were sacks of seed. A number of books on
legal matters crowded the shelves, and from the ceiling hung a quantity
of dried herbs. The Counsellor welcomed the heir to the dukedom of
Champdoce with the greatest deference, seated him in his own capacious
leathern arm-chair, and pressed the brandy which he had refused upon
him.

"I got this brandy from a man down Arcachon way in return for a kindness
that I did him; for, without boasting, I may say that I have done
kindnesses for many people in my time." He raised his glass to his lips
as he spoke. "It is good, is it not?" said he. "You can't get stuff with
an aroma like that hereabouts."

The extreme deference of the man, coupled with the excellence of the
spirit, opened Norbert's heart in a very short space of time. Up to the
present the conduct of poor Norbert had been blameless, but now, without
knowing anything of the Counsellor's character or reputation, he poured
out all the secret sorrows of his heart, while Daumon chuckled secretly,
preserving all the time the imperturbable face of a physician called in
to visit a patient.

"Dear me! dear me!" said he; "this is really too bad. Poor fellow! I
really pity you. Were it not for the deep respect that I have for the
Duke, your father, I should feel inclined to say that he was not quite
in his right senses."

"Yes," continued Norbert, the tears starting to his eyes, "this is
just how I am situated. My destiny has been marked out for me, and I am
helpless to alter it. I had better a thousand times be lying under the
cold greensward, than vegetate thus above ground."

The peculiar smile on Daumon's lips caused him to pause in his
complaint.

"Perhaps," he went on, "you think that I am childish in talking thus?"

"Not at all, Marquis, you have suffered too deeply; but forgive me if
I say that you are foolish to despond so much over the future that lies
before you."

"Future!" repeated Norbert angrily, "what is the use of speaking to me
of the future, when I may be kept in this horrible servitude for the
next thirty years? My father is still hale and hearty."

"What of that? You will be of age soon, and then you will have full
right to claim your mother's fortune."

The extreme surprise displayed by Norbert at this intelligence convinced
the Counsellor that he was much more unsophisticated than he had
supposed him to be.

"A man," continued he, "can, when he attains his majority, dispose of
his inheritance as h