He invited him to share our meal.
"No thanks.

I breakfasted with Monsieur Stangerson." Arthur Rance spoke French perfectly,--almost without an accent.
"I did not expect to have the pleasure of seeing you again, Monsieur.

I thought you were to have left France the day after the reception at the Elysee." Rouletabille and I, outwardly indifferent, listened most intently for every word the American would say.
The man's purplish red face, his heavy eyelids, the nervous twitchings, all spoke of his addiction to drink.

How came it that so sorry a specimen of a man should be so intimate with Monsieur Stangerson?
Some days later, I learned from Frederic Larsan--who, like ourselves, was surprised and mystified by his appearance and reception at the chateau--that Mr.Rance had been an inebriate for only about fifteen years; that is to say, since the professor and his daughter left Philadelphia.

During the time the Stangersons lived in America they were very intimate with Arthur Rance, who was one of the most distinguished phrenologists of the new world.