"This is his seat, I suppose.

May I take it ?" And indicating an empty bowl and spoon on the nearer side of the table, he made as if he would sit down before them.
In place of answering, the young man looked from him to the two on the hearth, and laughed--a foolish, frightened laugh.

The sound led Mercier's eyes in the same direction, and he appreciated for the first time the aspect of the man who sat with Grio; a man of great height and vast bulk, with a large plump face and small grey eyes.

It struck Mercier as he met the fixed stare of those eyes, that he had entered with less ceremony than was becoming, and that he ought to make amends for it; and, in the act of sitting down in the vacant seat, he turned and bowed politely to the two at the other table.
"Tissotius timuit, jam peregrinus adest!" the big man murmured in a voice at once silky and sonorous.

Then ignoring Mercier, but looking blandly at the young man who sat facing him at the table, "What is this of Tissot ?" he continued.