t of her. Certainly,
Mademoiselle Vincart was right in saying that he did not know the
language of these people.

He ate without appetite the breakfast on which Manette had employed
all her culinary art, barely tasted the roast partridge, and to Zelie's
great astonishment, mingled the old Burgundy wine with a large quantity
of water.

"You will inform Madame Sejournant," said he to the girl, as he folded
his napkin, "that I am not a great eater, and that one dish will suffice
me in future."

He left her to clear away, and went out to look at the domain which he
was to call his own. It did not take him very long. The twenty or thirty
white houses, which constituted the village and lay sleeping in the
wooded hollow like eggs in a nest, formed a curious circular line around
the chateau. In a few minutes he had gone the whole length of it, and
the few people he met gave him only a passing glance, in which curiosity
seemed to have more share than any hospitable feeling. He entered the
narrow church under the patronage of Our Lady; the gray light which
entered through the moldy shutters showed a few scattered benches of
oak, and the painted wooden altar. He knelt down and endeavored to
collect his thoughts, but the rude surroundings of this rustic sanctuary
did not tend to comfort his troubled spirit, and he became conscious
of a sudden withering of all religious fervor. He turned and left the
place, taking a path that led through the forest. It did not interest
him more than the village; the woods spoke no language which his heart
could understand; he could not distinguish an ash from an oak, and all
the different plants were included by him under one general term of
"weeds"; but he needed bodily fatigue and violent physical agitation to
dissipate the overpowering feeling of discouragement that weighed down
his spirits. He walked for several hours without seeing anything, nearly
got lost, and did not reach home till after dark. Once more the little
servant appeared with his meal, which he ate in an abstracted manner,
without even asking whether he were eating veal or mutton; then he went
immediately to bed, and fell into an uneasy sleep. And thus ended his
first day.

The next morning, about nine o'clock, he was informed that the justice
of the peace, the notary, and the clerk, were waiting for him below. He
hastened down and found the three functionaries busy conferring in a low
voice with Manette and Claudet. The conv