ked
Raoul's advice about every step he took.

The situation remained the same. The dark cloud remained threateningly
near, but grew no larger.

Gaston seemed to have forgotten that he had written to Beaucaire, and
never mentioned Valentine's name once.

Like all men accustomed to a busy life, Gaston was miserable except
when occupied, and spent his whole time in the foundery, which seemed to
absorb him entirely.

When he began the experiment of felling the woods, his losses had been
heavy; but he determined to continue the work until it should be equally
beneficial to himself and the neighboring land-owners.

He engaged the services of an intelligent engineer, and thanks to
untiring energy, and the new improvements in machinery, his profits soon
more than equalled his expenses.

"Now that we are doing so well," said Gaston joyously, "we shall
certainly make twenty-five thousand francs next year."

Next year! Alas, poor Gaston!

Five days after Raoul's departure, one Saturday afternoon, Gaston was
suddenly taken ill.

He had a sort of vertigo, and was so dizzy that he was forced to lie
down.

"I know what is the matter," he said. "I have often been ill in this way
at Rio. A couple of hours' sleep will cure me. I will go to bed, and you
can send someone to awaken me when dinner is ready, Louis; I shall be
all right by that time."

But, when the servant came to announce dinner, he found Gaston much
worse. He had a violent headache, a choking sensation in his throat, and
dimness of vision. But his worst symptom was dysphonia; he would try
to articulate one word, and find himself using another. His jaw-bones
became so stiff that it was with the greatest difficulty that he opened
his mouth.

Louis came up to his brother's room, and urged him to send for the
physician.

"No," said Gaston, "I won't have any doctor to make me ill with
all sorts of medicines; I know what is the matter with me, and my
indisposition will be cured by a simple remedy which I have always
used."

At the same time he ordered Manuel, his old Spanish servant, who had
lived with him for ten years, to prepare him some lemonade.

The next day Gaston appeared to be much better. He ate his breakfast,
and was about to take a walk, when the pains of the previous day
suddenly returned, in a more violent form.

Without consulting his brother, Louis sent to Oloron for Dr. C----,
whose wonderful cures at Eaux Bonnes had won him a wide reputati