But Hulot’s astonishment and Mademoiselle de Verneuil’s close observation had something too dangerously serious about them to be ignored.
“What is it, citizen?” said the young man, abruptly; “do you know me?”
“Perhaps I do,” replied the Republican.
“You are right; I remember you at the School.”
“I never went to any school,” said the soldier, roughly. “What school do you mean?”
“The Polytechnique.”
“Ha, ha, those barracks where they expect to make soldiers in dormitories,” said the veteran, whose aversion for officers trained in that nursery was insurmountable. “To what arm do you belong?”
“I am in the navy.”
“Ha!” cried Hulot, smiling vindictively, “how many of your fellow-students are in the navy? Don’t you know,” he added in a serious tone, “that none but the artillery and the engineers graduate from there?”
The young man was not disconcerted.