ill at ease in his clothes as if
they had been made for some one else, was a weak-looking, handsome man,
continually sauntering about, and I almost guessed an object of
suspicion to some of the gentlemen present, which, perhaps, drove him
on the companionship of his follower, who was dressed something in the
style of an ambassador's chasseur; yet it was not a chasseur's dress
after all; it was something more thoroughly old-world; boots half way
up his ridiculously small legs, which clattered as he walked along, as
if they were too large for his little feet; and a great quantity of
grey fur, as trimming to coat, court mantle, boots, cap--everything.
You know the way in which certain countenances remind you perpetually
of some animal, be it bird or beast! Well, this chasseur (as I will
call him for want of a better name) was exceedingly like the great
Tom-cat that you have seen so often in my chambers, and laughed at
almost as often for his uncanny gravity of demeanour. Grey whiskers has
my Tom--grey whiskers had the chasseur: grey hair overshadows the upper
lip of my Tom--grey mustachios hid that of the chasseur. The pupils of
Tom's eyes dilate and contract as I had thought cats' pupils only could
do, until I saw those of the chasseur. To be sure, canny as Tom is, the
chasseur had the advantage in the more intelligent expression. He
seemed to have obtained most complete sway over his master or patron,
whose looks he watched, and whose steps he followed, with a kind of
distrustful interest that puzzled me greatly.

There were several other groups in the more distant part of the saloon,
all of the stately old school, all grand and noble, I conjectured from
their bearing. They seemed perfectly well acquainted with each other,
as if they were in the habit of meeting. But I was interrupted in my
observations by the tiny little gentleman on the opposite side of the
room coming across to take a place beside me. It is no difficult matter
to a Frenchman to slide into conversation, and so gracefully did my
pigmy friend keep up the character of the nation, that we were almost
confidential before ten minutes had elapsed.

Now I was quite aware that the welcome which all had extended to me,
from the porter up to the vivacious lady and meek lord of the castle,
was intended for some other person. But it required either a degree of
moral courage, of which I cannot boast, or the self-reliance and
conversational powers of a bolder and c