rm here?"

"Your surprise is perfectly natural, madame. Yes, we have a farm, the
produce of which is most serviceable to the establishment, although
entirely worked by the patients."

"Is it possible? Can you make these lunatics work, and allow them to be
at liberty while they do so?"

"Certainly; exercise, the calm tranquillity of the fields, with the
aspect of nature, are among our most certain means of cure. Only one
keeper goes with them, and we have rarely had an instance of any patient
endeavouring to get away; they are delighted to be employed, and the
trifling reward they gain serves still to improve their condition, by
enabling them to purchase different little indulgences. But we have
reached the gate conducting to one of these courts." Then perceiving a
slight appearance of alarm on the countenance of Madame Georges, the
doctor added, "Lay aside all apprehension, madame; in a very few minutes
you will feel as tranquil as I do myself."

"I follow you, sir. Come, my children."

"Anastasie," whispered Pipelet, "when I think that, had the persecutions
of that odious Cabrion continued, your poor dear Alfred might have
become mad, like the unhappy wretches we are about to behold, clad in
the most wild and singular state, chained up by the middle, or confined
in dens like the wild beasts in the 'Jardin des Plantes--'"

"Oh, bless your dear old heart, don't talk of such a thing! La! I've
heard say that them as has gone mad for love are for all the world like
born devils directly they see a woman; dashing against the bars of their
dens, and making all sorts of horrid noises, till the keepers are
forced to flog them till they drop, or else turn great taps of water on
their heads before they can quiet them."

"Anastasie," rejoined Pipelet, gravely, "I desire you will not go too
close to these dreadful creatures, an accident so soon happens."

"Besides," answered Anastasie, with a tone of sentimental melancholy,
"poor things, I have no business to show myself just for the sake of
tantalising them. 'Tis woman's beauty and fascination reduces them to
this horrid state. I declare I feel a cold shudder creep over me as I
reflect that, perhaps, if I had refused to make you a happy man, Alfred,
you might at this very minute be raving mad for love, and shut up in one
of these dens, roaring out the moment you caught sight of a woman; while
as it is, my poor old duck is glad to get out of the way of the naughty
females t