It was a climax of discourtesy whose impression I must at all costs efface.
I leapt to my feet, with a suddenness that sent my chair gliding a full half-yard along the glimmering parquet of the floor, and in two strides I had reached the Count and put forth my hand to bid him welcome.

He took it with a leisureliness that argued sorrow.

He advanced into the full blaze of the candlelight, and fetched a dismal sigh from the depths of his portly bulk.
"You are surprised to see me, Monsieur le Marquis," said he, and his tone seemed to convey an apology for his coming--for his very existence almost.
Now Nature had made my Lord of Chatellerault as proud and arrogant as Lucifer--some resemblance to which illustrious personage his downtrodden retainers were said to detect in the lineaments of his swarthy face.
Environment had added to that store of insolence wherewith Nature had equipped him, and the King's favour--in which he was my rival--had gone yet further to mould the peacock attributes of his vain soul.

So that this wondrous humble tone of his gave me pause; for to me it seemed that not even a courtship gone awry could account for it in such a man.
"I had not thought to find so many here," said he.

And his next words contained the cause of his dejected air.