At last he looked for a chair under the trees,
but he had some difficulty in finding an empty one. He was about to give
up the search when he saw a gentleman rise from the seat he had been
occupying, leaving Newman to take it without looking at his neighbors.
He sat there for some time without heeding them; his attention was lost
in the irritation and bitterness produced by his recent glimpse of Miss
Noemie's iniquitous vitality. But at the end of a quarter of an hour,
dropping his eyes, he perceived a small pug-dog squatted upon the path
near his feet--a diminutive but very perfect specimen of its interesting
species. The pug was sniffing at the fashionable world, as it passed
him, with his little black muzzle, and was kept from extending his
investigation by a large blue ribbon attached to his collar with an
enormous rosette and held in the hand of a person seated next to
Newman. To this person Newman transferred his attention, and immediately
perceived that he was the object of all that of his neighbor, who was
staring up at him from a pair of little fixed white eyes. These eyes
Newman instantly recognized; he had been sitting for the last quarter of
an hour beside M. Nioche. He had vaguely felt that some one was staring
at him. M. Nioche continued to stare; he appeared afraid to move, even
to the extent of evading Newman's glance.
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