y one, and thanks to the
unconscious tact that is acquired by the most ordinary men called by
fate to exercise any moral power over their fellow creatures, and the
baroness, attracted perhaps by one of these affinities which draw
similar natures together, paid every attention to him, the fat man's
sanguine face and short breath agreeing with her gasping obesity. By the
time dessert was placed on the table he had begun telling funny stories,
with the _laisser_-_aller_ of a man who had had a good dinner in
congenial society.

All at once, as though a good idea had just occurred to him, he
exclaimed:

"Oh, I have a new parishioner I must introduce to you, M. le Vicomte de
Lamare."

The baroness, who had all the heraldy of the province at her finger
ends, asked:

"Does he belong to the family of Lamare de l'Eure?"

The priest bowed:

"Yes, madame; he is the son of the Vicomte Jean de Lamare, who died last
year."

Then Madame Adelaide, who loved the aristocracy above everything, asked
a great many questions, and learnt that the young man had sold the
family chateau to pay his father's debts, and had come to live on one of
the three farms that he owned at Etouvent.

This property only brought in about five or six thousand livres a year,
but the vicomte was of a foreseeing, economical disposition and meant to
live quietly for two or three years, so that he might save enough to go
into society and marry well, without having to get into debt or mortgage
his farms.

"He is a charming young fellow," added the cure; "and so steady, so
quiet. But he can't find many amusements in the country."

"Bring him to see us, M. l'Abbe," said the baron; "he might like to come
here sometimes." And then the conversation turned to other subjects.

When they went into the drawing-room the priest asked if he might go out
into the garden, as he was used to a little exercise after meals. The
baron went out with him, and they walked backwards and forwards the
whole length of the chateau, while their two shadows, the one thin, and
the other quite round and looking as though it had a mushroom on its
head, fell sometimes before and sometimes behind them, according as they
walked towards the moon or turned their backs on it. The cure chewed a
sort of cigarette that he had taken from his pocket; he told the baron
why he used it in the plain speech of a countryman:

"It is to help the digestion; my liver is rather sluggish."

Looking at th