"'Oh! so that is how you understand it?' began Maxime, enraged by
this last piece of presumption. There was something of Talleyrand's
wit in the insolent retort, if you have quite grasped the contrast
between the two men and their costumes. Maxime scowled and looked full
at the intruder; Cerizet not merely endured the glare of cold fury,
but even returned it, with an icy, cat-like malignance and fixity of
gaze.

"'Very good, sir, go out--'

"'Very well, good-day, Monsieur le Comte. We shall be quits before
six months are out.'

"'If you can steal the amount of your bill, which is legally due I
own, I shall be indebted to you, sir,' replied Maxime. 'You will have
taught me a new precaution to take. I am very much your servant.'

"'Monsieur le Comte,' said Cerizet, 'it is I, on the contrary, who am
yours.'

"Here was an explicit, forcible, confident declaration on either side.
A couple of tigers confabulating, with the prey before them, and a
fight impending, would have been no finer and no shrewder than this
pair; the insolent fine gentleman as great a blackguard as the other
in his soiled and mud-stained clothes.

"Which will you lay your money on?" asked Desroches, looking round at
an audience, surprised to find how deeply it was interested.