The old man could not, I dare say, remember half as much of what had happened as Pierre did; the former had the dulled memory of age, while Pierre had evidently thought over the whole series of events as a story--as a play, if one may call it so--during the solitary hours in his after-life, wherever they were passed, whether in lonely camp watches, or in the foreign prison, where he had to drag out many years.

Clement had, as I said, returned to the gardener's garret after he had been dismissed from the Hotel Duguesclin.
There were several reasons for his thus doubling back.

One was, that he put nearly the whole breadth of Paris between him and an enemy; though why Morin was an enemy, and to what extent he carried his dislike or hatred, Clement could not tell, of course.

The next reason for returning to Jacques was, no doubt, the conviction that, in multiplying his residences, he multiplied the chances against his being suspected and recognized.

And then, again, the old man was in his secret, and his ally, although perhaps but a feeble kind of one.