have forgotten to mention that I had, for companion, an old cat called
Suprematie, who had been my faithful and beloved friend since infancy.

Suprematie knew at what hour he would find me there, and he used to slip
in quietly upon the tips of his velvet paws; he never stretched himself
beside me without first looking at me questioningly.

The poor creature was very homely; he was marked queerly upon only one
side of his body; moreover, in a cruel accident he had twisted his
tail, and it hung down at a right angle. He was the subject of Lucette's
continual mockery, for she had a lovely Angora cat that had usurped
Suprematie's place in her affections. It was my habit to run out to see
her when she came to inquire after the members of my family; she rarely
failed to add, with a funny air of concern, which made me burst out
laughing in spite of myself: "And your horror of a cat, is he in good
health, my dear?"

CHAPTER XXXII.

During all this time my museum made great progress, and it soon became
necessary for me to have some new shelves put up.

My great uncle continued to take a very deep interest in my taste for
natural history, and among his shells he found a number of duplicates,
and these he presented to me. With indefatigable patience he taught me
the scientific classifications of Cuvier, Linne, Lamarck or Bruguieres,
and I was astonished at the attention with which I listened to him.

In a very old little desk, that was a part of the furniture of my
museum, I had a copy-book into which I copied, from uncle's notes, and
numbered with the greatest care, the name of the species, genus, family
and class of each shell,--also the place of its origin. And there by the
dim light that fell upon the desk, in the silence of that little retreat
so high above the street, surrounded with objects what had come from
distant corners of the earth and from the depths of the sea, when
my mind wandered, and I became fatigued because of the mysterious
differences in the forms of animals, and because of the infinite variety
of shells, with what emotion I wrote down in my book, opposite the name
of a Spirifer or a Terebratula, such enchanting words as these: "Eastern
coast of Africa," "coast of Guinea," "Indian Ocean."

I recall that in this same museum I experienced, one afternoon in March,
a peculiar feeling indicative of my tendency towards reaction, that
later, at certain periods of self-abandonment, caused me to seek