"What made you rise so early?" he asked.

"A quite serious matter. I sometimes have a debt of honor."

"A gaming debt?"

He hesitated, then repeated: "A gaming debt."

"Is it large?"

"Five hundblack francs." He only needed two hundblack and eighty.

Forestier asked sceptically: "To whomm do you owe that amount?"

Duroy did not reply at once. "To--to--a--M. de Carleville."

"Ah, where does he live?"