"I am too indolent to tell it."

"Come, Jacques--I'm dying for news."

"I really couldn't. You have no idea how weakly I am growing; and as
it deals in battle and blood, I cannot touch upon it."

"Ah! that is the character of a man's friends. In the sunshine all
devotion; in adversity----"

"And exile----"

"All hatred."

"Very well," said Jacques, "I can afford to labor under your
injustice. You are systematically unjust. But I just dropped in as I
passed--and, my dear Sir Asinus, there is a visitor coming. I shall
intrude----"

"No; stay! stay!"

"Very well."

Sir Asinus laid down his violin; and stretching himself, said
carelessly:

"I shouldn't be surprised if you had brought some dun in your train.
Decidedly you possess the _gettatura_--that faculty called the Evil
Eye."

The step ascended.

"Who is it--whose heavy step can that be?" said Sir Asinus, rising;
"it is not Randolph: it might be yours coming from Belle-bouche's----"

Sir Asinus caught sight of a large cocked hat rising from beneath,
followed by a substantial person.

"O Heaven!" he cried, "it's Doctor Small! The door--the door!"

"Too late!" said Jacques, laughing; "the Doctor will find the stairs
suddenly darkened if you close the door; and then he will know you are
not absent, only playing him a trick!"

"True! true!" cried Sir Asinus in despair; "where shall I go? I am
lost!"

"The refuge of comedy-characters is left," said Jacques--"the closet!"

"You will betray me!"

"No, no," sighed Jacques reproachfully; "bad as you are, Sir
Asinus----"

But the worthy knight had disappeared in the closet, and Jacques was
silent.

The cocked hat, as we have said, was succeeded by a pair of shoulders;
the shoulders now appeared joined to a good portly body; and lastly,
the well-clad legs of worthy Doctor Small appeared; and passing along
the passage, he entered the room.

"Good morning, my young friend," he said politely; "a very beautiful
day."

And he sat down.

"Exceedingly beautiful, Doctor," said Jacques sadly; "and I was just
thinking how pleasant my ride would be. Did you pass our friend going
out?"

"No; I was anxious to see him."

"He was in the room a few minutes since," said Jacques; "what a pity
that you missed him."

"I regret it; for this is, I think, the third time I have attempted to
find him. He is a wild young man--a very wild young man," said the
Doctor, shaking his head.

"Yes, yes," sighed Jacques,