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information, that their mental constitution had thus become really
transformed? It was difficult to escape from this conclusion.
Of these two men, the one was English, the other French; both were tall
and thin, but the latter was sallow as are the southern Provencals, while the
former was ruddy like a Lancashire gentleman. The Anglo-Norman, formal, cold,
grave, parsimonious of gestures and words, appeared only to speak or
gesticulate under the influence of a spring operating at regular intervals.
The Gaul, on the contrary, lively and petulant, expressed himself with lips,
eyes, hands, all at once, having twenty different ways of explaining his
thoughts, whereas his interlocutor seemed to have only one, immutably
stereotyped on his brain.
The strong contrast they presented would at once have struck the most
superficial observer; but a physiognomist, regarding them closely, would have
defined their particular characteristics by saying, that if the Frenchman was
"all eyes," the Englishman was "all ears."
In fact, the visual apparatus of the one had been singularly perfected by
practice. The sensibility of its retina must have been as instantaneous as
that of those conjurors who recognize a card merely by a rapid movement in
cutting the pack or by the arrangement only of marks invisible to others. The
Frenchman indeed possessed in the highest degree what may be called "the
memory of the eye."
The Englishman, on the contrary, appeared especially organized to listen
and to hear. When his aural apparatus had been once struck by the sound of a
voice he could not forget it, and after ten or even twenty years he would have
recognized it among a thousand. His ears, to be sure, had not the power of
moving as freely as those of animals who are provided with large auditory
flaps; but, since scientific men know that human ears possess, in fact, a very
limited power of movement, we should not be far wrong in affirming that those
of the said Englishman became erect, and turned in all directions while
endeavoring to gather in the sounds, in a manner apparent only to the
naturalist. It must be observed that this perfection of sight and hearing was
of wonderful assistance to these two men in their vocation, for the Englishman
acted as correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, and the Frenchman, as
correspondent of what newspaper, or of what newspapers, he did not say; and
when asked, he replied in a jocular manner that he corresponded with "his
cousin Madeleine." This Frenchman, however, neath his careless surface, was
wonderfully shrewd and sagacious. Even while speaking at random, perhaps the
better to hide his desire to learn, he never forgot himself. His loquacity
even helped him to conceal his thoughts, and he was perhaps even more discreet
than his confrere of the Daily Telegraph. Both were present at this fete given
at the New Palace on the night of the 15th of July in their character of
reporters.
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It is needless to say that these two men were devoted to their mission in
the world--that they delighted to throw themselves in the track of the most
unexpected intelligence--that nothing terrified or discouraged them from
succeeding--that they possessed the imperturbable sang froid and the genuine
intrepidity of men of their calling. Enthusiastic jockeys in this
steeplechase, this hunt after information, they leaped hedges, crossed rivers,
sprang over fences, with the ardor of pure-blooded racers, who will run "a
good first" or die!
Their journals did not restrict them with regard to money- the surest,
the most rapid, the most perfect element of information known to this day. It
must also be added, to their honor, that neither the one nor the other ever
looked over or listened at the walls of private life, and that they only
exercised their vocation when political or social interests were at stake. In
a word, they made what has been for some years called "the great political and
military reports."
It will be seen, in following them, that they had generally an
independent mode of viewing events, and, above all, their consequences, each
having his own way of observing and appreciating.
The French correspondent was named Alcide Jolivet. Harry Blount was the
name of the Englishman. They had just met for the first time at this fete in
the New Palace, of which they had been ordered to give an account in their
papers. The dissimilarity of their characters, added to a certain amount of
jealousy, which generally exists between rivals in the same calling, might
have rendered them but little sympathetic. However, they did not avoid each
other, but endeavored rather to exchange with each other the chat of the day.
They were sportsmen, after all, hunting on the same ground. That which one
missed might be advantageously secured by the other, and it was to their
interest to meet and converse.
This evening they were both on the look out; they felt, in fact, that
there was something in the air.
"Even should it be only a wildgoose chase," said Alcide Jolivet to
himself, "it may be worth powder and shot."
The two correspondents therefore began by cautiously sounding each other.
"Really, my dear sir, this little fete is charming!" said Alcide Jolivet
pleasantly, thinking himself obliged to begin the conversation with this
eminently French phrase.
"I have telegraphed already, 'splendid!'" replied Harry Blount calmly, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]