The duck makes Joly think of Combeferre in this moment. Combeferre, who is so much steadier, who probably is handling Courfeyrac's arrest a lot better than he is, even if he is from the same district and probably witnessed the entire event. Combeferre might actually have a calm proposition for ways to help those captured. It's calming, somewhat, and Joly's little nod is a lot more normal this time.

"I suppose training ducks would take a while. But if one can train pigeons for message delivery, why not? What do you hope to teach him?"