He had the power of observation habitual to persons whose sensitive amour propre has frequently been wounded.

He therefore deferred until later his difficult choice and went to luncheon, as if nothing had happened, at the restaurant where he was expected.

Certainly the proprietor did not mistrust, in replying to the questions of his guest relative to the most recent portraits of Lenbach, that the young man, so calm, so smiling, had on hand a duel which might cost him his life.

It was only on leaving the restaurant that Florent, after mentally reviewing ten of his older acquaintances, resolved to make a first attempt upon Dorsenne.

He recalled the mysterious intelligence given him by the novelist, whose sympathy for Maitland had been publicly manifested by an eloquent article.