nce with us, do, pray do, tell us how wicked it is to die
without making one's will or confessing one's sins."

"I shall go up this very evening," ambiguously replied Monsieur Ramin.

He kept his promise, and found Monsieur Bonelle in bed, groaning with
pain, and in the worst of tempers.

"What poisoning doctor did you send?" he asked, with an ireful glance;
"I want no doctor, I am not ill; I will not follow his prescription;
he forbade me to eat; I _will_ eat."

"He is a very clever man," said the visitor. "He told me that never
in the whole course of his experience has he met with what he called
so much 'resisting power' as exists in your frame. He asked me if you
were not of a long-lived race."

"That is as people may judge," replied Monsieur Bonelle. "All I
can say is, that my grandfather died at ninety, and my father at
eighty-six."

"The doctor owned that you had a wonderfully strong constitution."

"Who said I hadn't?" exclaimed the invalid feebly.

"You may rely on it, you would preserve your health better if you had
not the trouble of these vexatious lodgers. Have you thought about the
life annuity?" said Ramin as carelessly as he could, considering how
near the matter was to his hopes and wishes.

"Why, I have scruples," returned Bonelle, coughing. "I do not wish to
take you in. My longevity would be the ruin of you."

"To meet that difficulty," quickly replied the mercer, "we can reduce
the interest."

"But I must have high interest," placidly returned Monsieur Bonelle.

Ramin, on hearing this, burst into a loud fit of laughter, called
Monsieur Bonelle a sly old fox, gave him a poke in the ribs, which
made the old man cough for five minutes, and then proposed that they
should talk it over some other day. The mercer left Monsieur Bonelle
in the act of protesting that he felt as strong as a man of forty.

Monsieur Ramin felt in no hurry to conclude the proposed agreement.
"The later one begins to pay, the better," he said, as he descended
the stairs.

Days passed on, and the negotiation made no way. It struck the
observant tradesman that all was not right. Old Marguerite several
times refused to admit him, declaring her master was asleep: there
was something mysterious and forbidding in her manner that seemed to
Monsieur Ramin very ominous. At length a sudden thought occurred to
him: the housekeeper--wishing to become her master's heir--had heard
his scheme and opposed it. On the very day that