On his side the abbe studied Samuel Brohl without seeming to do so.

He was struck with his physiognomy, which expressed at this moment a manly yet sorrowful pride.

His eyes betrayed at intervals the secret of some heroic grief that he had sworn to repress before men, and to confess to God alone.
He sat down with his guest, and they began to talk; but the abbe directed the conversation into topics of the greatest indifference.
Samuel Brohl listened to him and replied with a melancholy grace.

Lively as was his curiosity he well knew how to hold it in check.

Samuel Brohl never had been in a hurry; during the month that had elapsed he had proved that he knew how to wait--a faculty lacking in more diplomates than one.
Abbe Miollens's call had lasted during the usual time allotted to a polite visit, and the worthy man seemed about to depart, when, pointing with his forefinger to the open valise, he remarked: "I see here preparations that grieve me.