mily, Christophe became the object of the most devoted
care. Babette, authorized by her father, came very morning and only
left the Lecamus household at night. Christophe, the admiration of the
apprentices, gave rise throughout the quarter to various tales, which
invested him with mysterious poesy. He had borne the worst torture; the
celebrated Ambroise Pare was employing all his skill to cure him. What
great deed had he done to be thus treated? Neither Christophe nor his
father said a word on the subject. Catherine, then all-powerful, was
concerned in their silence as well as the Prince de Conde. The constant
visits of Pare, now chief surgeon of both the king and the house of
Guise, whom the queen-mother and the Lorrains allowed to treat a youth
accused of heresy, strangely complicated an affair through which no
one saw clearly. Moreover, the rector of Saint-Pierre-aux-Boeufs came
several times to visit the son of his church-warden, and these
visits made the causes of Christophe's present condition still more
unintelligible to his neighbors.

The old syndic, who had his plan, gave evasive answers to his
brother-furriers, the merchants of the neighborhood, and to all friends
who spoke to him of his son: "Yes, I am very thankful to have saved
him."--"Well, you know, it won't do to put your finger between the
bark and the tree."--"My son touched fire and came near burning up my
house."--"They took advantage of his youth; we burghers get nothing but
shame and evil by frequenting the grandees."--"This affair decides me to
make a lawyer of Christophe; the practice of law will teach him to weigh
his words and his acts."--"The young queen, who is now in Scotland, had
a great deal to do with it; but then, to be sure, my son may have been
imprudent."--"I have had cruel anxieties."--"All this may decide me to
give up my business; I do not wish ever to go to court again."--"My son
has had enough of the Reformation; it has cracked all his joints. If it
had not been for Ambroise, I don't know what would have become of me."

Thanks to these ambiguous remarks and to the great discretion of such
conduct, it was generally averred in the neighborhood that Christophe
had seen the error of his ways; everybody thought it natural that the
old syndic should wish to get his son appointed to the Parliament, and
the rector's visits no longer seemed extraordinary. As the neighbors
reflected on the old man's anxieties they no longer thought, as th