ust
look after Blanquette for the present. He must go and dree his weird
alone.

"And yet, my little Asticot, it is the dreadful loneliness that
frightens me. Once I had a dream. It sufficed me. But now my soul is
empty. A man needs a woman in his life, even a Dream Woman. But for me,
_ni-ni, c'est fini_. There is not a woman in the wide world who would
look at me now."

"Master," said I, "if you are going to settle down in the country, why
don't you marry Blanquette?"

"Marry Blanquette! Marry----"

He regarded me in simple, undisguised amazement which took his breath
away. He passed his hand through his hair and sat on the nearest seat.

"_Nom de Dieu!_" said he, "I never thought of it!"

Then he leaped up and caught me in the old way by the shoulders, and
cried in French, as he did in moments of great excitement:

"But it's colossal, that idea! It is the solution of everything. And I
never thought of it though it has been staring me in the face. Why I
love her, our little Blanquette. I have loved her all the time without
knowing it as the good Monsieur Jourdain spoke prose. _Sacre nom d'un
petit bonhomme!_ Why didn't you tell me before, confounded little animal
that you are?"

He swung me with a laugh, to the other side of the room, and waved his
arms grotesquely, as he continued his dithyrambic eulogy of the colossal
idea. I have never seen two minutes produce a greater change in a human
countenance. Ten years fell from it. He looked even younger than when he
had broken his fiddle over Mr. Pogson's head and received the
inspiration of our vagabondage. His blue eyes cleared, and in them shone
the miraculous light of laughter.

"But it was written, my son Asticot. It was preordained. She is the one
woman in the world to whom I need not pretend to be other than I am. She
is _real, nom de Dieu_! What she says is Blanquette, what she does is
Blanquette, and her sayings and doings would grace the greatest Queen in
Christendom. But, have you thought of it? I have come indeed to the end
of my journey. I started out to find Truth, the Reality of Things. I
have found it. I have found it, my son. It is a woman, strong and
steadfast, who looks into your eyes; who can help a man to accomplish
his destiny. And the destiny of man is to work, and to beget strong
children. And his reward is to have the light in the wife's eyes and the
welcome of a child's voice as he crosses the threshold of his house. And
it cleanses a