in the course of these
six months. Disappointed, but not discouraged, Voisenon descended from
the dizzy height, reflecting upon the sad distress to which a man might
be reduced, although possessing the secret of potable gold.

An almost incredible chance had so willed it, that the Abbe Boiviel had
changed his abode but three times since his descent from the garret of
the Rue de Versailles. From Menilmontant he had removed to Passy, and
from Passy to La Chapelle, where he now resided.

At length the two abbes met; but to what delicate manoeuvres the
seigneur of Voisenon was obliged to have recourse in accosting his
rugged _comfrere_, who was at that moment engaged in eating his
breakfast off a chair. He had sense enough to put off as long as
possible the true subject of his visit; besides, what cared he for
delays? He had found him at last, he was face to face with the
mysterious, infallible physician, the successor of the great Albert.
Boiviel was even more savage and morose than the Abbe de Voisenon had
anticipated. He spoke of offering his services to the Missionary Society
in order to get appointed to preach the Gospel in Japan, although, to
tell the truth, he did not believe over-much in Christianity. "And I do
not believe in Japan," might have perhaps replied the Abbe de Voisenon,
had he been in a joking humor: but the fact is, he was thunderstruck at
the enunciation of such a project. It was too provoking, when he, had at
length found the Abbe Boiviel, to hear that the Abbe Boiviel was going
to immolate himself in Japan.

Inspired by circumstance, that tenth muse which is worth all the nine
put together, Voisenon said to Boiviel, that he was aware of all the
persecutions which the clergy of Paris had made him endure for causes
which he did not desire to know; he refrained also from entering on the
subject of fluid gold. Touched by the exhibition of so much constancy in
misfortune, he had come, he said, to propose to the Abbe Boiviel to
inhabit his chateau of Voisenon, where, in the calm and repose of a
peaceful existence, and with a mind freed from the harassing cares of
the world, he would have leisure to meditate and write; that this
proceeding of his, though strange in appearance, was excusable, and to
be judged with an indulgent eye; he, the Abbe de Voisenon, was happy,
rich, powerful even. The Abbe Boiviel would be quite at home at the
chateau de Voisenon; his feelings of independence would not be
outraged