of his father's jokes, and a little of the slime of early days was beginning to appear on the surface of his declining life.

About five or six times a month, when the soup was rich and good he would deposit his spoon in his empty plate and say, as if the proposition were entirely novel:-- "That's better than a kick on the shin-bone!" On hearing that witticism for the first time Theodose, to whom it was really new, laughed so heartily that the handsome Thuillier was tickled in his vanity as he had never been before.

After that, Theodose greeted the same speech with a knowing little smile.

This slight detail will explain how it was that on the morning of the day when Theodose had his passage at arms with Vinet he had said to Thuillier, as they were walking in the garden to see the effect of a frost:-- "You have much more wit than you give yourself credit for." To which he received this answer:-- "In any other career, my dear Theodose, I should have made my way nobly; but the fall of the Emperor broke my neck." "There is still time," said the young lawyer.