I no longer addressed him as I had been accustomed to do.

I appreciated too well his personal importance.

His position placed too great a social distance between him and me not to make me feel the necessity of fashioning my demeanour accordingly.

I made with pleasure, and without regret, the easy sacrifice of the style of familiar companionship and other little privileges.

He said, in a loud voice, when I entered the salon where he was surrounded by the officers who formed his brilliant staff, "I am glad to see you, at last"-- "Te voila donc, enfin;", but as soon as we were alone he made me understand that he was pleased with my reserve, and thanked me for it.