give you
the keys. Go with them to show the way; make fires there, if necessary,
and take up all their things. I have orders from Monsieur le comte,"
he added, addressing the two young men, "to invite you to my table,
messieurs; we dine at five, as in Paris. If you like hunting, you will
find plenty to amuse you; I have a license from the Eaux et Forets;
and we hunt over twelve thousand acres of forest, not counting our own
domain."

Oscar, the painter, and Mistigris, all more or less subdued, exchanged
glances, but Mistigris, faithful to himself, remarked in a low tone,
"'Veni, vidi, cecidi,--I came, I saw, I slaughtered.'"

Oscar followed the steward, who led him along at a rapid pace through
the park.

"Jacques," said Moreau to one of his children whom they met, "run in and
tell your mother that little Husson has come, and say to her that I am
obliged to go to Les Moulineaux for a moment."

The steward, then about fifty years old, was a dark man of medium
height, and seemed stern. His bilious complexion, to which country
habits had added a certain violent coloring, conveyed, at first sight,
the impression of a nature which was other than his own. His blue
eyes and a large crow-beaked nose gave him an air that was the more
threatening because his eyes were placed too close together. But his
large lips, the outline of his face, and the easy good-humor of his
manner soon showed that his nature was a kindly one. Abrupt in speech
and decided in tone, he impressed Oscar immensely by the force of his
penetration, inspired, no doubt, by the affection which he felt for the
boy. Trained by his mother to magnify the steward, Oscar had always felt
himself very small in Moreau's presence; but on reaching Presles a new
sensation came over him, as if he expected some harm from this fatherly
figure, his only protector.

"Well, my Oscar, you don't look pleased at getting here," said the
steward. "And yet you'll find plenty of amusement; you shall learn to
ride on horseback, and shoot, and hunt."

"I don't know any of those things," said Oscar, stupidly.

"But I brought you here to learn them."

"Mamma told me only to stay two weeks because of Madame Moreau."

"Oh! we'll see about that," replied Moreau, rather wounded that his
conjugal authority was doubted.

Moreau's youngest son, an active, strapping lad of twelve, here ran up.

"Come," said his father, "take Oscar to your mother."

He himself went rapidly along the s