Page:Gaston Leroux--The man with the black feather.djvu/113

Rh it differently? You keep saying, You went with your school-fellows to Saint-Laurent fair' … You were born in 1693' … 'You were a school-fellow of Voltaire.' After all, though I admit I was Car—" he stopped short—"the Child, I am also Theophrastus Longuet; and I can assure you that Theophrastus Longuet is not at all flattered at having been Car—the Child. Give everyone his due. I should be much obliged if you'd put it that 'The Child went with his school-fellows.'"

"Certainly—certainly. At Saint-Laurent fair little Cartouche—"

"The Child!"

"But you weren't yet called the Child—you weren't called the Child till you were a man—"

"Well, say, 'Little Louis-Dominique.'"

"Louis-Dominique fell among a troop of gipsies—"

"That shows you that parents ought never to let their children go to fairs alone," said Theophrastus solemnly.

"The gipsies carried him off; they stole him—"

"Poor little Louis-Dominique: he deserves our pity," said Theophrastus in a tone of warm