Lebeau greeted them all with an equal courtesy, and each with an equal
silence took his seat at the table.

Lebeau glanced at the clock. "Confreres," he said, "our number as fixed
for this seance still needs two to be complete, and doubtless they will
arrive in a few minutes. Till they come, we can but talk upon trifles.
Permit me to offer you my cigar-case." And so saying, he who professed
to be no smoker handed his next neighbour, who was the Pole, a large
cigar-case amply furnished; and the Pole, helping himself to two cigars,
handed the case to the man next him,--two only declining the luxury, the
Italian and the Belgian. But the Pole was the only man who took two
cigars.

Steps were now heard on the stairs, the door opened, and citizen Le Toux
ushered in, one after the other, two men, this time unmistakably French,
--to an experienced eye unmistakably Parisians: the one, a young
beardless man, who seemed almost boyish, with a beautiful face, and a
stinted, meagre frame; the other, a stalwart man of about eight-and
twenty, dressed partly as an _ouvrier_, not in his Sunday clothes, rather
affecting the blouse,--not that he wore that antique garment, but that he
was in rough costume unbrushed and stained, with thick shoes and coarse
stockings, and a workman's cap. But of all who gathered round the table
at which M. Lebeau presided, he had the most distinguished exterior,--
a virile honest exterior, a massive open forehead, intelligent eyes, a
handsome clear-cut incisive profile, and solid jaw. The expression of
the face was stern, but not mean,--an expression which might have become
an ancient baron as well as a modern workman; in it plenty of haughtiness
and of will, and still more of self-esteem.

"Confreres," said Lebeau, rising, and every eye turned to him, "our