If anything in what I have said is still obscure to you, I refer you to the game laws, which your lawyer friend there will expound for you at need." With that the gentleman swung round again to face the fire.

It appeared to convey the intimation that the interview was at an end.

And yet this was not by any means the intimation that it conveyed to the watchful, puzzled, vaguely uneasy Andre-Louis.

It was, thought he, a very curious, a very suspicious oration.

It affected to explain, with a politeness of terms and a calculated insolence of tone; whilst in fact it could only serve to stimulate and goad a man of M.de Vilmorin's opinions.