If I came back I could buy his services; and if I did not I should have wasted my money.
Nevertheless, a little later, when I found myself on my way to the Hotel Richelieu under so close a guard that I could see nothing in the street except the figures that immediately surrounded me, I wished that I had given him the money.

At such times, when all hangs in the balance and the sky is overcast, the mind runs on luck and old superstitions, and is prone to think a crown given here may avail there--though THERE be a hundred leagues away.
The Palais Richelieu was at this time in building, and we were required to wait in a long, bare gallery, where the masons were at work.

I was kept a full hour here, pondering uncomfortably on the strange whims and fancies of the great man who then ruled France as the King's Lieutenant-General, with all the King's powers, and whose life I had once been the means of saving by a little timely information.

On occasion he had done something to wipe out the debt; and at other times he had permitted me to be free with him, and so far we were not unknown to one another.
Nevertheless, when the doors were at last thrown open, and I was led into his presence, my confidence underwent a shock.

His cold glance, that, roving over me, regarded me not as a man but an item, the steely glitter of his southern eyes, chilled me to the bone.