feel a trifling inconvenience for
a month, just as I did when I was first brought to this vile hamlet; then
your admirable sense and temper will prevail, and I see you already as
content as ever, and making your husband the happiest of men."

"You know I can refuse you nothing," she said, with a last flicker of
resistance; "nothing that will make you truly happier. But will this? Are
you sure, my husband? Last night, you say, you found him! He may be the
worst of humbugs."

"I think not," replied the Doctor. "But do not suppose me so unwary as to
adopt him out of hand. I am, I flatter myself, a finished man of the
world; I have had all possibilities in view; my plan is contrived to meet
them all. I take the lad as stable-boy. If he pilfer, if he grumble, if
he desire to change, I shall see I was mistaken; I shall recognise him
for no son of mine, and send him tramping."

"You will never do so when the time comes," said his wife; "I know your
good heart."

She reached out her hand to him, with a sigh; the Doctor smiled as he
took it and carried it to his lips; he had gained his point with greater
ease than he had dared to hope; for perhaps the twentieth time he had
proved the efficacy of his trusty argument, his Excalibur, the hint of a
return to Paris. Six months in the capital, for a man of the Doctor's
antecedents and relations, implied no less a calamity than total ruin.
Anastasie had saved the remainder of his fortune by keeping him strictly
in the country. The very name of Paris put her in a blue fear; and she
would have allowed her husband to keep a menagerie in the back-garden,
let alone adopting a stable-boy, rather than permit the question of
return to be discussed.

About four of the afternoon, the mountebank rendered up his ghost; he had
never been conscious since his seizure. Doctor Desprez was present at his
last passage, and declared the farce over. Then he took Jean-Marie by the
shoulder and led him out into the inn garden, where there was a
convenient bench beside the river. Here he sat him down and made the boy
place himself on his left.

"Jean-Marie," he said very gravely, "this world is exceedingly vast; and
even France, which is only a small corner of it, is a great place for a
little lad like you. Unfortunately it is full of eager, shouldering
people moving on; and there are very few bakers' shops for so many
eaters. Your master is dead; you are not fit to gain a living by
yourself; you do no