Gustave Brunet, as drawn by
Hippolyte-Louis-Emile Pauquet (1797-?).
'You see, continued he drawlingly, between the whiffs of his meerschaum, it is not really difficult to construct a series of inferences, each dependent upon its predecessor and each simple in itself. If, after doing so (puff, puff, puff), one simply knocks out all the central inferences and presents one's audience with the starting point and the conclusion (puff, puff), one may produce a startling, though possibly a meretricious, effect. Now, here are the missing links of the very simple chain (puff, puff, puff): you had chalk between your left finger and thumb when you returned from the estaminet in rue Trianon-Bas last night (puff, puff). You put chalk there when you play billiards, to steady the cue (puff, puff, puff). You never play billiards except with La Bougive (puff, puff).'..."G. B.