g 'un, how are you?"

He was surrounded, his hand eagerly shaken, and from one to another
passed the words:--

"Here, look at Roudic's brother, the fellow who makes four thousand
pounds a year just by singing."

Every one wished to see him, for one of the legends of the workshops was
this supposed fortune of the quondam blacksmith, and since his departure
more than one young fellow-worker had searched to the very bottom of his
larynx, to try if the famous note, the note worth millions, were not by
some happy chance to be found there.

In the midst of this cortege of admirers, whom his theatrical costume
impressed still more, the singer walked along with his head in the air,
talking and laughing, casting "Good morning, Father So-and-so! Good
morning, Mother What-'s-your-name!" towards the little houses enlivened
by women's faces looking out, towards the public-houses and cook-shops
which were frequent in this part of Indret; where also hawkers of all
kinds held sway, exposing their merchandise in the open air: blouses,
shoes, hats, kerchiefs, all the ambulating trumpery to be found in the
neighborhood of camps, barracks, and factories.

As they made their way through this display of wares, Jack imagined he
saw a familiar face, a smile, parting the various groups to reach him;
but it was only a lightning flash, a mere vision swept away at once by
the ever changing tide of the mass flowing away and dispersing through
the great industrial city, and spreading itself over to the other side
of the river in long ferry-boats, active, numerous, heavily laden, as if
it were the passage of an army.

Evening was closing in over the dispersing crowd. The sun went down. The
wind freshened, moving the poplars like palms; and the spectacle was
imposing of the toiling island in its turn sinking to repose, restored
to nature for the night. As the smoke cleared, masses of verdure became
visible between the workshops. The river could be heard lapping the
banks; and the swallows, skimming the water with tiny twitter, fluttered
around the great boilers ranged along the quay.

THE WRATH OF A QUEEN

From 'Kings in Exile'

All the magic beauty of that June night poured in through the wide-open
casement in the great hall. A single lighted candelabrum scarcely
disturbed the mystery of the moonlight, which streamed in like a "milky
way." On the table, across some dusty old papers, lay a crucifix of
oxydized silver. By the side of