Have you no regard for me?"
"Regard for you! You shall have Havana cigars, with this bit of
shagreen: always with this skin, this supreme bit of shagreen. It is a
cure for corns, and efficacious remedy. Do you suffer? I will remove
them."
"Never have I known you so senseless----"
"Senseless, my friend? Not at all. This skin contracts whenever I form
a wish--'tis a paradox. There is a Brahmin underneath it! The Brahmin
must be a droll fellow, for our desires, look you, are bound to
expand----"
"Yes, yes----"
"I tell you----"
"Yes, yes, very true, I am quite of your opinion--our desires
expand----"
"The skin, I tell you."
"Yes."
"You don't believe me. I know you, my friend; you are as full of lies
as a new-made king."
"How can you expect me to follow your drunken maunderings?"
"I will bet you I can prove it. Let us measure it----"
"Goodness! he will never get off to sleep," exclaimed Emile, as he
watched Raphael rummaging busily in the dining-room.
Thanks to the peculiar clearness with which external objects are
sometimes projected on an inebriated brain, in sharp contrast to its
own obscure imaginings, Valentin found an inkstand and a table-napkin,
with the quickness of a monkey, repeating all the time:
"Let us measure it! Let us measure it!"
"All right," said Emile; "let us measure it!"
The two friends spread out the table-napkin and laid the Magic Skin
upon it.
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