For a moment he stood and stared astonished.

Then, raising his native cap with a graceful air, and bowing low, as he would have bowed to a lady on the Boulevard, he advanced to greet a brother European with the familiar words, in good educated French, "Monsieur, I salute you!" To Felix, the sound of a civilized voice in the midst of so much strange and primitive barbarism, was like a sudden return to some forgotten world, so deeply and profoundly did it move and impress him.

He grasped the sunburnt Frenchman's rugged hand in his.

"Who are you ?" he cried, in the very best Parisian he could muster up on the spur of the moment.

"And how did you come here ?" "Monsieur," the Frenchman answered, no less profoundly moved than himself, "this is, indeed, wonderful! Do I hear once more that beautiful language spoken?
Do I find myself once more in the presence of a civilized person?
What fortune! What happiness! Ah, it is glorious, glorious." For some seconds they stood and looked at one another in silence, grasping their hands hard again and again with intense emotion; then Felix repeated his question a second time: "Who are you, monsieur?
and where do you come from ?" "Your name, surname, age, occupation ?" the Frenchman repeated, bursting forth at last into national levity.