“Suppose you were late, wouldn’t you be glad that the coach waited for you?” said the farmer to the two young men.

Pierrotin still looked up and down the street, whip in hand, apparently reluctant to mount to the hard seat where Mistigris was fidgeting.

“If you expect some one else, I am not the last,” said the count.

“I agree to that reasoning,” said Mistigris.

Georges and Oscar began to laugh impertinently.

“The old fellow doesn’t know much,” whispered Georges to Oscar, who was delighted at this apparent union between himself and the object of his envy.

“Parbleu!” cried Pierrotin, “I shouldn’t be sorry for two more passengers.”

“I haven’t paid; I’ll get out,” said Georges, alarmed.

“What are you waiting for, Pierrotin?” asked Pere Leger.

Whereupon Pierrotin shouted a certain “Hi!” in which Bichette and Rougeot recognized a definitive resolution, and they both sprang toward the rise of the faubourg at a pace which was soon to slacken.

The count had a red face, of a burning red all over, on which were certain inflamed portions which his snow-white hair brought out into full relief.  To any but heedless youths, this complexion would have revealed a constant inflammation of the blood, produced by incessant labor.  These blotches and pimples so injured the naturally noble air of the count that careful examination was needed to find in his green-gray eyes the shrewdness of the magistrate, the wisdom of a statesman, and the knowledge of a legislator.  His face was flat, and the nose seemed to have been depressed into it.  The hat hid the grace and beauty of his forehead.  In short, there was enough to amuse those thoughtless youths in the odd contrasts of the silvery hair, the burning face, and the thick, tufted eye-brows which were still jet-black.

The count wore a long blue overcoat, buttoned in military fashion to the throat, a white cravat around his neck, cotton wool in his ears, and a shirt-collar high enough to make a large square patch of white on each cheek.  His black trousers covered his boots, the toes of which were barely seen.  He wore no decoration in his button-hole, and doeskin gloves concealed his hands.  Nothing about him betrayed to the eyes of youth a peer of France, and one of the most useful statesmen in the kingdom.

Pere Leger had never seen the count, who, on his side, knew the former only by name.  When the count, as he got into the carriage, cast the glance about him which affronted Georges and Oscar, he was, in reality, looking for the head-clerk of his notary (in case he had been forced, like himself, to take Pierrotin’s vehicle), intending to caution him instantly about his own incognito.  But feeling reassured by the appearance of Oscar, and that of Pere Leger, and, above all, by the quasi-military air, the waxed moustaches, and the general look of an adventurer that distinguished Georges, he concluded that his note had reached his notary, Alexandre Crottat, in time to prevent the departure of the clerk.