To my eyes,
M. Alain de St.-Yves has scarce a pleasing exterior. And yet, when
I knew you were here, and was actually looking for you--why, the
likeness helped. As for how I came to know your whereabouts, by an
odd enough chance, it is again M. Alain we have to thank. I should
tell you, he has for some time made it his business to keep M. de
Keroual informed of your career; with what purpose I leave you to
judge. When he first brought the news of your--that you were
serving Buonaparte, it seemed it might be the death of the old
gentleman, so hot was his resentment. But from one thing to
another, matters have a little changed. Or I should rather say,
not a little. We learned you were under orders for the Peninsula,
to fight the English; then that you had been commissioned for a
piece of bravery, and were again reduced to the ranks. And from
one thing to another (as I say), M. de Keroual became used to the
idea that you were his kinsman and yet served with Buonaparte, and
filled instead with wonder that he should have another kinsman who
was so remarkably well informed of events in France. And it now
became a very disagreeable question, whether the young gentleman
was not a spy? In short, sir, in seeking to disserve you, he had
accumulated against himself a load of suspicions.
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