"Sir," added he in a severe tone, "nor are you either." This plain speaking brought a bright flush to the face of the Marquis, who had half a mind to be angry, but policy restrained him, and he affected to look on the matter as a joke.

"Your joke is a little personal," said he.
But Mascarin took no heed of his remark.

"Listen to me," said he, "for we have no time to waste, and do you," he added, turning to Paul, "pay the greatest attention." A moment of perfect silence ensued, broken only by the hum of voices in the outer office.
"Marquis," said Mascarin, whose whole face blazed with a gleam of conscious power, "twenty-five years ago I and my associates were young and in a very different position.

We were honest then, and all the illusions of youth were in full force; we had faith and hope.

We all then tenanted a wretched garret in the Rue de la Harpe, and loved each other like brothers." "That was long, long ago," murmured Hortebise.
"Yes," rejoined Mascarin; "and yet the effluxion of times does not hinder me from seeing things as they then were, and my heart aches as I compare the hopes of those days with the realities of the present.