s,
and neither poor Ursula nor Savinien nor Bongrand nor the abbe were
willing to enlighten him as to his condition. The Nemours doctor who
came to see him every day did not venture to prescribe. Old Minoret felt
no pain; his lamp of life was gently going it. His mind continued firm
and clear and powerful. In old men thus constituted the soul governs
the body, and gives it strength to die erect. The abbe, anxious not to
hasten the fatal end, released his parishioner from the duty of hearing
mass in church, and allowed him to read the services at home, for the
doctor faithfully attended to all his religious duties. The nearer he
came to the grave the more he loved God; the lights eternal shone upon
all difficulties and explained them more and more clearly to his mind.
Early in the year Ursula persuaded him to sell the carriage and horses
and dismiss Cabirolle. Monsieur Bongrand, whose uneasiness about
Ursula's future was far from quieted by the doctor's half-confidence,
boldly opened the subject one evening and showed his old friend the
importance of making Ursula legally of age. Still the old man, though
he had often consulted the justice of peace, would not reveal to him the
secret of his provision for Ursula, though he agreed to the necessity
of securing her independence by majority. The more Monsieur Bongrand
persisted in his efforts to discover the means selected by his old
friend to provide for his darling the more wary the doctor became.

"Why not secure the thing," said Bongrand, "why run any risks?"

"When you are between two risks," replied the doctor, "avoid the most
risky."

Bongrand carried through the business of making Ursula of age so
promptly that the papers were ready by the day she was twenty. That
anniversary was the last pleasure of the old doctor who, seized perhaps
with a presentiment of his end, gave a little ball, to which he invited
all the young people in the families of Dionis, Cremiere, Minoret, and
Massin. Savinien, Bongrand, the abbe and his two assistant priests,
the Nemours doctor, and Mesdames Zelie Minoret, Massin, and Cremiere,
together with old Schmucke, were the guests at a grand dinner which
preceded the ball.

"I feel I am going," said the old man to the notary towards the close
of the evening. "I beg you to come to-morrow and draw up my guardianship
account with Ursula, so as not to complicate my property after my
death. Thank God! I have not withdrawn one penny from my heirs,