had occasion to point out; and I do not know that I can blame you for
refusing this outlandish stimulant. You can have some wine and cakes. Is
the bottle empty? Well, we will not be proud; we will have pity on your
glass.'

The beer being done, the Doctor chafed bitterly while Jean-Marie finished
his cakes. 'I burn to be gone,' he said, looking at his watch. 'Good
God, how slow you eat!' And yet to eat slowly was his own particular
prescription, the main secret of longevity!

His martyrdom, however, reached an end at last; the pair resumed their
places in the buggy, and Desprez, leaning luxuriously back, announced his
intention of proceeding to Fontainebleau.

'To Fontainebleau?' repeated Jean-Marie.

'My words are always measured,' said the Doctor. 'On!'

The Doctor was driven through the glades of paradise; the air, the light,
the shining leaves, the very movements of the vehicle, seemed to fall in
tune with his golden meditations; with his head thrown back, he dreamed a
series of sunny visions, ale and pleasure dancing in his veins. At last
he spoke.

'I shall telegraph for Casimir,' he said. 'Good Casimir! a fellow of the
lower order of intelligence, Jean-Marie, distinctly not creative, not
poetic; and yet he will repay your study; his fortune is vast, and is
entirely due to his own exertions. He is the very fellow to help us to
dispose of our trinkets, find us a suitable house in Paris, and manage
the details of our installation. Admirable Casimir, one of my oldest
comrades! It was on his advice, I may add, that I invested my little
fortune in Turkish bonds; when we have added these spoils of the mediaeval
church to our stake in the Mahometan empire, little boy, we shall
positively roll among doubloons, positively roll! Beautiful forest,' he
cried, 'farewell! Though called to other scenes, I will not forget thee.
Thy name is graven in my heart. Under the influence of prosperity I
become dithyrambic, Jean-Marie. Such is the impulse of the natural soul;
such was the constitution of primaeval man. And I--well, I will not
refuse the credit--I have preserved my youth like a virginity; another,
who should have led the same snoozing, countryfied existence for these
years, another had become rusted, become stereotype; but I, I praise my
happy constitution, retain the spring unbroken. Fresh opulence and a new
sphere of duties find me unabated in ardour and only more mature by
knowledge. For this pr