Take the Marquis by all means." Meanwhile Alain, again looking down, saw just under him, close by one of the pillars, Lucien Duplessis.

He was standing apart from the throng, a small space cleared round himself, and two men who had the air of gentlemen of the 'beau monde,' with whom he was conferring.

Duplessis, thus seen, was not like the Duplessis at the restaurant.

It would be difficult to explain what the change was, but it forcibly struck Alain: the air was more dignified, the expression keener; there was a look of conscious power and command about the man even at that distance; the intense, concentrated intelligence of his eye, his firm lip, his marked features, his projecting, massive brow, would have impressed a very ordinary observer.

In fact, the man was here in his native element; in the field in which his intellect gloried, commanded, and had signalized itself by successive triumphs.