2.M.2.3. LUC-ESPRIT
AT the age of sixteen, one evening at the opera, he had had
the honor to be stared at through opera-glasses by two beauties
at the same time — ripe and celebrated beauties then, and sung
by Voltaire, the Camargo and the Salle. Caught between two
fires, he had beaten a heroic retreat towards a little dancer, a
young girl named Nahenry, who was sixteen like himself,
obscure as a cat, and with whom he was in love. He abounded
in memories. He was accustomed to exclaim: "How pretty
she was — that Guimard-Guimardini-Guimardinette, the last
time I saw her at Longchamps, her hair curled in sustained
sentiments, with her come-and-see of turquoises, her gown of
the color of persons newly arrived, and her little agitation
muff!" He had worn in his young manhood a waistcoat of
Nain-Londrin, which he was fond of talking about effusively.
"I was dressed like a Turk of the Levant Levantin," said he.
Madame de Boufflers, having seen him by chance when he was
twenty, had described him as "a charming fool." He was
horrified by all the names which he saw in politics and in
power, regarding them as vulgar and bourgeois. He read the
journals, the newspapers, the gazettes as he said,
stifling outbursts
of laughter the while. "Oh!" he said, "what people
these are! Corbiere! Humann! Casimir Perier! There's a
minister for you! I can imagine this in a journal: 'M.
Gillenorman,
minister!' that would be a farce. Well! They are so
stupid that it would pass"; he merrily called everything by its
name, whether decent or indecent, and did not restrain himself
in the least before ladies. He uttered coarse speeches,
obscenities, and filth with a certain tranquillity and lack of
astonishment which was elegant. It was in keeping with the
unceremoniousness of his century. It is to be noted that the
age of periphrase in verse was the age of crudities in prose.
His god-father had predicted that he would turn out a man
of genius, and had bestowed on him these two significant
names: Luc-Esprit.