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BOOK V THE REVOLVER I CONVERSATIONS AT THE JEAN AUBERGE Sieur Clubin was a man who bided his time . He was short in stature , and his complexion was yellow . He had the strength of a bull . His sea life had not tanned his skin ; his flesh had a sallow hue ; it was the colour of a wax candle , of which his eyes , too , had something of the steady light . His memory was peculiarly retentive . With him , to have seen a man once , was to have him like a note in a note - book . His quiet glance took possession of you . The pupil of his eye received the impression of a face , and kept it like a portrait . The face might grow old , but Sieur Clubin never lost it ; it was impossible to cheat that tenacious memory . Sieur Clubin was curt in speech , grave in manner , bold in action . No gestures were ever indulged in by him . An air of candour won everybody to him at first ; many people thought him artless . He had a wrinkle in the corner of his eye , astonishingly expressive of simplicity . As we have said , no abler mariner existed ; no one like him for reefing a sail , for keeping a vessel’s head to the wind , or the sails well set . Never did reputation for religion and integrity stand higher than his . To have suspected him would have been to bring yourself under suspicion . He was on terms of intimacy with Monsieur Rébuchet , a money - changer at St . Malo , who lived in the Rue St . Vincent , next door to the armourer’s ; and Monsieur Rébuchet would say , “ I would leave my shop in Clubin’s hands . ” Sieur Clubin was a widower ; his wife , like himself , had enjoyed a high reputation for probity . She had died with a fame for incorruptible virtue . If the bailli had whispered gallant things in her ear , she would have impeached him before the king . If a saint had made love to her , she would have told it to the priest . This couple , Sieur and Dame Clubin , had realised in Torteval the ideal of the English epithet “ respectable . ” Dame Clubin’s reputation was as the snowy whiteness of the swan ; Sieur Clubin’s like that of ermine itself — a spot would have been fatal to him . He could hardly have picked up a pin without making inquiries for the owner . He would send round the town - crier about a box of matches . One day he went into a wine - shop at St . Servan , and said to the man who kept it , “ Three years ago I breakfasted here ; you made a mistake in the bill ; ” and he returned the man thirteen sous . He was the very personification of probity , with a certain compression of the lips indicative of watchfulness . He seemed , indeed , always on the watch — for what ? For rogues probably . Every Tuesday he commanded the Durande on her passage from Guernsey to St . Malo . He arrived at St . Malo on the Tuesday evening , stayed two days there to discharge and take in a new cargo , and started again for Guernsey on Friday morning . There was at that period , at St . Malo , a little tavern near the harbour , which was called the “ Jean Auberge . ”
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