He had, moreover, put his one arm behind his back in a manner so formal that neither of the two men who entered offered him their hands.

That appearance was without doubt little in keeping with what the father and the fiance of Fanny had expected; for there was, when the four men were seated, a pause which the Baron was the first to break.

He began in his measured tones, in a voice which handles words as the weight of a usurer weighs gold pieces to the milligramme: "Gentlemen, I believe I shall express our common sentiment in first of all establishing a point which shall govern our meeting....

We are here, it is understood, to bring about the work of reconciliation between two men, two gentlemen whom we know, whom we esteem--I might better say, whom we all love."....

He turned, in pronouncing those words, successively to each of his three listeners, who all bowed, with the exception of the Marquis.