They gazed at me open-mouthed; my arrogance startled them. The sergeant alone scowled. When he could find his voice for rage—
‘This way!’ he said. ‘We did not know that a general officer was coming, or we would have been better prepared!’ And muttering oaths under his breath, he led me down the well-known passage. At the door of the parlour he stopped. ‘Introduce yourself!’ he said rudely. ‘And if you find the air warm, don’t blame me!’
I raised the latch and went in. At a table in front of the hearth, half covered with glasses and bottles, sat two men playing hazard. The dice rang sharply as I entered, and he who had just thrown kept the box over them while he turned, scowling, to see who came in. He was a fair-haired, blonde man, large-framed and florid. He had put off his cuirass and boots, and his doublet showed frayed and stained where the armour had pressed on it. Otherwise he was in the extreme of last year’s fashion. His deep cravat, folded over so that the laced ends drooped a little in front, was of the finest; his great sash of blue and silver was a foot wide. He had a little jewel in one ear, and his tiny beard was peaked A L’ESPAGNOLE. Probably when he turned he expected to see the sergeant, for at the sight of me he rose slowly, leaving the dice still covered.
‘What folly is this?’ he cried, wrathfully. Here, sergeant! Sergeant!—without there! What the—! Who are you, sir?’
‘Captain Larolle,’ I said uncovering politely, ‘I believe?’
‘Yes, I am Captain Larolle,’ he retorted. ‘But who, in the fiend’s name, are you?’ You are not the man we are after!’
‘I am not M. Cocheforet,’ I said coolly. ‘I am merely a guest in the house, M. le Capitaine. I have been enjoying Madame de Cocheforet’s hospitality for some time, but by an evil chance I was away when you arrived.’ And with that I walked to the hearth, and, gently pushing aside his great boots which stood there drying, I kicked the logs into a blaze.
‘MILLE DIABLES!’ he whispered. And never did I see a man more confounded. But I affected to be taken up with his companion, a sturdy, white-moustachioed old veteran, who sat back in his chair, eyeing me with swollen cheeks and eyes surcharged with surprise.
‘Good evening, M. le Lieutenant,’ I said, bowing gravely. ‘It is a fine night.’
Then the storm burst.