He also reflected, that if Chapeau knew that the two
Generals had been friends all their lives, he must probably know both
their names, and that therefore the information so very necessary might
now be obtained.
"Well then, M. Chapeau," (he had learnt Chapeau's name), "I cannot say
that I do exactly know how he was generally called before he joined us
in Brittany. You know so many people have different names for different
places. What used you to call him now when you knew him?"
"But you have some name for him, haven't you?" said the other, not
answering the question.
"We call him General, or Captain, mostly," said Plume. "Those are the
sort of names which come readiest to a soldier's mouth. In the same way,
they don't call me Plume, or M. Plume, or Captain Plume, but just simply
Lieutenant; and, do you know, I like it better."
The Lieutenant was a tall, lanky, bony man, from whose body the heat of
the oven, at which he had always worked, seemed to have drawn every
ounce of flesh. He was about forty, or forty-five, years of age.
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