one without the other. And some
day, in your father's house, in the place where he has done so much
good, the poor people of the country round will find another Doctor
Reynaud, to whom they may look for help. And I--if by chance I am still
in this world--when that day comes, I shall be so happy! But I am wrong
to speak of myself; I ought not, I do not count. It is of your father
that you must think. I repeat it, Jean, it was his dearest wish. You can
not have forgotten it."

"No, I have not forgotten; but if my father sees me, and hears me, I am
certain that he understands and forgives me, for it is on his account."

"On his account?"

"Yes. When I heard that he was dead, and when I heard how he died, all
at once, without any need of reflection, I said to myself that I would
be a soldier, and I will be a soldier! Godfather, and you, Madame, I beg
you not to prevent me."

The child burst into tears--a perfect flood of passionate tears. The
Countess and the Abbe soothed him with gentle words.

"Yes--yes--it is settled," they said; "anything that you wish, all that
you wish."

Both had the same thought--leave it to time; Jean is only a child; he
will change his mind.

In this, both were mistaken; Jean did not change his mind. In the month
of September, 1876, Paul de Lavardens was rejected at Saint-Cyr, and
Jean Reynaud passed eleventh at the Ecole Polytechnique. The day when
the list of the candidates who had passed was published, he wrote to the
Abbe Constantin:

"I have passed, and passed too well, for I wish to go into the army, and
not the civil service; however, if I keep my place in the school, that
will be the business of one of my comrades; he will have my chance."

It happened so in the end. Jean Reynaud did better than keep his place;
the pass-list showed his name seventh, but instead of entering
'l'Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees', he entered the military college at
Fontainebleau in 1878.

He was then just twenty-one; he was of age, master of his fortune, and
the first act of the new administration was a great, a very great piece
of extravagance.

He bought for old Clemence and little Rosalie two shares in Government
stock of 1,500 francs each. That cost him 70,000 francs, almost the sum
that Paul de Lavardens, in his first year of liberty in Paris, spent for
Mademoiselle Lise Bruyere, of the Palais Royal Theatre.

Two years later Jean passed first at the examination, and left
Fontainebleau with th