We chatted together, and I soon warmed towards him.

His intelligence was so keen, and so original!--and he had a quality of thought such as I have never found in any other person.
Some time after this I was put in charge of the law news of the "Cri du Boulevard." My entry into journalism could not but strengthen the ties which united me to Rouletabille.

After a while, my new friend being allowed to carry out an idea of a judicial correspondence column, which he was allowed to sign "Business," in the "Epoque," I was often able to furnish him with the legal information of which he stood in need.
Nearly two years passed in this way, and the better I knew him, the more I learned to love him; for, in spite of his careless extravagance, I had discovered in him what was, considering his age, an extraordinary seriousness of mind.

Accustomed as I was to seeing him gay and, indeed, often too gay, I would many times find him plunged in the deepest melancholy.

I tried then to question him as to the cause of this change of humour, but each time he laughed and made me no answer.