He saw that the crowd was melting, and, looking in Tignonville's face, he laughed aloud.
"Does Monsieur sup with us ?" he said.

"To complete the party?
Or will he choose to sup with our friends yonder?
It is for him to say.

I confess, for my part," with an awful smile, "their hospitality seems a trifle crude, and boisterous." Tignonville looked behind him and shuddered.

The same horde which had so lately pressed about the door had found a victim lower down the street, and, as Tavannes spoke, came driving back along the roadway, a mass of tossing lights and leaping, running figures, from the heart of which rose the screams of a creature in torture.

So terrible were the sounds that Tignonville leant half swooning against the door-post; and even the iron heart of Tavannes seemed moved for a moment.
For a moment only: then he looked at his companion, and his lip curled.
"You'll join us, I think ?" he said, with an undisguised sneer.