hich caused Father
Fouchard to regard her with an eye of favor. The weather was always fine
with him, provided he was making money.

"Ah! so my sister is here," said Maurice. "That must have been what
M. Delaherche wished to tell me, with his gestures that I could not
understand. Very well; if she is here, that settles it; we shall
remain."

Notwithstanding his fatigue he started off at once in quest of her at
the ambulance, where she had been on duty during the preceding night,
while the uncle cursed his luck that kept him from being off with the
carriole to sell his mutton among the neighboring villages, so long as
the confounded business that he had got mixed up in remained unfinished.

When Maurice returned with Henriette they caught the old man making
a critical examination of the horse, that Prosper had led away to the
stable. The animal seemed to please him; he was knocked up, but showed
signs of strength and endurance. The young man laughed and told his
uncle he might have him as a gift if he fancied him, while Henriette,
taking her relative aside, assured him Jean should be no expense to him;
that she would take charge of him and nurse him, and he might have the
little room behind the cow-stables, where no Prussian would ever think
to look for him. And Father Fouchard, still wearing a very sulky face
and but half convinced that there was anything to be made out of the
affair, finally closed the discussion by jumping into his carriole and
driving off, leaving her at liberty to act as she pleased.

It took Henriette but a few minutes, with the assistance of Silvine and
Prosper, to put the room in order; then she had Jean brought in and
they laid him on a cool, clean bed, he giving no sign of life during the
operation save to mutter some unintelligible words. He opened his
eyes and looked about him, but seemed not to be conscious of anyone's
presence in the room. Maurice, who was just beginning to be aware how
utterly prostrated he was by his fatigue, was drinking a glass of wine
and eating a bit of cold meat, left over from the yesterday's dinner,
when Doctor Dalichamp came in, as was his daily custom previous to
visiting the hospital, and the young man, in his anxiety for his friend,
mustered up his strength to follow him, together with his sister, to the
bedside of the patient.

The doctor was a short, thick-set man, with a big round head, on which
the hair, as well as the fringe of beard about his face, h