-way home, the last
gold flicker vanished from a great oak upon the left; and when they came
forth beyond the borders of the wood, the plain was already sunken in
pearly greyness, and a great, pale moon came swinging skyward through the
filmy poplars.

The Doctor sang, the Doctor whistled, the Doctor talked. He spoke of the
woods, and the wars, and the deposition of dew; he brightened and babbled
of Paris; he soared into cloudy bombast on the glories of the political
arena. All was to be changed; as the day departed, it took with it the
vestiges of an outworn existence, and to-morrow's sun was to inaugurate
the new. 'Enough,' he cried, 'of this life of maceration!' His wife
(still beautiful, or he was sadly partial) was to be no longer buried;
she should now shine before society. Jean-Marie would find the world at
his feet; the roads open to success, wealth, honour, and post-humous
renown. 'And O, by the way,' said he, 'for God's sake keep your tongue
quiet! You are, of course, a very silent fellow; it is a quality I
gladly recognise in you--silence, golden silence! But this is a matter
of gravity. No word must get abroad; none but the good Casimir is to be
trusted; we shall probably dispose of the vessels in England.'

'But are they not even ours?' the boy said, almost with a sob--it was the
only time he had spoken.

'Ours in this sense, that they are nobody else's,' replied the Doctor.
'But the State would have some claim. If they were stolen, for instance,
we should be unable to demand their restitution; we should have no title;
we should be unable even to communicate with the police. Such is the
monstrous condition of the law. {263} It is a mere instance of what
remains to be done, of the injustices that may yet be righted by an
ardent, active, and philosophical deputy.'

Jean-Marie put his faith in Madame Desprez; and as they drove forward
down the road from Bourron, between the rustling poplars, he prayed in
his teeth, and whipped up the horse to an unusual speed. Surely, as soon
as they arrived, madame would assert her character, and bring this waking
nightmare to an end.

Their entrance into Gretz was heralded and accompanied by a most furious
barking; all the dogs in the village seemed to smell the treasure in the
noddy. But there was no one in the street, save three lounging landscape
painters at Tentaillon's door. Jean-Marie opened the green gate and led
in the horse and carriage; and almo