"Progress is an illusion?" He settles down properly at Grantaire's table now, willing to entertain this at least for now. "Very well. Seeing as we do not have Combeferre present to defend the righteousness of progress, I shall have to do it for him." He takes a sip of wine and shifts position, affecting his very best imitation of Combeferre. "As monsieur Franklin said, 'without progress, words such as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.' I do not see how you can disavow progress when you yourself were part of it, if only a small part, as was I. Our barricade was not an illusion, you know as well as I our deaths were not, either -- and did not our deaths serve as some form of progress towards the second republic?"