Ignorance is often a crime.

An English gentleman--a sportsman--a fox-hunter! For you chase the fox, I know.

I see it in your brown face.

And you belong to the English Jockey Club--is it not so ?" I admitted that it was so, and Alphonse Giraud's emotion was such that he could only press my hand in silence.
"Ah, well!" he cried almost immediately, with the utmost gaiety.

"We have begun late, but that is no reason why it should not be a good friendship--is it ?" And he took the chair I offered with such hearty good-will that my cold English sympathy was drawn towards him.
"I came but yesterday from the South," he went on.