n the wind. At any rate, so we think at the house; or else,
why should he countermand the Daumont,--why travel in a coucou? A peer
of France might afford to hire a cabriolet to himself, one would think."

"A cabriolet would cost him forty francs to go there and back; for
let me tell you, if you don't know it, that road was only made for
squirrels,--up-hill and down, down-hill and up!" said Pierrotin. "Peer
of France or bourgeois, they are all looking after the main chance, and
saving their money. If this journey concerns Monsieur Moreau, faith, I'd
be sorry any harm should come to him! Twenty good Gods! hadn't I better
find some way of warning him?--for he's a truly good man, a kind man, a
king of men, hey!"

"Pooh! Monsieur le comte thinks everything of Monsieur Moreau," replied
the valet. "But let me give you a bit of good advice. Every man for
himself in this world. We have enough to do to take care of ourselves.
Do what Monsieur le comte asks you to do, and all the more because
there's no trifling with him. Besides, to tell the truth, the count is
generous. If you oblige him so far," said the valet, pointing half-way
down his little finger, "he'll send you on as far as that," stretching
out his arm to its full length.

This wise reflection, and the action that enforced it, had the effect,
coming from a man who stood as high as second valet to the Comte de
Serizy, of cooling the ardor of Pierrotin for the steward of Presles.

"Well, adieu, Monsieur Pierrotin," said the valet.

A glance rapidly cast on the life of the Comte de Serizy, and on that of
his steward, is here necessary in order to fully understand the little
drama now about to take place in Pierrotin's vehicle.

CHAPTER II. THE STEWARD IN DANGER

Monsieur Huguet de Serisy descends in a direct line from the famous
president Huguet, ennobled under Francois I.

This family bears: party per pale or and sable, an orle counterchanged
and two lozenges counterchanged, with: "i, semper melius eris,"--a motto
which, together with the two distaffs taken as supporters, proves the
modesty of the burgher families in the days when the Orders held their
allotted places in the State; and the naivete of our ancient customs by
the pun on "eris," which word, combined with the "i" at the beginning
and the final "s" in "melius," forms the name (Serisy) of the estate
from which the family take their title.

The father of the present count was president of a parli