“Yes,” with a fond smile. “He was my first friend in Paris, we encountered one another at school—he would take classes in most anything he could find; but preferred the progress of medicine and humanity to the progress of law. Where I am fire, he is the light of the future. He was interested in most everything as well; bugs, ancient history, languages, warfare—a polytechnicien in name if not in studies. He would love this place. He would be with you, learning everything he could think of, or mam’selle Tress, taking apart the toast box.”