He had arranged his hair himself, and had, no doubt, put himself in full dress to do the honors of Presles to Monsieur Margueron; and, possibly, to impress the good man's mind with a prestige of grandeur.
"Well, monsieur," said the count, who remained seated, leaving Moreau to stand before him.

"We have not concluded that purchase from Margueron." "He asks too much for the farm at the present moment." "But why is he not coming to dinner as I requested ?" "Monseigneur, he is ill." "Are you sure ?" "I have just come from there." "Monsieur," said the count, with a stern air which was really terrible, "what would you do with a man whom you trusted, if, after seeing you dress wounds which you desired to keep secret from all the world, he should reveal your misfortunes and laugh at your malady with a strumpet ?" "I would thrash him for it." "And if you discovered that he was also betraying your confidence and robbing you ?" "I should endeavor to detect him, and send him to the galleys." "Monsieur Moreau, listen to me.

You have undoubtedly spoken of my infirmities to Madame Clapart; you have laughed at her house, and with her, over my attachment to the Comtesse de Serizy; for her son, little Husson, told a number of circumstances relating to my medical treatment, to travellers by a public conveyance in my presence, and Heaven knows in what language! He dared to calumniate my wife.

Besides this, I learned from the lips of Pere Leger himself, who was in the coach, of the plan laid by the notary at Beaumont and by you and by himself in relation to Les Moulineaux.

If you have been, as you say, to Monsieur Margueron, it was to tell him to feign illness.