ct which, had
it been withheld, he would very well have known how to enforce with his
fists. But under their breaths, his comrades remarked that he was never
sent for to see friends in the parlor, and that outside the college
walls no one appeared to take an interest in him.

The two lads, who were both destined to become distinguished men, were
poor scholars; though each had his own way of studying. By the time
he was fifteen Marie-Gaston had written a volume of verses, satires,
elegies, meditations, not to speak of two tragedies. The favorite
studies of Dorlange led him to steal logs of wood, out of which, with
his knife, he carved madonnas, grotesque figures, fencing-masters,
saints, grenadiers of the Old Guard, and, but this was secretly,
Napoleons.

In 1827, their school-days ended, the two friends left college together
and were sent to Paris. A place had been chosen for Dorlange in the
atelier of the sculptor Bosio, and from that moment a rather fantastic
course was pursued by an unseen protection that hovered over him. When
he reached the house in Paris to which the head-master of the school had
sent him, he found a dainty little apartment prepared for his reception.
Under the glass shade of the clock was a large envelope addressed to
him, so placed as to strike his eye the moment that he entered the
room. In that envelope was a note, written in pencil, containing these
words:--

The day after your arrival in Paris go at eight in the morning
punctually to the garden of the Luxembourg, Allee de
l'Observatoire, fourth bench to the right, starting from the gate.
This order is strict. Do not fail to obey it.

Punctual to the minute, Dorlange was not long at the place of rendezvous
before he was met by a very small man, whose enormous head, bearing an
immense shock of hair, together with a pointed nose, chin, and crooked
legs made him seem like a being escaped from one of Hoffman's tales.
Without saying a word, for to his other physical advantages this weird
messenger added that of being deaf and dumb, he placed in the young
man's hand a letter and a purse. The letter said that the family of
Dorlange were glad to see that he wished to devote himself to art. They
urged him to work bravely and to profit by the instructions of the great
master under whose direction he was placed. They hoped he would live
virtuously; and, in any case, an eye would be kept upon his conduct.
There was no desire, the letter went