Without possessing the volume of classical bass voices, the tone of it was pleasing from a slightly muffled quality like that of an English bugle, which is firm and sweet, strong but velvety.
The chevalier had repudiated the ridiculous costume still preserved by certain monarchical old men; he had frankly modernized himself.

He was always seen in a maroon-colored coat with gilt buttons, half-tight breeches of poult-de-soie with gold buckles, a white waistcoat without embroidery, and a tight cravat showing no shirt-collar,--a last vestige of the old French costume which he did not renounce, perhaps, because it enabled him to show a neck like that of the sleekest abbe.

His shoes were noticeable for their square buckles, a style of which the present generation has no knowledge; these buckles were fastened to a square of polished black leather.

The chevalier allowed two watch-chains to hang parallel to each other from each of his waistcoat pockets,--another vestige of the eighteenth century, which the Incroyables had not disdained to use under the Directory.

This transition costume, uniting as it did two centuries, was worn by the chevalier with the high-bred grace of an old French marquis, the secret of which is lost to France since the day when Fleury, Mole's last pupil, vanished.
The private life of this old bachelor was apparently open to all eyes, though in fact it was quite mysterious.