not seen my brother for a long time. I shall avail myself of this
opportunity to renew my acquaintance with the fire of my old forge, by
Jove!"

As he spoke, he turned back his sleeve, distending the muscles of his
brawny, hairy, tattooed arm, till they looked ready to burst.

"He is superb," said Dr. Hirsch.

D'Argenton, however, who did not lose sight of the sobbing woman
standing at the window, had an absent air, and a terrible frown
gathering on his brow.

"You can go, Jack," he said to the child, "and prepare to start in a
week."

Jack went down-stairs, dazed and stupefied, repeating to himself, "In a
week! in a week!" The street door was open; he rushed out, bare-headed,
just as he was, dashed through the village to the house of his friends,
and meeting the Doctor, who was just going out, informed him in a few
words of what had taken place.

Monsieur Rivals was indignant.

"A workman! They want to make a workman of you? Is that what they call
looking after your prospects in life? Wait a moment. I am going to speak
myself to monsieur your step-father."

The villagers who saw them pass by, the worthy Doctor gesticulating and
talking out loud, and little Jack, bare-headed and breathless from
running, said, "There is certainly some one very ill at Les Aulnettes."

No one was ill, most assuredly. When the Doctor arrived they were
sitting down to table; for on account of the capricious appetite of the
master of the house, and as in all places where _ennui_ reigns supreme,
the hours for the meals were constantly being changed.

The faces around were cheerful; Charlotte could even be heard humming on
the stairs as she came down from her room.

"I should like to say a word to you, M. d'Argenton," said old Rivals
with quivering lips.

The poet twirled his moustache:--

"Well, Doctor, sit down there. They shall give you a plate and you can
say your word while you eat your breakfast."

"No, thank you, I am not hungry; besides, what I have to say to you as
well as to Madame"--he bowed to Charlotte, who had just come in--"is
strictly private."

"I think I can guess your errand," said D'Argenton, who did not care for
a _tete-a-tete_ conversation with the Doctor. "It is about the child, is
it not?"

"You are right; it is about the child."

"In that case you can speak. These gentlemen know the circumstances, and
my actions are always too loyal and too disinterested for me to fear the
light of day."

"But,