it became necessary to purchase another.

"The man of science visited a dealer he well knew--a little parchment-
faced old man who kept a dingy shop, where nothing was ever sold, within
the shadow of the towers of Notre Dame.

"The little parchment-faced old man had just the very thing that Monsieur
wanted--a singularly fine and well-proportioned 'study.' It should be
sent round and set up in Monsieur's laboratory that very afternoon.

"The dealer was as good as his word. When Monsieur entered his
laboratory that evening, the thing was in its place.

"Monsieur seated himself in his high-backed chair, and tried to collect
his thoughts. But Monsieur's thoughts were unruly, and inclined to
wander, and to wander always in one direction.

"Monsieur opened a large volume and commenced to read. He read of a man
who had wronged another and fled from him, the other man following.
Finding himself reading this, he closed the book angrily, and went and
stood by the window and looked out. He saw before him the sun-pierced
nave of a great cathedral, and on the stones lay a dead man with a
mocking smile upon his face.

"Cursing himself for a fool, he turned away with a laugh. But his laugh
was short-lived, for it seemed to him that something else in the room was
laughing also. Struck suddenly still, with his feet glued to the ground,
he stood listening for a while: then sought with starting eyes the corner
from where the sound had seemed to come. But the white thing standing
there was only grinning.

"Monsieur wiped the damp sweat from his head and hands, and stole out.

"For a couple of days he did not enter the room again. On the third,
telling himself that his fears were those of a hysterical girl, he opened
the door and went in. To shame himself, he took his lamp in his hand,
and crossing over to the far corner where the skeleton stood, examined
it. A set of bones bought for three hundred francs. Was he a child, to
be scared by such a bogey!

"He held his lamp up in front of the thing's grinning head. The flame of
the lamp flickered as though a faint breath had passed over it.

"The man explained this to himself by saying that the walls of the house
were old and cracked, and that the wind might creep in anywhere. He
repeated this explanation to himself as he recrossed the room, walking
backwards, with his eyes fixed on the thing. When he reached his desk,
he sat down and gripped the arms of his chair till