“Louvier excused his interference on the ground of early and intimate friendship with De Mauleon, who, he said, came to consult him on arriving at Paris, and who felt too proud or too timid to address relations with whom he had long dropped all intercourse. An intermediary was required, and Louvier volunteered to take that part on himself; nothing more natural nor more simple. By the way, Alain, you dine with Louvier to-morrow, do you not?--a dinner in honour of our rehabilitated kinsman. I and Raoul go.” “Yes, I shall be charmed to meet again a man who, whatever might be his errors in youth, on which,” added Alain, slightly colouring, “it certainly does not become me to be severe, must have suffered the most poignant anguish a man of honour can undergo,--namely, honour suspected; and who now, whether by years or sorrow, is so changed that I cannot recognize a likeness to the character I have just heard given to him as mauvais sujet and vaurien.” “Bravo!” cried Enguerrand; “all honour to courage!--and at Paris it requires great courage to defend the absent.” “Nay,” answered Alain, in a low voice. “The gentilhomme who will not defend another gentilhomme traduced, would, as a soldier, betray a citadel and desert a flag.” “You say M. de Mauleon is changed,” said De Breze; “yes, he must be growing old. No trace left of his good looks?” “Pardon me,” said Enguerrand; “he is bien conserve, and has still a very handsome head and an imposing presence. But one cannot help doubting whether he deserved the formidable reputation he acquired in youth; his manner is so singularly mild and gentle, his conversation so winningly modest, so void of pretence, and his mode of life is as simple as that of a Spanish hidalgo.” “He does not, then, affect the role of Monte Cristo,” said Duplessis, “and buy himself into notice like that hero of romance?” “Certainly not: he says very frankly that he has but a very small income, but more than enough for his wants,--richer than in his youth, for he has learned content. We may dismiss the hint in ‘Le Sens Commun’ about his future political career,--at least he evinces no such ambition.” “How could he as a Legitimist?” said Alain, bitterly. “What department would elect him?” “But is he a Legitimist?” asked De Breze. “I take it for granted that he must be that,” answered Alain, haughtily, “for he is a De Mauleon.” “His father was as good a De Mauleon as himself, I presume,” rejoined De Breze, dryly; “and he enjoyed a place at the Court of Louis Philippe, which a Legitimist could scarcely accept. Victor did not, I fancy, trouble his head about politics at all, at the time I remember him; but to judge by his chief associates, and the notice he received from the Princes of the House of Orleans, I should guess that he had no predilections in favour of Henri V.”