as if I had said something very uncalled for, and
then added:

"Don't joke, Gaston; such things are out of place at times. He has shown
me more devotion than many a relation would have done, and I expect to
have his convictions respected."

This rather upset me, but I answered, nevertheless: "Very well, uncle;
and what did you do after breakfast?"

"We played a game of bezique, and then he repeated his breviary while
I read a little book which he happened to have in his pocket, and which
was not by any means badly written."

"A religious book, uncle?"

"Yes, and no, or, rather--no. It is the history of their missions in
Central Africa, and is rather a book of travels and adventures. What
these men have done is very grand."

I began to feel that matters were going badly, so I got up. "Well,
good-by, uncle," I said, "I see you are going to give up Freemasonry for
religion; you are a renegade."

He was still rather confused, and stammered:

"Well, but religion is a sort of Freemasonry."

"When is your Jesuit coming back?" I asked.

"I don't--I don't know exactly; to-morrow, perhaps; but it is not
certain."

I went out, altogether overwhelmed.

My joke turned out very badly for me! My uncle became thoroughly
converted, and if that had been all I should not have cared so much.
Clerical or Freemason, to me it is all the same; six of one and half
a dozen of the other; but the worst of it is that he has just made his
will--yes, made his will--and he has disinherited me in favor of that
rascally Jesuit!

THE BARONESS

"Come with me," said my friend Boisrene, "you will see some very
interesting bric-a-brac and works of art there."

He conducted me to the first floor of an elegant house in one of the
big streets of Paris. We were welcomed by a very pleasing man, with
excellent manners, who led us from room to room, showing us rare things,
the price of which he mentioned carelessly. Large sums, ten, twenty,
thirty, fifty thousand francs, dropped from his lips with such grace and
ease that one could not doubt that this gentleman-merchant had millions
shut up in his safe.

I had known him by reputation for a long time Very bright, clever,
intelligent, he acted as intermediary in all sorts of transactions. He
kept in touch with all the richest art amateurs in Paris, and even of
Europe and America, knowing their tastes and preferences; he apprised
them by letter, or by wire if they lived in a distant city,