He left the room with a timid glance at Michaud, making him an interminable series of bows.
"What I was saying to monseigneur, Monsieur Michaud," he added, "was really for your good." "Or for that of those who pay you," replied Michaud, with a searching look.
"When you have served the coffee, leave the room," said the general to the servants, "and see that the doors are shut." Blondet, who had not yet seen the bailiff of Les Aigues, was conscious, as he now saw him, of a totally different impression from that conveyed by Sibilet.

Just as the steward inspired distrust and repulsion, so Michaud commanded respect and confidence.

The first attraction of his presence was a happy face, of a fine oval, pure in outline, in which the nose bore part,--a regularity which is lacking in the majority of French faces.

Though the features were correct in drawing, they were not without expression, due, perhaps, to the harmonious coloring of the warm brown and ochre tints, indicative of physical health and strength.

The clear brown eyes, which were bright and piercing, kept no reserves in the expression of his thought; they looked straight into the eyes of others.