assistant, and early in
July his physician ordered him to set out for Engadine, and try the
chalybeate water-cure at Saint Moritz. The trip from Paris to Saint
Moritz cannot be made without passing through Chur. It was at Chur that
Mlle. Antoinette Moriaz, who accompanied her father, met for the first
time Count Abel Larinski. When the decree of Destiny goes forth, the
spider and the fly must inevitably meet.

Abel Larinski had arrived at Chur from Vienna, having taken the route
through Milan and across the Splugen Pass. Although he was very short of
funds, upon reaching the capital of the canton of Grisons he had put up
at the Hotel Steinbock, the best and most expensive in the place. It was
his opinion that he owed this mark of respect to Count Larinski; such
duties he held to be very sacred, and he fulfilled them religiously. He
was in a very melancholy mood, and set out for a promenade in order to
divert his mind. In crossing the Plessur Bridge, he fixed his troubled
eyes on the muddy waters of the stream, and he felt almost tempted
to take the fatal leap; but in such a project there is considerable
distance between the dream and its fulfilment, and Count Larinski
experienced at this juncture that the most melancholy man in the world
may find it difficult to conquer his passion for living.

He had no reason to feel very cheerful. He had quitted Vienna in
order to betake himself to the Saxon Casino, where _roulette_ and
_trente-et-quarante_ are played. His ill-luck would have it that he
stopped on the way at Milan, and fell in with a circle of ill repute,
where this most imprudent of men played and lost. There remained to him
just enough cash to carry him to Saxon; but what can be accomplished in
a casino when one has empty pockets? Before crossing the Splugen he had
written to a petty Jew banker of his acquaintance for money. He counted
but little on the compliance of this Hebrew, and this was why he paused
five minutes to contemplate the Plessur, after which he retraced his
steps. Twenty minutes later he was crossing a public square, ornamented
with a pretty Gothic fountain, and seeing before him a cathedral, he
hastened to enter it.

The cathedral of Chur possesses, among other curiosities, a painting by
Albert Durer, a St. Lawrence on the gridiron, attributed to Holbein, a
piece of the true cross, and some relics of St. Lucius and his sister
Ernesta. Count Abel only accorded a wandering attention to either St.