36
Monsieur René d’Esparvieu, when he heard the unhappy curator’s alarming reports, used to answer drily:
“These books have been mislaid, they are not lost; look carefully, Monsieur Sariette, look carefully and you will find them.”
And he murmured behind the old man’s back:
“Poor old Sariette is in a bad way.”
“I think,” replied Abbé Patouille, “that his brain is going.”
