The two did not know each other, but they were brothers.
Like Billet, he was clad like one of the delegates to the Federation. But he had a change of attire which reminded Billet that so were dressed the party with Anacharsis Clootz, the German anarchist, representing Mankind.
CHAPTER IV.
THE LODGE OF THE INVISIBLES.
"You do not know me, brothers," said the stranger, when Billet had nodded and Pitou smiled condescendingly, "but I know you both. You are Captain Pitou, and you, Farmer Billet. Why are you so gloomy? because, though you were the first to enter the Bastile, they have forgotten to hang at your buttonhole the medal for the Conquerors of the Bastile and to do you the honors accorded to others this day?"
"Did you really know me, brother," replied the farmer with scorn, "you would know that such trifles do not affect a heart like mine."
"Is it because you found your fields unproductive when you returned home in October?"
"I am rich—a harvest lost little worries me."
"Then, it must be," said the stranger, looking him hard in the face, "that something has happened to your daughter Catherine——"