"We had a very pleasant journey," she said, "but after such a long absence one longs to be at home again." Yes, the remark was a natural one. But, uttered by the lips of the slender, chilly little wife, it also signified: "My husband wished to come and see you and I could not prevent him. But don't be mistaken, I am very dissatisfied about it." At any rate, this was the involuntary construction Hautefeuille placed upon the words in his inner consciousness. Thus he was grateful to Corancez when he approached and spared him the difficulty of replying. The train started off again, leaving the road clear for the passengers, and the Southerner walked up, holding out his hand and smiling. "How do you do, Olivier?--You don't remember me?--I am Corancez. We studied rhetoric together. If Pierre had only told me that you were in the train, we could have travelled together and had a good gossip about old times. You are looking splendidly, just as you did at twenty. Will you present me to Madame du Prat?" "As a matter of fact, I did not recognize him," Olivier said a few minutes later, when they were in the carriage that was rolling toward the Hôtel des Palmes. "And yet he has not changed. He is the type of the Southerner, all familiarity that is intolerable when it is real and is ignoble when it is affected. Among all the detestable things in our country--and there is a good assortment — the most detestable is the 'old schoolfellow.' Because he has been a convict with you in one of those prisons called French colleges, he calls you by your Christian name, he addresses you as though you were his dearest friend. Do you see Corancez often?" "He seems to think a great deal of you, Monsieur' Hautefeuille," said the young wife. "He embraced you the instant he was on the platform." "He is rather demonstrative," replied Pierre, "but he is really a very amiable fellow, and has been very useful to me." "That surprises me," said Olivier. "But how is it you never spoke to me of him in your letters? I should have been more communicative."