ht I had told you so, Stasie? Hey? No sense?'

The Doctor winced and looked furtively at Jean-Marie; but the boy seemed
apathetic.

'And then again,' broke out Casimir, 'what children you are--vicious
children, my faith! How could you tell the value of this trash? It
might have been worth nothing, or next door.'

'Pardon me,' said the Doctor. 'You have your usual flow of spirits, I
perceive, but even less than your usual deliberation. I am not entirely
ignorant of these matters.'

'Not entirely ignorant of anything ever I heard of,' interrupted Casimir,
bowing, and raising his glass with a sort of pert politeness.

'At least,' resumed the Doctor, 'I gave my mind to the subject--that you
may be willing to believe--and I estimated that our capital would be
doubled.' And he described the nature of the find.

'My word of honour!' said Casimir, 'I half believe you! But much would
depend on the quality of the gold.'

'The quality, my dear Casimir, was--' And the Doctor, in default of
language, kissed his finger-tips.

'I would not take your word for it, my good friend,' retorted the man of
business. 'You are a man of very rosy views. But this robbery,' he
continued--'this robbery is an odd thing. Of course I pass over your
nonsense about gangs and landscape-painters. For me, that is a dream.
Who was in the house last night?'

'None but ourselves,' replied the Doctor.

'And this young gentleman?' asked Casimir, jerking a nod in the direction
of Jean-Marie.

'He too'--the Doctor bowed.

'Well; and if it is a fair question, who is he?' pursued the brother-in-
law.

'Jean-Marie,' answered the Doctor, 'combines the functions of a son and
stable-boy. He began as the latter, but he rose rapidly to the more
honourable rank in our affections. He is, I may say, the greatest
comfort in our lives.'

'Ha!' said Casimir. 'And previous to becoming one of you?'

'Jean-Marie has lived a remarkable existence; his experience his been
eminently formative,' replied Desprez. 'If I had had to choose an
education for my son, I should have chosen such another. Beginning life
with mountebanks and thieves, passing onward to the society and
friendship of philosophers, he may be said to have skimmed the volume of
human life.'

'Thieves?' repeated the brother-in-law, with a meditative air.

The Doctor could have bitten his tongue out. He foresaw what was coming,
and prepared his mind for a vigorous defence.

'Did