leeper, crying out:--

"Hey! marquis, if you sleep like this at the Council of state, upon my
soul, your country must be well governed!"

Monsieur de Sallenauve opened his eyes, shook himself, and then said,
turning to me:--

"Pardon me, Monsieur le comte, but for the last ten nights I have
travelled, without stopping, to meet you here; and though I spent the
last night in a bed, I am still much fatigued."

So saying he rose, took a large pinch of snuff, and began to walk up and
down the room, while Jacques Bricheteau continued:--

"It is a little more than a year since I received a letter from your
father explaining his long silence, the plans he had made for you, and
the necessity he was under of keeping his incognito for a few years
longer. It was at that very time that you made your attempt to penetrate
a secret the existence of which had become apparent to you."

"You made haste to escape me," I said laughing. "It was then you went to
Stockholm."

"No, I went to your father's residence; I put the letter that he gave me
for you into the post at Stockholm."

"I do not seize your--"

"Nothing is easier to understand," interrupted the marquis. "I do not
reside in Sweden, and we wished to throw you off the track."

"Will you continue the explanation yourself?" asked Jacques Bricheteau,
who spoke, as you may have observed, my dear friend, with elegance and
fluency.

"No, no, go on," said the marquis; "you are giving it admirably."

"Feeling certain that your equivocal position as to family would injure
the political career your father desired you to enter, I made that
remark to him in one of my letters. He agreed with me, and resolved
to hasten the period of your legal recognition, which, indeed, the
extinction of the family in its other branch rendered desirable. But the
recognition of a natural son is a serious act which the law surrounds
with many precautions. Deeds must be signed before a notary, and to do
this by power of attorney would involve both in a publicity which he
is anxious for the present to avoid, he being married, and, as it were,
naturalized in the country of his adoption. Hence, he decided to come
here himself, obtaining leave of absence for a few weeks, in order
to sign in person all papers necessary to secure to you his name and
property in this country. Now let me put to you a final question. Do you
consent to take the name of de Sallenauve and be recognized as his son?"

"I am not