Yet a dull red showed for an instant in his cheek, and he eyed me with a look, that was not all ferocity, though the veins in his great temples swelled.

A moment, nevertheless, and he was himself again.

"Armand," he said quietly to the servant, "these gentlemen will not sup with me.
Lay for them at the other end." Men are odd.

The moment he gave way to me I repented of my words.

It was almost with reluctance that I followed the servant to the lower part of the table.