and I had
half forgotten--excuse me, _mon ami_--the curiosity you had felt in
the little window in the court; I happened to be a half hour later
than usual in returning from mass, and as I passed the hotel at the
corner, I saw coming out a tall gentleman, in a cloak trimmed with a
little tawny lace, and with an air so different from that of most
lodgers in the neighborhood, that I was sure it must be Monsieur
Very."

"The very same," said I.

"Indeed," continued the abbe, "I was so struck with his
appearance--added to your interest in him--(here the abbe bowed and
sipped his wine) that I determined to follow him a short way down the
street. He kept through the Rue de Seine, and passing under the
colonnade of the Institute, crossed the Pont de Fer, continued along
the quay as far as the gates of the garden--into the Rue de Rivoli,
and though I thought he would have stopped at some of the _cafes_ in
the neighborhood, he did not, but kept steadily on, nor did I give up
pursuit until he had taken his place in one of the omnibuses which
pass the head of the Rue de la Paix.

"A week after, happening to see him, as I came home from Martin's,
under the Odeon, I followed him again: I took a place in the same
omnibus at the head of the Rue de la Paix. Opposite the Rue de Lancry
he stopped. I stopped a short way above, and stepping back, soon found
the poor gentleman picking his feeble paces along the dirty sideway.

"You remember, _mon cher_, wandering with me in the Rue de Lancry; you
remember that it is crooked and long. The poor gentleman found it so;
for before he had reached the end he leaned against the wall,
apparently overcome with fatigue. I offered him assistance; at first
he declined; he told me he was going only to the Hopital St. Louis,
which was now near by. I told him I was going the same way, upon which
he took my arm, and we walked together to the gates. The poor
gentleman seemed unable or unwilling to talk with me, and at the gates
he merely pulled a slip of paper from his pocket to show the
concierge, and passed in. I attended him as far as the middle hall in
the court, when he kindly thanked me, and turned into one of the male
wards. I took occasion presently to look in, and saw my companion half
way down the hall, at the bed-side of a very feeble-looking patient of
perhaps seven or eight-and-twenty.

"There seemed a degree of familiarity between them, more than would
belong to patient and physician. I