But I did not like the look of him, for he had shifty eyes and a bloated face.

Without a word he brought me what I ordered and set it down in a little room facing the stable yard.
"Whose carriage is that under your shed ?" I asked, sipping my wine.
"It is the carriage of the Duke of Saint-Maclou, sir," he answered readily enough.
"The duke is here, then ?" "Have you business with him, sir ?" "I did but ask you a simple question," said I."Ah! what's that?
Who's that ?" I had been looking out of the window, and my sudden exclamation was caused by this--that the door of a stable which faced me had opened very gently, and but just wide enough to allow a face to appear for an instant and then disappear.

And it seemed to me that I knew the face, although the sight of it had been too short to make me sure.
"What did you see, sir ?" asked the inn-keeper.

(The name on his signboard was Jacques Bontet.) I turned and faced him full.
"I saw someone look out of the stable," said I.
"Doubtless the stable-boy," he answered; and his manner was so ordinary, unembarrassed, and free from alarm, that I doubted whether my eyes had not played me a trick, or my imagination played one upon my eyes.
Be that as it might, I had no time to press my host further at that moment; for I heard a step behind me and a voice I knew saying: "Bontet, who is this gentleman ?" I turned.

In the doorway of the room stood the Duke of Saint-Maclou.