“That and the need to guard one’s self in these times.”

“And do you mean to tell me that a man who lives by what is after all an honourable profession, a profession mainly supported by the nobility, can at the same time associate himself with these peddling attorneys and low pamphleteers who are spreading dissension and insubordination?”

“You forget that I am a peddling attorney myself, made so by your own wishes, monsieur.”

M. de Kercadiou grunted, and took snuff.  “You say the academy flourishes?” he asked presently.

“It does.  I have two assistant instructors.  I could employ a third.  It is hard work.”

“That should mean that your circumstances are affluent.”

“I have reason to be satisfied.  I have far more than I need.”

“Then you’ll be able to do your share in paying off this national debt,” growled the nobleman, well content that as he conceived it — some of the evil Andre-Louis had helped to sow should recoil upon him.

Then the talk veered to Mme. de Plougastel.  M. de Kercadiou, Andre-Louis gathered, but not the reason for it, disapproved most strongly of this visit.  But then Madame la Comtesse was a headstrong woman whom there was no denying, whom all the world obeyed.  M. de Plougastel was at present absent in Germany, but would shortly be returning.  It was an indiscreet admission from which it was easy to infer that M. de Plougastel was one of those intriguing emissaries who came and went between the Queen of France and her brother, the Emperor of Austria.

The carriage drew up before a handsome hotel in the Faubourg Saint-Denis, at the corner of the Rue Paradis, and they were ushered by a sleek servant into a little boudoir, all gilt and brocade, that opened upon a terrace above a garden that was a park in miniature.  Here madame awaited them.  She rose, dismissing the young person who had been reading to her, and came forward with both hands outheld to greet her cousin Kercadiou.

“I almost feared you would not keep your word,” she said.  “It was unjust.  But then I hardly hoped that you would succeed in bringing him.”  And her glance, gentle, and smiling welcome upon him, indicated Andre-Louis.

The young man made answer with formal gallantry.

“The memory of you, madame, is too deeply imprinted on my heart for any persuasions to have been necessary.”

“Ah, the courtier!” said madame, and abandoned him her hand.  “We are to have a little talk, Andre-Louis,” she informed him, with a gravity that left him vaguely ill at ease.

They sat down, and for a while the conversation was of general matters, chiefly concerned, however, with Andre-Louis, his occupations and his views.  And all the while madame was studying him attentively with those gentle, wistful eyes, until again that sense of uneasiness began to pervade him.  He realized instinctively that he had been brought here for some purpose deeper than that which had been avowed.