"Roturiers like yourself, Richon, are quite as valuable as princes in our present plight. Do you know, by the way, that I saved your friend, Baron de Canolles, from a thrashing, if not from something much worse."
"Yes; he said something of that to me, but I hardly listened to him, I was in such haste to join you. Are you sure that he didn't recognize you?"
"He could hardly recognize a person he had never seen."
"I should have asked if he did not guess who you are."
"Indeed," replied the viscount, "he looked at me very hard."
Richon smiled.
"I can well believe it," he said; "one doesn't meet young gentlemen of your type every day."
"He seemed to me a jovial sort of fellow," said the viscount, after a brief pause.
"A jovial fellow and a good fellow, too; he has a charming wit and a great heart. The Gascon, you know, is never mediocre in anything; he is in the front rank or is good for nothing. This one is made of good stuff. In love, as in war, he is at once a dandy and a gallant officer; I am sorry that he is against us. Indeed, as chance brought you in contact with him, you should have seized the opportunity to win him over to our side."