lamity than being
cast out of Mittau. Mittau could wait for another expedition.

"Very well," I said. "Take the road to France."

We met August rains. We were bogged. A bridge broke under us. We dodged
Austrian troops. It seemed even then a fated thing that a Frenchman
should retreat ignominiously from Russia.

There is a devilish antagonism of inanimate and senseless things, begun
by discord in ourselves, which works unreasonable torture. Our return
was an abominable journal which I will not recount, and going with it
was a mortifying facility for drawing opposing forces.

However, I knew my friend the marquis expected me to return defeated. He
gave me my opportunity as a child is indulged with a dangerous
plaything, to teach it caution.

He would be in his chateau of Plessy, cutting off two days' posting to
Paris. And after the first sharp pangs of chagrin and shame at losing
the fortune he had placed in my hands, I looked forward with impatience
to our meeting.

"We have nothing, Skenedonk!" I exclaimed the first time there was
occasion for money on the road. "How have you been able to post? The
money and the jewel-case are gone."

"We have two bags of money and the snuffbox," said the Oneida. "I hid
them in the post-carriage."

"But I had the key of the jewel-case."

"You are a good sleeper," responded Skenedonk.

I blessed him heartily for his forethought, and he said if he had known
I was a fool he would not have told me we carried the jewel-case into
Russia.

I dared not let myself think of Madame de Ferrier. The plan of buying
back her estates, which I had nurtured in the bottom of my heart, was
now more remote than America.

One bag of coin was spent in Paris, but three remained there with Doctor
Chantry. We had money, though the more valuable treasure stayed in
Mittau.

In the sloping hills and green vines of Champagne we were no longer
harassed dodging troops, and slept the last night of our posting at
Epernay. Taking the road early next morning, I began to watch for Plessy
too soon, without forecasting that I was not to set foot within its
walls.

We came within the marquis' boundaries upon a little goose girl,
knitting beside her flock. Her bright hair was bound with a woolen cap.
Delicious grass, and the shadow of an oak, under which she stood, were
not to be resisted, so I sent the carriage on. She looked open-mouthed
after Skenedonk, and bobbed her dutiful, frightened courtesy at me.