He was in his seat again for the afternoon session as if nothing
disturbed him.
But in the morning, when the Assembly met, his place was vacant,
and so was M. de Chabrillane's. Gloom and resentment sat upon the
members of the Third, and brought a more than usually acrid note
into their debates. They disapproved of the rashness of the new
recruit to their body. Some openly condemned his lack of
circumspection. Very few - and those only the little group in Le
Chapelier's confidence - ever expected to see him again.
It was, therefore, as much in amazement as in relief that at a few
minutes after ten they saw him enter, calm, composed, and bland,
and thread his way to his seat. The speaker occupying the rostrum
at that moment - a member of the Privileged - stopped short to stare
in incredulous dismay. Here was something that he could not
understand at all. Then from somewhere, to satisfy the amazement
on both sides of the assembly, a voice explained the phenomenon
contemptuously.
"They haven't met. He has shirked it at the last moment.
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