It was
clear even to our vanity that he did not think us worth another
word--that we had passed absolutely from his mind. Madame Claude
came waddling out at the same moment, Gil carrying a chair behind
her. And we--well we slunk away and sat on the other side of the
terrace, whence we could still glower at the offender.
Yet who were we to glower at him? To this day I shake at the
thought of him. It was not so much his height and bulk, though
he was so big that the clipped pointed fashion of his beard a
fashion then new at court--seemed on him incongruous and
effeminate; nor so much the sinister glance of his grey eyes--he
had a slight cast in them; nor the grim suavity of his manner,
and the harsh threatening voice that permitted of no disguise.
It was the sum of these things, the great brutal presence of the
man--that was overpowering--that made the great falter and the
poor crouch. And then his reputation! Though we knew little of
the world's wickedness, all we did know had come to us linked
with his name.
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