From a good-natured but shaggy giant, my old friend
was transformed by his shaving and his costume into a well-fed and
well-grown, but not very colossal, commercial gentleman. Hugo was
scarcely six feet high, indeed, though by his broad shoulders and bushy
beard he had always impressed one with such a sense of size; and now
that the hirsuteness had been got rid of, and the dress altered, he
hardly struck one as taller or bigger than the average of his fellows.
We sat for some minutes and talked. Le Geyt would not speak of Clara;
and when I asked him his intentions, he shook his head moodily. "I shall
act for the best," he said--"what of best is left--to guard the dear
children. It was a terrible price to pay for their redemption; but it
was the only one possible, and, in a moment of wrath, I paid it. Now, I
have to pay, in turn, myself. I do not shirk it."
"You will come back to London, then, and stand your trial?" I asked,
eagerly.
"Come back TO LONDON?" he cried, with a face of white panic. Hitherto
he had seemed to me rather relieved in expression than otherwise;
his countenance had lost its worn and anxious look; he was no longer
watching each moment over his children's safety.
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