"Is it possible?"
"It is indeed. Listen and judge. I wandered aimlessly along the river bank and soon overheard two men speaking French. They were suspicious-looking characters and they spoke your name twice. On perceiving that I followed, they fled. I caught up with them and again followed cautiously. On reaching the park, they ambuscaded. The rest you know."
Naundorff gazed attentively at his guest who, having clothed himself in the borrowed garments, was fast recovering his strength. He strove to read René's face. At last he said:
"Why, then, you knew me?"
"Yes, Monsieur, I knew you by name, and now that I look at you closely, I feel that I know your face also. You have one of those countenances which always seem familiar and linger in the memory. I cannot say when or where I have seen you, but I believe it has been not once but a thousand times. When I opened my eyes and looked upon your face, it seemed to me that long ago I had known you well."
On first beholding his fiancée's father, de Brezé had experienced a feeling that now returned with renewed force. Although love confiscates all sentiments, in order to focus them on the adored one, René gazed beyond Amélie as he spoke, having eyes only for Charles Louis. The father's age seemed near forty, his head was of spacious front with arched brow and blond hair, somewhat silvered and curling naturally. An infantile dimple marked his chin, his breast-bone was high and a slight obesity marred his form which still, however, preserved graceful outlines; his hands were finely patrician; his expression was a mingling of dignity, bitterness and deep distrust. Great sorrows must have been the lot of this man, for his face seemed furrowed by torrents of tears. His likeness to Amélie seemed to consist more in what is usually called family resemblance than in physical similitude. The father and daughter were of distinct types and yet it seemed impossible to disjoin them mentally. More and more perplexed, René said to himself, "Where have I seen this man? Where have I seen him and Amélie together?"
[Chapter IV]
AMÉLIE
Naundorff, seated near the sofa where René rested, had become pensive. René's eyes were fastened querulously upon him. The young man scarcely knew what to say, yet his good breeding impelled him to end the enforced visit.