d with all that I had seen.

"Arretez donc," said the baron, noticing my movement, and touching me
upon the arm. "You are not fatigued?"

"Not in the least," I answered.

"Come with me, then."

The baron, full of life and spirits, and with the air of a man whose
day's work was only about to commence, bowed to the students, and
tripped quickly down stairs. I followed as commanded, and the next
moment I was in the baron's cabriolet, driving with that gentleman
rapidly through the streets of Paris.

"Have you courage?" enquired the baron suddenly.

"For what, sir?" I replied.

"To see an operation."

"I have been present at many, sir," said I--"some bad enough, too; and,
I confess, I have been less womanish and weak beholding them than I felt
this morning, witnessing your kindness to those poor creatures."

"Ah, poor creatures, indeed!" repeated the baron in a softer tone than
any I had heard him use. "The poor need kindness, Mr Walpole. It is all
we can do for them. God help them! it is little of that they get.
Poverty is a frightful thing, sir."

There were two circumstances that especially struck me in the delivery
of this short speech. One was, that the eyes of an intrepid operator
filled with tears whilst he adverted to a very commonplace subject; the
other, that a confirmed atheist was inconsistent enough to invoke the
Deity whose very existence he denied.

We drove on, and arrived at the hotel of one of the richest and most
influential noblemen of France. The cabriolet stopped, and the gates of
the hotel were thrown open at the same instant. A lackey, in the hall of
the mansion, was already waiting for the baron, and we were bowed with
much ceremony up the gilded staircase; we reached at last a sumptuously
furnished chamber, where we found three gentlemen in earnest
conversation. They were silent upon our entrance, and advanced, one and
all, with great cordiality to greet the baron. The latter returned their
salute with a distant and haughty politeness, which I thought very
unbecoming.

"We were thinking"---- began one of the party.

"How is the patient?" asked the baron, suddenly interrupting him.

The other shook his head despondingly, and the baron, as it were
instinctively, unlocked a case of instruments, which he had brought into
the room with him from his cabriolet.

"The inflammation has not subsided, then?"

"No."

"All the symptoms as before?"

"All."

"Let us see him."

The gent