advice.
Clean-shaven, plump of face, stout of figure, he wore glasses, large
round glasses set in gold frames, for he was exceptionally
short-sighted. His colleagues had nicknamed him "The Lawyer." It was
easy to see that he was much more at home in mufti than in uniform. He
would say, laughing:

"I have all the looks of a territorial, and that is unfortunate,
considering I belong to the active contingent."

Loreuil was one of the most highly appreciated officers of the Second
Bureau. Had anyone examined the hands of "The Lawyer" just then, he
would have seen that they were roughened and had horny lumps on them
of recent formation. His fingers, all twisted out of shape at the
tips, seamed with scars, led one to suppose that the captain was not
entirely a man of sedentary office life. In fact, he had just returned
after a fairly long absence. He had disappeared for six months. It was
rumoured in the departments that he had been one of a gang of masons
who were constructing a fort on a foreign frontier, a fort, the plans
of which he had got down to the smallest detail. But questions had not
been asked, and the captain had not, of course, given his colleagues
the slightest hint, the smallest indication of how those six months
had been passed. Besides, unforeseen journeys, sudden disappearances,
unexpected returns, mysterious missions, made up the ordinary lot of
those attached to the Second Bureau.

The old keeper of the records, Gaudin, who was methodically sorting a
voluminous correspondence which was to be laid before Commandant
Dumoulin, put a question to Armandelle:

"Lieutenant, is it not a captain of the engineers who is to take the
place of this poor Captain Brocq?"

"True enough, Gaudin! His nomination was signed by the minister
yesterday. We expect him this morning at half-past nine. What time is
it now?

"A quarter past nine, lieutenant!"

"He will be punctual."

"Why, of course!" cried Captain Loreuil. "That is why I caught sight
of the chief just now. He is earlier than usual. What is the name of
the new-comer?"

"Muller," said Armandelle. "He comes from Belfort," cried Loreuil:

"I know what Hofferman will say to him--'My dear Captain, you enter
this day the house of silence and discretion.'"

Loreuil turned to Gaudin.

"Where is Lieutenant de Loubersac this morning?"

"Why, Captain," explained the old keeper of records, "you must know
very well that he has been ordered to act as escort to