I thought him rather an ass.
"You know, gentlemen," he said, as he prepared his papers, "the recognition of the body is a mere formality." "Then let us omit it, Monsieur le Prefet," exclaimed Alphonse, with characteristic cheerfulness; but the remark was treated with contempt.
"In July, gentlemen," went on the Prefet, "the Seine is warm--there are eels--a hundred animalculae--a score of decomposing elements.
However, there are the clothes--the contents of Monsieur le Vicomte's pockets--a signet ring.

Shall we go?
But first take another glass of wine.

If the nerves are sensitive--a few drops of Benedictine ?" "If I may have it in a claret glass," said Alphonse, and he launched into a voluble explanation, to which the Prefet listened with a thin, transparent smile.

I thought that he would have been better pleased had some of the Vicomte's titled friends come to observe this formality.

But one's grand friends are better kept for fine weather only, and the official had to content himself with the company of a private secretary and the son of a ruined financier.
Alphonse and I had no difficulty in recognizing the small belongings which had been extracted from my old patron's sodden clothing.