."

"Well, you fill me with delight."

There was silence once more.

"Is there nothing else you would desire to know, M. le Comte?"

"I wish to know," said Coconnas, "if I am really in love?"

"You are," replied Rene.

"How do you know?"

"Because you asked the question."

"By Heaven! you are right. But with whom?"

"With her who now, on every occasion, uses the oath you have just
uttered."

"Ah!" said Coconnas, amazed; "Maitre Rene, you are a clever man! Now, La
Mole, it is your turn."

La Mole reddened, and seemed embarrassed.

"I, Monsieur Rene," he stammered, and speaking more firmly as he
proceeded, "do not care to ask you if I am in love, for I know that I
am, and I do not hide it from myself; but tell me, shall I be beloved in
return? for, in truth, all that at first seemed propitious now turns
against me."

"Perchance you have not done all you should do."

"What is there to do, sir, but to testify, by one's respect and devotion
to the lady of one's thoughts, that she is really and profoundly
beloved?"

"You know," replied Rene, "that these demonstrations are frequently very
meaningless."

"Then must I despair?"

"By no means; we must have recourse to science. In human nature there
are antipathies to be overcome--sympathies which may be forced. Iron is
not the lodestone; but by rubbing it with a lodestone we make it, in its
turn, attract iron."

"Yes, yes," muttered La Mole; "but I have an objection to all these
sorceries."

"Ah, then, if you have any such objections, you should not come here,"
answered Rene.

"Come, come, this is child's play!" interposed Coconnas. "Maitre Rene,
can you show me the devil?"

"No, Monsieur le Comte."

"I'm sorry for that; for I had a word or two to say to him, and it might
have encouraged La Mole."

"Well, then, let it be so," said La Mole, "let us go to the point at
once. I have been told of figures modelled in wax to look like the
beloved object. Is that one way?"

"An infallible one."

"And there is nothing in the experiment likely to affect the life or
health of the person beloved?"

"Nothing."

"Let us try, then."

"Shall I make first trial?" said Coconnas.

"No," said La Mole, "since I have begun, I will go through to the end."

"Is your desire mighty, ardent, imperious to know what the obstacle is,
Monsieur de la Mole?"

"Oh," exclaimed La Mole, "I am dying with anxiety."

At this moment some one rapped lightly at the street do