rve of one of the four friends
and question him. Now, the one to whom he felt the most drawn, and who
seemed naturally to excite the sympathies of all classes, was the kind,
gay, simple Monsieur Alain. By what strange path could Providence have
led a being so guileless into this monastery without a lock, where
recluses of both sexes lived beneath a rule in the midst of Paris,
in absolute freedom, as though they were guarded by the sternest of
superiors? What drama, what event, had made him leave his own road in
life, and take this path among the sorrows of the great city?

Godefroid resolved to ask.

VII. MONSIEUR ALAIN TELLS HIS SECRETS

One evening Godefroid determined to pay a visit to his neighbor on
the floor above him, with the intention of satisfying a curiosity
more excited by the apparent impossibility of a catastrophe in such an
existence than it would have been under the expectation of discovering
some terrible episode in the life of a corsair.

At the words "Come in!" given in answer to two raps struck discreetly
on the door, Godefroid turned the key which was in the lock and found
Monsieur Alain sitting by the fire reading, before he went to bed, his
accustomed chapter in the "Imitation of Jesus Christ," by the light
of two wax-candles, each protected by a moveable green shade, such as
whist-players use.

The goodman wore trousers _a pied_ and his gray camlet dressing-gown.
His feet were at a level with the fire, resting on a cushion done in
worsted-work, as were his slippers, by Madame de la Chanterie. The fine
head of the old man, without other covering than its crown of white
hair, almost like that of a monk, stood out in clear relief against the
brown background of an enormous armchair.

Monsieur Alain gently laid his book, which was much worn at the corners,
on a little table with twisted legs, and signed to the young man to take
another chair, removing as he did so a pair of spectacles which were
hanging on the end of his nose.

"Are you ill, that you have left your room at this hour?" he asked.

"Dear Monsieur Alain," said Godefroid, frankly, "I am tortured with
a curiosity which one word from you will make very harmless or very
indiscreet; and that explains clearly enough the spirit in which I shall
ask my question."

"Oh! oh! and what is your question?" said the good soul, looking at the
young man with an eye that was half mischievous.

"What was it that brought you here to lead t