essieurs. I was, indeed, preaching patience. I was
endeavoring to soothe his irritation and chide his depression with a
sermon; since we are all old friends and fellow-sufferers in the good
cause and have a common interest in knowing the reasons of failure and
the means of triumph, I will by your leave proceed."

"Aye, dear Louis, go on!" cried Marrast, kindly. "But you are the most
youthful sage I ever listened to."

"Yes, Louis, proceed; you look like a cure," said Rollin, laughing.

"I subscribe to Louis Blanc's creed, be it what it may," added Flocon,
briskly.

"And so do I," said Albert, gravely, in a deep tone.

Of the new visitors, Ledru Rollin was a man of medium stature, about
thirty-five years of age and dressed in the extreme of the mode. His
complexion and hair were light, his eyes large, blue and protruding, his
mouth prominent, and his full cheeks covered with whiskers, which like
those of Marrast, were closely trimmed and met beneath his chin. His
head and shoulders were thrown back, and his air was bold and
independent. He was a lawyer of talent, who had gained celebrity as
advocate of the accused on many occasions of State prosecutions.

Flocon was an older man than Rollin, and his countenance bore the wary,
vigilant and suspicious look which experience alone gives. He was low in
stature, thick-set and close-knit in figure; his eyes seemed always half
closed; his brow was broad and massive; his face was long; a moustache
was on his lip, and his hair was closely cut. The outline of his head
and the expression of his face seemed those rather of one born on the
banks of the Rhine than on the banks of the Seine, so calm and
passionless did they appear. His dress was plain but neat. Flocon was
the chief editor of "La Reforme," the name of which indicates its
character. It was this man who, in February, 1833, repressed the
violence of his partisans and saved the office of the "Gazette de
France," yet the very next day published his celebrated letter to the
Legitimists, which, for audacity, force and pungency was only equaled by
the paralyzing effect it produced. The fines, imprisonments and civil
incapacities to which this man had been subjected for assaults upon a
government he deemed corrupt, for the ten years preceding, had been
literally numberless.

Albert was a man of fifty or more, with a large head, square German face
and forehead, a large hazel eye, fixed and unexcitable, hair closely
cut, an