tic patients were in town. The easterly winds were bringing in
their usual harvest of bronchitis and diphtheria. If I went, Jack's
hands would be more than full. Had these things come to perplex us only
two months earlier, I could have taken a holiday with a clear
conscience.

"Dad will jump at the chance of coming back for a week," replied Jack;
"he is bored to death down at Fulham. Go you must, for my sake, old
fellow. You are good for nothing as long as you're so down in the mouth.
I shall be glad to be rid of you."

We shook hands upon that, as warmly as if he had paid me the most
flattering compliments.

CHAPTER THE FORTY-SECOND.

NOIREAU

In this way it came to pass that two evenings later I was crossing the
Channel to Havre, and found myself about five o'clock in the afternoon
of the next day at Falaise. It was the terminus of the railway in that
direction; and a very ancient conveyance, bearing the name of La Petite
Vitesse, was in waiting to carry on any travellers who were venturesome
enough to explore the regions beyond. There was space inside for six
passengers, but it smelt too musty, and was too full of the fumes of bad
tobacco, for me; and I very much preferred sitting beside the driver, a
red-faced, smooth-cheeked Norman, habited in a blue blouse, who could
crack his long whip with almost the skill of a Parisian omnibus-driver.
We were friends in a trice, for my _patois_ was almost identical with
his own, and he could not believe his own ears that he was talking with
an Englishman.

"La Petite Vitesse" bore out its name admirably, if it were meant to
indicate exceeding slowness. We never advanced beyond a slow trot, and
at the slightest hint of rising ground the trot slackened into a walk,
and eventually subsided into a crawl. By these means the distance we
traversed was made to seem tremendous, and the drowsy jingle of the
collar-bells, intimating that progress was being accomplished, added to
the delusion. But the fresh, sweet air, blowing over leagues of fields
and meadows, untainted with a breath of smoke, gave me a delicious
tingling in the veins. I had not felt such a glow of exhilaration since
that bright morning when I bad crossed the channel to Sark, to ask
Olivia to become mine.

The sun sank below the distant horizon, with the trees showing clearly
against it, for the atmosphere was as transparent as crystal; and the
light of the stars that came out one by one almost cast a de