From the hour when she left it, a change was perceptible in her countenance, which gradually removed from it the character of youth.

Paler the cheek could scarce become, nor more cold the discontented, restless eye.

But it was as if some great care had settled on her brow, and contracted yet more the stern outline of the lips.
Gabriel noted the alteration, but he did not attempt to win her confidence.

He was occupied rather in considering, first, if it were well for him to sound deeper into the mystery he suspected; and, secondly, to what extent, and on what terms, it became his interest to aid the designs in which, by Dalibard's hints and kindly treatment, he foresaw that he was meant to participate.
A word now on the rich kinsman of the Dalibards.

Jean Bellanger had been one of those prudent Republicans who had put the Revolution to profit.
By birth a Marseillais, he had settled in Paris, as an epicier, about the year 1785, and had distinguished himself by the adaptability and finesse which become those who fish in such troubled waters.