is faults by this resolution."

After dinner Savinien presented himself, and found the doctor walking
with Ursula by the balustrade of the terrace overlooking the river.
The viscount had received his clothes from Paris, and had not missed
heightening his natural advantages by a careful toilet, as elegant as
though he were striving to please the proud and beautiful Comtesse de
Kergarouet. Seeing him approach her from the portico, the poor girl
clung to her uncle's arm as though she were saving herself from a fall
over a precipice, and the doctor heard the beating of her heart, which
made him shudder.

"Leave us, my child," he said to the girl, who went to the pagoda and
sat upon the steps, after allowing Savinien to take her hand and kiss it
respectfully.

"Monsieur, will you give this dear hand to a naval captain?" he said to
the doctor in a low voice.

"No," said Minoret, smiling; "we might have to wait too long, but--I
will give her to a lieutenant."

Tears of joy filled the young man's eyes as he pressed the doctor's hand
affectionately.

"I am about to leave," he said, "to study hard and try to learn in six
months what the pupils of the Naval School take six years to acquire."

"You are going?" said Ursula, springing towards them from the pavilion.

"Yes, mademoiselle, to deserve you. Therefore the more eager I am to go,
the more I prove to you my affection."

"This is the 3rd of October," she said, looking at him with infinite
tenderness; "do not go till after the 19th."

"Yes," said the old man, "we will celebrate Saint-Savinien's day."

"Good-by, then," cried the young man. "I must spend this week in Paris,
to take the preliminary steps, buy books and mathematical instruments,
and try to conciliate the minister and get the best terms that I can for
myself."

Ursula and her godfather accompanied Savinien to the gate. Soon after
he entered his mother's house they saw him come out again, followed by
Tiennette carrying his valise.

"If you are rich," said Ursula to her uncle, "why do you make him serve
in the navy?"

"Presently it will be I who incurred his debts," said the doctor,
smiling. "I don't oblige him to do anything; but the uniform, my dear,
and the cross of the Legion of honor, won in battle, will wipe out many
stains. Before six years are over he may be in command of a ship, and
that's all I ask of him."

"But he may be killed," she said, turning a pale face upon the doctor.

"Lovers,