The young page played the theorbo very pleasantly during the first two courses; but simultaneously with the third a new personage appeared and caused D'Alvimar some uneasiness, although he could not tell why.
[9]A coined word, derived from bribes, scraps or refuse.
[X]
He was a man of some forty years, whom the marquis greeted by the name of Master Jovelin, and who, without speaking, seated himself on a leather-covered gilt chair in a corner of the room, in such way as not to interfere with the going to and fro of the servants. He carried a little red serge bag which he placed on his knees, and he glanced at the table companions with a pleasant, smiling expression.
His face was handsome, although the features were without distinction. His nose and mouth were large, he had a retreating chin and a low forehead.
Despite these defects, it was impossible for an honest man to look upon him without interest; and if one paid the slightest heed to his beautiful black hair, which was sadly neglected, but of fine texture and naturally curly, his magnificent white teeth which his melancholy but cordial smile revealed, and his black eyes, so keen and intelligent, so kind and sympathetic, that his yellow face was lighted up by them, one felt as it were compelled to love him, ay, and to respect him.
He was dressed like a petty bourgeois, but very neatly, in a suit of bluish-gray, with woollen stockings; the coat long and tightly buttoned, a wide collar turned down and cut square across the chest, open sleeves in the Flemish style, and a broad-brimmed felt hat without feathers.
Monsieur de Bois-Doré, having asked politely as to his health and ordered a servant to give him a glass of Cyprus, which he declined with a wave of his hand, said no more to him, but bestowed his attention on his guest exclusively.
Such was the etiquette of that time, a man of quality being prohibited from showing much consideration for an inferior, under pain of seeming to insult his equals.
But D'Alvimar noticed that their eyes met frequently and that, after every remark made by the marquis, they exchanged a smile of intelligence, as if he desired to share all his thoughts with the new-comer, perhaps to obtain his approbation, perhaps to divert his mind from some secret trouble.