“Who made these same proposals?”
“I shall not tell his name.”
“No matter,” said the advocate, carelessly; “it was the Marquis de Beauvais;” And then, as if affecting to write, I saw his sharp eyes glance over towards me, while a smile of gratified cunning twitched his lip. “You will have no objection to say how first you became acquainted with him?”
The dexterity of this query, by replying to which I at once established his preceding assumption, completely escaped me, and I gave an account of my first meeting with De Beauvais, without ever dreaming of the inferences it led to.
“An unhappy rencontre,” said the advocate, as if musing; “better have finished the intimacy, as you first intended, at the Bois de Boulogne.”
“It may be as you say, sir,” said I, irritated by the flippancy of his remark; “but perhaps I may ask the name of the gentleman who takes such interest in my affairs, and by what right he meddles in them?”
The general started back in his chair, and was about to speak, when the advocate laid his hand gently on his arm to restrain him, and, in a voice of the most unruffled smoothness, replied,—
“As to my name, sir, it is Laurence Baillot; my rank is simple avocat to the Cours et Tribunaux; and the 'right' by which I interfere in matters personal to you is the consideration of fifty louis which accompanied this brief.”
“And my name, young man, is Lieutenant-Général d'Auvergne,” said the old man, proudly, as he stared me steadfastly in the face.
I arose at once, and saluted the general with a deep and respectful obeisance. It was the same officer who reviewed us at the Polytechnique the day of my promotion.