dish will suffice
me in future."

He left her to clear away, and went out to look at the domain which he
was to call his own. It did not take him very long. The twenty or thirty
white houses, which constituted the village and lay sleeping in the
wooded hollow like eggs in a nest, formed a curious circular line around
the chateau. In a few minutes he had gone the whole length of it, and the
few people he met gave him only a passing glance, in which curiosity
seemed to have more share than any hospitable feeling. He entered the
narrow church under the patronage of Our Lady; the gray light which
entered through the moldy shutters showed a few scattered benches of oak,
and the painted wooden altar. He knelt down and endeavored to collect his
thoughts, but the rude surroundings of this rustic sanctuary did not tend
to comfort his troubled spirit, and he became conscious of a sudden
withering of all religious fervor. He turned and left the place, taking a
path that led through the forest. It did not interest him more than the
village; the woods spoke no language which his heart could understand; he
could not distinguish an ash from an oak, and all the different plants
were included by him under one general term of "weeds"; but he needed
bodily fatigue and violent physical agitation to dissipate the
overpowering feeling of discouragement that weighed down his spirits. He
walked for several hours without seeing anything, nearly got lost, and
did not reach home till after dark. Once more the little servant appeared
with his meal, which he ate in an abstracted manner, without even asking
whether he were eating veal or mutton; then he went immediately to bed,
and fell into an uneasy sleep. And thus ended his first day.

The next morning, about nine o'clock, he was informed that the justice of
the peace, the notary, and the clerk, were waiting for him below. He
hastened down and found the three functionaries busy conferring in a low
voice with Manette and Claudet. The conversation ceased suddenly upon his
arrival, and during the embarrassing silence that followed, all eyes were
directed toward Julien, who saluted the company and delivered to the
justice the documents proving his identity, begging him to proceed
without delay to the legal breaking of the seals. They accordingly began
operations, and went through all the house without interruption,
accompanied by Claudet, who stood stiff and sullen behind the justice,
taking advanta