Page:The Works of Honoré de Balzac Volume 29.djvu/91

Rh "Eh! Sainte gúerite, what does it matter! Isn't he a soldier?" cried Merle.

A few paces away some soldiers had made a group about the placard on the wall. As no one among them could read, they eyed it, some with curiosity, others with indifference, while one or two looked out for some passing citizen who should appear scholar enough to decipher it.

"What does that scrap of paper mean, now, Clef-des-Cœurs?" asked Beau-Pied banteringly.

"It is quite easy to guess," said Clef-des-Cœurs. Everybody looked up at these words for the usual comedy to begin between two comrades.

"Now look here," went on Clef-des-Cœurs, pointing to a rough vignette at the head of the proclamation, where a pair of compasses had in the past few days replaced the plumb-line level of 1793. "That means that we soldiers will have to step out. That's why the compasses are open; it's an emblem."

"No, my boy, you can't come the scholar over us. That thing is called a problem. I served once in the artillery," he added, "and that was what my officers fairly lived on."

"It's an emblem."

"A problem."

"Let us lay a bet on it."

"What?"

"Will you stake your German pipe?"

"Done!"

"No offence to you, sir!" said Clef-des-Cœurs to Gérard; "but isn't that an emblem and not a problem?"

"It is both the one and the other," said Gérard gravely. He was musing as he prepared to follow Hulot and Merle.

"The adjutant is laughing at us," said Beau-Pied; "that paper says that our general in Italy has been made Consul, which is a fine promotion, and we are all to have new caps and shoes."