o important, and which
may prove so profitable to you, that you ought to keep absolutely
silent about it. Now that you have confided to me the secret of these
apparitions perhaps they may not return. Besides, you are now strong
enough to come to church; well, then, come to-morrow and thank God and
pray to him for the repose of your godfather's soul. Feel quite sure
that you have entrusted your secret to prudent hands."

"If you knew how afraid I am to go to sleep,--what glances my godfather
gives me! The last time he caught hold of my dress--I awoke with my face
all covered with tears."

"Be at peace; he will not come again," said the priest.

Without losing a moment the Abbe Chaperon went straight to Minoret and
asked for a few moments interview in the Chinese pagoda, requesting that
they might be entirely alone.

"Can any one hear us?" he asked.

"No one," replied Minoret.

"Monsieur, my character must be known to you," said the abbe, fastening
a gentle but attentive look on Minoret's face. "I have to speak to you
of serious and extraordinary matters, which concern you, and about which
you may be sure that I shall keep the profoundest secrecy; but it is
impossible for me to do otherwise than give you this information. While
your uncle lived, there stood there," said the priest, pointing to a
certain spot in the room, "a small buffet made by Boule, with a marble
top" (Minoret turned livid), "and beneath the marble your uncle placed
a letter for Ursula--" The abbe then went on to relate, without omitting
the smallest circumstance, Minoret's conduct to Minoret himself. When
the last post master heard the detail of the two matches refusing to
light he felt his hair begin to writhe on his skull.

"Who invented such nonsense?" he said, in a strangled voice, when the
tale ended.

"The dead man himself."

This answer made Minoret tremble, for he himself had dreamed of the
doctor.

"God is very good, Monsieur l'abbe, to do miracles for me," he said,
danger inspiring him to make the sole jest of his life.

"All that God does is natural," replied the priest.

"Your phantoms don't frighten me," said the colossus, recovering his
coolness.

"I did not come to frighten you, for I shall never speak of this to any
one in the world," said the abbe. "You alone know the truth. The matter
is between you and God."

"Come now, Monsieur l'abbe, do you really think me capable of such a
horrible abuse of confidence?"

"I b