ion for the countess was in nowise diminished by this. On
the contrary, she loved her more, if possible. But in place of one
idol, she had two. By little innocent tactics that surprised herself,
she succeeded in having the service of the young count's room
assigned to her, and thenceforth her happiness was complete. The care
of the wardrobe was in the hands of the valet-de-chamber, who
scrupulously avoided doing anything else.

Serge was the most breakneck rider in the world; not from bravado,
since for the most part he was alone when he performed his wild
exploits, but from instinctive contempt for danger. One fine morning,
clearing a hedge six feet high--there were none lower--the count's
horse stumbled and fell on its side. A touch of the spur made it
spring up, but when Serge tried to spur the other side, that on which
it had fallen, he suffered excruciating pain. Fortunately it was the
last hedge, else he would have had some difficulty in getting home.
He pushed on, however, and reached the entrance; but when he
endeavored to rest his foot on the stirrup to alight, he found it
absolutely impossible, and amid the lamentations of the servants who
had gathered around, he had to let himself be taken down from his
horse and be dragged, as he said, like a bundle to his bed.

When he was duly unbooted and examined, the supreme indifference with
which he allowed himself to be handled and moved about, in spite of
the paleness of his face, did not lessen the fact, that he had
seriously fractured his tibia.

The bone-setter was sent for, in conformity with a precept of the
countess, who preferred a bone-setter at hand to the first surgeon in
the world three hundred miles off. A horribly-complicated dressing,
bristling with splints and bandages, was applied to the leg, with very
respectful but formal injunctions not to move, and to remain in bed
for six weeks.

Six weeks! and the sporting season good, and flights of partridges
started every minute by the count's dogs, hunting now for their own
pleasure, the door of the kennel being seldom closed; the horses
neighing from sheer weariness, and the grooms giving themselves
lumbago brightening up trappings that were now to lie unused.

The countess was a good reader, in spite of her eyeglass; she read
untiringly, the result of which was to send the patient to
sleep--infallible result; simply an affair of time; often in ten
minutes, sometimes an hour Serge's breathing would b