be
of advantage to him, whom he considered destined to render him some
essential service. He seldom mistook; he was a admirable diagnostician;
he recognised at first sight the divine impress of predestination. He
gave the most cordial reception to his reverend friend, and ushered him
into his modest quarters with all the more _empressement_, because he
detected at once the mysterious, rather agitated air he wore. "Does he
come in the quality of a diplomatic agent, charged with some mission
extraordinary?" he asked himself. On his side the abbe studied Samuel
Brohl without seeming to do so. He was struck with his physiognomy,
which expressed at this moment a manly yet sorrowful pride. His eyes
betrayed at intervals the secret of some heroic grief that he had sworn
to repress before men, and to confess to God alone.

He sat down with his guest, and they began to talk; but the abbe
directed the conversation into topics of the greatest indifference.
Samuel Brohl listened to him and replied with a melancholy grace. Lively
as was his curiosity he well knew how to hold it in check. Samuel Brohl
never had been in a hurry; during the month that had elapsed he had
proved that he knew how to wait--a faculty lacking in more diplomates
than one.

Abbe Miollens's call had lasted during the usual time allotted to a
polite visit, and the worthy man seemed about to depart, when, pointing
with his forefinger to the open valise, he remarked: "I see here
preparations that grieve me. I did dream, my dear count, of inviting
you to Maisons. I have a spare chamber there which I might offer to you.
_Hoc erat in votis_, I should indeed have been happy to have had you for
a guest. We should have chatted and made music to our hearts' content,
close by a window opening on a garden. 'Hae latebrae dulces, etiam, si
credis, amoenae.' But, alas! you are going to leave us; you do not
care for the friendship accorded you here. Has Vienna such superior
attractions for you? But I remember, you will doubtless be restored
there to a pleasant home, a charming wife, children perhaps who----"

Samuel looked at him with an astonished, confused air, as he had
viewed Mme. de Lorcy when she undertook to speak to him of the Countess
Larinski. "What do you mean?" he finally asked.

"Why, did you not confide to me yourself that you were married?"

Samuel opened wide his eyes; during some moments he seemed to be in
a dream; then, suddenly putting his hand to his b