The viscount looked at Canolles with evident distrust, and seemed to feel some embarrassment in answering him.
"Upon my honor!" said Canolles, laughing, "one would say that I frighten you; are you a knight of Malta, pray? Are you destined for the Church, or has your respectable family brought you up in holy horror of the Canolles? Pardieu! I shall not ruin you if we pass an hour together on opposite sides of a table."
"Impossible for me to go to your room, baron."
"Very well, don't do it. But as I am already here—"
"Even more impossible, monsieur; I am expecting some one."
This time Canolles was disarmed.
"You are expecting some one?" he said.
"Yes."
"'Faith," said Canolles, after a moment of silence, "I should almost prefer that you had let me go on at any risk, rather than spoil, by your manifest repugnance for my society, the service you rendered me, for which I fear that I have not as yet thanked you sufficiently."