out a candle. When her mother died, some months before Leon's
departure, she did not wish to have any one share with her the sad
satisfaction of watching and praying in the death chamber.

"This will teach us," said the aunt, "what staying up after ten o'clock
does. What! it is midnight, within a quarter of an hour! Come, my child;
you will recover fast enough after you get to bed."

Clementine arose submissively; but at the moment of leaving the
laboratory she retraced her steps, and with a caprice more inexplicable
than her grief, she absolutely demanded to see the mummy of the colonel
again. Her aunt scolded in vain; in spite of the remarks of Mlle.
Sambucco and all the others present, she reopened the walnut box, knelt
down beside the mummy, and kissed it on the forehead.

"Poor man!" said she, rising. "How cold he is! Monsieur Leon, promise me
that if he is dead you will have him laid in consecrated ground!"

"As you please, mademoiselle. I intended to send him to the
anthropological museum, with my father's permission; but you know that
we can refuse you nothing."

Selections from 'The Man with the Broken Ear' used by permission of
Henry Holt and Company.

THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY

From 'The Man with the Broken Ear': by permission of Henry Holt, the
Translator.

Forthwith the colonel marched and opened the windows with a
precipitation which upset the gazers among the crowd.

"People," said he, "I have knocked down a hundred beggarly pandours, who
respect neither sex nor infirmity. For the benefit of those who are not
satisfied, I will state that I call myself Colonel Fougas of the
Twenty-third. And _Vive l'Empereur!_"

A confused mixture of plaudits, cries, laughs, and jeers answered this
unprecedented allocution. Leon Renault hastened out to make apologies to
all to whom they were due. He invited a few friends to dine the same
evening with the terrible colonel, and of course he did not forget to
send a special messenger to Clementine. Fougas, after speaking to the
people, returned to his hosts, swinging himself along with a swaggering
air, set himself astride a chair, took hold of the ends of his mustache,
and said:--

"Well! Come, let's talk this over. I've been sick, then?"

"Very sick."

"That's incredible! I feel entirely well; I'm hungry; and moreover,
while waiting for dinner I'll try a glass of your schnick."

Mme. Renault went out, gave an order, and returned in an instant.

"B