ath she would be left alone without support. Many of
the young mechanics of Geneva had already sought to win Gerande's
love; but none of them had succeeded in gaining access to the
impenetrable retreat of the watchmaker's household. It was
natural, then, that during this lucid interval, the old man's
choice should fall on Aubert Thun. Once struck with this thought,
he remarked to himself that this young couple had been brought up
with the same ideas and the same beliefs; and the oscillations of
their hearts seemed to him, as he said one day to Scholastique,
"isochronous."

The old servant, literally delighted with the word, though she
did not understand it, swore by her holy patron saint that the
whole town should hear it within a quarter of an hour. Master
Zacharius found it difficult to calm her; but made her promise to
keep on this subject a silence which she never was known to
observe.

So, though Gerande and Aubert were ignorant of it, all Geneva was
soon talking of their speedy union. But it happened also that,
while the worthy folk were gossiping, a strange chuckle was often
heard, and a voice saying, "Gerande will not wed Aubert."

If the talkers turned round, they found themselves facing a
little old man who was quite a stranger to them.

How old was this singular being? No one could have told. People
conjectured that he must have existed for several centuries, and
that was all. His big flat head rested upon shoulders the width
of which was equal to the height of his body; this was not above
three feet. This personage would have made a good figure to
support a pendulum, for the dial would have naturally been placed
on his face, and the balance-wheel would have oscillated at its
ease in his chest. His nose might readily have been taken for the
style of a sun-dial, for it was narrow and sharp; his teeth, far
apart, resembled the cogs of a wheel, and ground themselves
between his lips; his voice had the metallic sound of a bell, and
you could hear his heart beat like the tick of a clock. This
little man, whose arms moved like the hands on a dial, walked
with jerks, without ever turning round. If any one followed him,
it was found that he walked a league an hour, and that his course
was nearly circular.

This strange being had not long been seen wandering, or rather
circulating, around the town; but it had already been observed
that, every day, at the moment when the sun passed the meridian,
he stopped bef