A thousand objections rushed into my mind. The foreign language, the limited time, the public display⁠ ⁠… Inclination recoiled, Ability faltered, Self-respect (that “vile quality”) trembled. “ Non, non, non! ” said all these; but looking up at M. Paul, and seeing in his vexed, fiery, and searching eye, a sort of appeal behind all its menace, my lips dropped the word “ oui. ” For a moment his rigid countenance relaxed with a quiver of content: quickly bent up again, however, he went on⁠—