"Costecalde" found his
prototype in M. Sichap, who, although he had in all probability
never fired off a gun in his life, could never see a tame pigeon,
or even a sparrow flying over him, without instantly putting his
walking-stick to his shoulder and loudly ejaculating, "Pan, pan,"
which was intended to counterfeit the firing of both barrels of a
gun. I once asked M. Sichap why so excellent a shot as he (with a
walking-stick) invariably missed his bird with his first barrel,
and only brought him down with his second. This was quite a new
light to M. Sichap, who had hithered considered the double "Pan,
pan," an indispensable adjunct to the pantomime of firing a gun;
much as my young brother and I had once imagined "Ug, ug," an
obligatory commencement to any remark made by a Red Indian
"brave."
In so remote a place as Nyons, over four hundred miles from the
capital, the glamour of Paris exercised a magical attraction. The
few inhabitants of Nyons who had ever visited Paris, or even
merely passed through it, were never quite as other people, some
little remnant of an aureole encircled them.
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