Of Robespierre--who, it was said, had discovered him and brought him to Paris--he was the protege and more than friend, a protection and friendship this which in '93 made any man almost omnipotent in France.
He was dressed in a black riding-suit, relieved only by the white neck-cloth and the tricolour sash of office about his waist.

He removed his cocked hat, beneath which the hair was tied in a club with the same scrupulous care as of old.
Slowly he advanced into the salon, and his sombre eyes passed from the Marquis to Mademoiselle.

As they rested upon her some of the sternness seemed to fade from their glance.

He found in her a change almost as great as that which she had found in him.

The lighthearted, laughing girl of nineteen, who had scorned his proffered love when he had wooed her that April morning to such disastrous purpose, was now ripened into a stately woman of three-and-twenty.