The old man's face became deep scarlet, and then as suddenly pale. He made an effort to say something; but though his hands gesticulated, and his lips moved, no sounds were audible, and with a faint sigh he tottered back and leaned against the wall. I sprang up and placed him in a chair, and, seeing that he was overcome by weakness, I called for wine, and hastily poured a glassful down his throat. I could not induce him to take a second, and he seemed, while expressing his gratitude, to be impatient to get away and leave the place. "Shall I see you home, Herr Ephraim?" said I; "will you allow me to accompany you?" "On no account, Herr Graf," said he, giving me the title he had heard the croupier address me by. "I can go alone; I am quite able, and--I prefer it." "But you are too weak, far too weak to venture by yourself,--is he not so?" said I, turning to the croupier to corroborate my words. A strangely significant raising of the eyebrow, a sort of--I know not what--meaning, was all the reply he made me; and half ashamed of the possibility of being made the dupe of some practised impostor, I drew nigh the table for an explanation. "What is it? what do you mean?" asked I, eagerly. A shrug of the shoulders and a look of pity was his answer. "Is he a hypocrite?--is he a cheat?" asked I. "Perhaps not exactly _that_," said he, shuffling the cards. "A drunkard,--does he drink, then?" asked I. "I have never heard so," said he. "Then what has he done?--what is he?" cried I, impatiently. He made a sign for me to come close, and then whispered in my ear what I have just told you, only with a voice full of holy horror at the crime of a man who had dared to have an opinion not in accordance with that of a Police Prefect! That he--a man of hard study and deep reading--should venture to draw other lessons from history than those taught at drum-heads by corporals and petty officers! "Is that all?--is that all?" asked I, indignantly. "All all!" exclaimed he; "do you want more?" "Why, these things may possibly interest police spies, but they have no imaginable concern for me."