"Have you seen my mother?" asked Albert.
"I have just had the pleasure," replied the count, "but I have not seen your father."
"See, he is down there, talking politics with that little group of great geniuses."
"Indeed!" said Monte-Cristo; "arid so those gentlemen down there are men of great talent. I should not have guessed it. And for what kind of talent are they celebrated? You know there are different sorts."
"That tall, harsh-looking man is very learned; he discovered, in the neighborhood of Rome, a kind of lizard with a vertebra more than usual, and he immediately laid his discovery before the Institute. The thing was discussed for a long time, but finally decided in his favor. The vertebra made a great noise in the learned world, and the gentleman, who was only a knight of the Legion of Honor, was made an officer."
"Come," said Monte-Cristo, "this cross seems to me to be wisely awarded. I suppose, had he found another additional vertebra, they would have made him a commander."
"Very likely," said Albert.
"And who can that person be who has taken it into his head to wrap himself up in a blue coat embroidered with green?"
"Oh, that coat is not his own idea; it is the Republic's, which, as you know, was not very artistic, and deputed David to draw a uniform for the Academicians."
"Indeed!" said Monte-Cristo; "so this gentleman is an Academician?"
"Within the last week he has been made one of the learned assembly."
"And what is his especial talent?"
"His specialty? I believe he thrusts pins through the heads of rabbits, that he makes fowls eat madder, and that he keeps back the spinal marrow of dogs with whalebone."
"And he is made a member of the Academy of Sciences for this?"
"No; of the French Academy."
"But what has the French Academy to do with all this?"
"I was going to tell you. It seems"
"That his experiments have very considerably advanced the cause of science, doubtless?"
"No; that his style of writing is very good."
"This must be very flattering to the feelings of the rabbits into whose heads he has thrust pins, to the fowls whose bones he has dyed red, and to the dogs whose spinal marrow he has kept back!" Albert laughed. "And the other one?" demanded the count.
"Ah! in the dark-blue coat?"
"Yes."
