o his eyes. "Let us see
how far I can walk. Open that door, I wish to see if I can cross the
hall."

"After so long, m'sieu! It is not possible. May St. Anne give you
courage, for it is assuredly six or seven years since m'sieu has left
his apartment."

"Nine--nine!" said he impatiently. "The year the child came into this
world. I vowed then and all St. Ignace knows I have kept the vow--I
would never leave my room again."

"M'sieu, all know, it is true, of the vow, but none know the reason for
it. I have kept my faith, m'sieu."

"But she, my sister, she is so flighty, so excitable--she may have told
a thousand times!"

"I think not, m'sieu."

"Father Rielle is unsuspecting; likewise Dr. Renaud. Well, well, who
gains by considering evil? Not one so weak and battered as I.
Nevertheless, I will walk, madame. I will conquer this fear and this
weakness and will show the strength and temper of a Clairville, of a De
Clairville, I should say. Open then, madame."

Thus with his black skull-cap on his bald head, and the faded claret
and silver habit upon his shrunken limbs, he tottered over the
threshold of his disorderly, uncared for room which he had occupied
without one moment's intermission, night and day, summer and winter,
for eight years, ten months and four days, and madame, preceding him,
watched in an agony of fear but also of hope--yonder was a new field
for her powers of cleansing and purifying. Dust in thick rolls,
cobwebs in floating black triangular and looped clusters, stale odours
and rubbish--the apartment which had served as bedroom, dining-room,
_salon_ and study so long, would naturally be in a disgraceful
condition. Henry Clairville's ghost it was that passed from that room
to the hall, but the ghost walked--more than Henry Clairville had done
for nine years.

The door of the chief _salon_ was open, and he entered, Mme. Poussette
assisting him, still with clasped hands and awestruck eyes, and,
although all the changes which had been wrought by her indefatigable
fingers could not be appreciated by him, as it was so long since he had
seen the room, he missed something. The suit, hanging for years upon
its common nail, till it was encrusted with flyspecks, riddled with
moth-holes, and tarnished, rusty and faded, now covered his meagre
frame, but the other things he looked for he failed to find. He gazed
at the walls, perceiving the one old, cracked and discoloured painting.

"Where a