"In the name of all that is mischievous," cried Vanbrugh, "what is it you want?"
"Company," was the answer, "till daylight. That is all. You need not be afraid of me."
"Company!" exclaimed Vanbrugh. "My company?"
"Yours or any man's. Something human--something living. And you must talk to me. I'm not going to be driven mad by silence."
"You are a cool customer, with your this and that. Are you aware that you are robbing me?"
"I don't want to rob you."
"But you are--of solitude. And you appropriate it! No further fooling. Leave me."
"Not till daylight."
"There is something strange in your resolve. Let me have a better look at you."
He laid his hand upon Gautran's shoulder, and the man did not resent the movement. In the evening, when he had arrived in Geneva, he had made an unsuccessful attempt to enter the court-house; therefore, Gautran being otherwise a stranger to him, he did not recognise in the face of the man he was now looking into, and which he could but dimly see in consequence of the darkness of the night, the prisoner whose trial for murder had caused so great an excitement.