the wind blew soft, and the sun was refulgent in the azure above, we
proposed an excursion in the forest to our friend the banker, who was
now quite convalescent.

"What! do you wish to give me up to the beasts?" cried he, jumping up
from his seat.

"Not at all, dear sir, pray don't be alarmed; we are merely desirous of
making you acquainted with the most innocent, the least dangerous sport
of the _chasse a l'affut_," and having convinced him, we started.
Everything went well as far as the entrance to the forest; but there the
_millionnaire_, little accustomed to walk over the stumps of underwood
and amongst the thorns, he began to drop into the rear, stopping every
now and then to rest against some tree, or disentangle his legs from
some yards of bramble, puffing and blowing, and ejaculating Oh's! and
Ha's! by dozens.

"Courage! sir," we said, "courage! we shall arrive too late; one brisk
half-hour's walk, and we are at our posts."

"Upon my word, gentlemen, you are really considerate; I walk, I suspect,
quite as fast as you. But"--and how was he delighted to find an excuse
for a halt--"you spoke of a _chasse a l'affut_, hiding for what I should
like to know--for bears, panthers, or crocodiles? is it this kind of
game we are to watch for?"

"Oh! no--for woodcocks."

"Woodcocks!--what, have you made me walk since the morning through
perfect beds of briars and over miles of large stones, escalade the
mountains, descend precipices, and brought me through water-courses and
dark ravines, to kill a few woodcocks?"

"Would you prefer confronting a wild boar?"

"Certainly," said the puffing convalescent; "if there was no chance of
danger, I should infinitely prefer killing a boar."

"For to-day this is impossible."

"Why so?"

"Why, in the first place, there are no boars in this wood, and it is too
late to take you to those which they frequent."

"Then we shall find only woodcocks in the place we are going to?"

"Nothing else; at least during the half-hour we shall remain."

"And if we were to remain more than half an hour?"

"Oh! then we might perhaps by accident see a roebuck--perhaps a hungry
wolf."

"A hungry wolf!--the deuce! And if there should come by chance a wolf to
the _Mare_ when I shall be all alone, what must I do?"

"Why kill it, to be sure."

"To be sure, why of course I should kill the ferocious animal,"--and the
banker, though smacking his fingers and whistling as if quite
unconcerned,