t it into
Armand's hand, and then, jumping down from the table, ran to the door
and disappeared through it.

IV. The next afternoon the Avocat visited old Farette. Farette was
polishing a gun, mumbling the while. Sitting on some bags of meal was
Parpon, with a fierce twinkle in his eye. Monsieur Garon told Farette
briefly what the Seigneur had left him. With a quick, greedy chuckle
Farette threw the gun away.

"Man alive!" said he; "tell me all about it. Ah, the good news!"

"There is nothing to tell: he left it; that is all."

"Oh, the good Seigneur," cried Farette, "the grand Seigneur!"

Some one laughed scornfully in the doorway. It was Julie.

"Look there," she cried; "he gets the land, and throws away the gun!
Brag and coward, miller! It is for me to say 'the grand Seigneur!'"

She tossed her head: she thought the old Seigneur had relented towards
her. She turned away to the house with a flaunting air, and got her hat.
At first she thought she would go to the House with the Tall Porch, but
she changed her mind, and went to the Bois Noir instead. Parpon followed
her a distance off. Behind, in the mill, Farette was chuckling and
rubbing his hands.

Meanwhile, Armand was making his way towards the Bois Noir. All at
once, in the shade of a great pine, he stopped. He looked about him
astonished.

"This is the old place. What a fool I was, then!" he said.

At that moment Julie came quickly, and lifted her hands towards him.
"Armand--beloved Armand!" she said.

Armand looked at her sternly, from her feet to her pitted forehead, then
wheeled, and left her without a word.

She sank in a heap on the ground. There was a sudden burst of tears, and
then she clinched her hands with fury.

Some one laughed in the trees above her--a shrill, wild laugh. She
looked up frightened. Parpon presently dropped down beside her.

"It was as I said," whispered the dwarf, and he touched her shoulder.
This was the full cup of shame. She was silent.

"There are others," he whispered again. She could not see his strange
smile; but she noticed that his voice was not as usual. "Listen," he
urged, and he sang softly over her shoulder for quite a minute. She was
amazed.

"Sing again," she said.

"I have wanted to sing to you like that for many years," he replied; and
he sang a little more. "He cannot sing like that," he wheedled, and he
stretched his arm around her shoulder.

She hung her head, then flung it back again as