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Pécuchet, on the contrary, was morose towards his colleagues, and went off, on the last day, roughly clapping the door behind him. He had to look after the packing, to do a heap of commissions, then to make purchases, and to take leave of Dumouchel.
He was an ex-commercial traveller, and now a purse-maker a good fellow, a patriot, a ladies' man, and one who affected the language of the faubourgs. Pécuchet did not care for him, and he brought Bouvard to the residence of Dumouchel. He bored Bouvard. Neither of the two friends concealed his opinion from the other. Each recognised the correctness of the other's view.
The villainy of the mayors of the Palace did not excite their indignation, and they gave Anquetil up, repelled by the ineptitude of his reflections. Then they asked Dumouchel, "What is the best history of France?" Dumouchel subscribed, in their names, to a circulating library, and forwarded to them the work of Augustin Thierry, together with two volumes of M. de Genoude.
The cause of it is the contempt for literature, or rather for style; and, with the aid of certain authors mentioned by Dumouchel, they learned the secret of the various styles; how we get the majestic, the temperate, the ingenuous, the touches that are noble and the expressions that are low.
Thus the opinions of persons of taste are unreliable, while the judgment of the multitude is incomprehensible. Bouvard submitted the problem to Barberou. Pécuchet, on his side, wrote to Dumouchel. The ex-commercial traveller was astonished at the effeminacy engendered by provincial life. His old Bouvard was turning into a blockhead; in short, "he was no longer in it at all."
Where could they get the information? Dumouchel did not deign to answer their letter on the subject. Then they erected in the bakehouse a brachial weighing-machine. Over two pulleys attached to the ceiling a rope was passed, holding a crossbeam at each end.
Perhaps the discoveries that have been attributed to it are not so certain? Dumouchel, in sending on the invoice to them, begged of them to collect on his account some serpent-stones and sea-urchins, of which he had always been an admirer, and which were commonly found in country districts.
Thanks to Barberou, they penetrated into the green-room of a little theatre. Dumouchel got them tickets for a sitting at the Academy. They inquired about discoveries, read the prospectuses, and this curiosity developed their intelligence. At the end of a horizon, growing every day more remote, they perceived things at the same time confused and marvellous.
He had noted faults in M. Thiers's work, and he spoke with the utmost respect of a certain professor named Dumouchel. Bouvard had the advantage of him in other ways. His hair watch-chain, and his manner of whipping-up the mustard-sauce, revealed the greybeard, full of experience; and he ate with the corners of his napkin under his armpits, giving utterance to things which made Pécuchet laugh.
They flattered themselves that they would obtain clear ideas on this subject by studying the development of germs; and Pécuchet wrote to Dumouchel in order to get a microscope.
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