a deaf ear to reason, and closed his eyes
once more. What between opening and shutting them for the next quarter
of an hour, he at length induced Monsieur Ramin to offer him seven
thousand francs.

"Very well, Ramin, agreed," he quietly said; "you have made an
unconscionable bargain." To this succeeded a violent fit of coughing.

As Ramin unlocked the door to leave, he found old Marguerite, who had
been listening all the time, ready to assail him with a torrent of
whispered abuse for duping her "poor dear innocent old master into
such a bargain." The mercer bore it all very patiently: he could make
all allowances for her excited feelings, and only rubbed his hands and
bade her a jovial good evening.

The agreement was signed on the following day, to the indignation of
old Marguerite, and the mutual satisfaction of the parties concerned.

Every one admired the luck and shrewdness of Ramin, for the old man
every day was reported worse; and it was clear to all that the first
quarter of the annuity would never be paid. Marguerite, in her wrath,
told the story as a grievance to every one; people listened, shook
their heads, and pronounced Monsieur Ramin to be a deuced clever
fellow.

A month elapsed. As Ramin was coming down one morning from the attics,
where he had been giving notice to a poor widow who had failed in
paying her rent, he heard a light step on the stairs. Presently a
sprightly gentleman, in buoyant health and spirits, wearing the form
of Monsieur Bonelle, appeared. Ramin stood aghast.

"Well, Ramin," gaily said the old man, "how are you getting on? Have
you been tormenting the poor widow up stairs? Why, man, we must live
and let live!"

"Monsieur Bonelle," said the mercer, in a hollow tone; "may I ask
where are your rheumatics?"

"Gone, my dear friend,--gone."

"And the gout that was creeping higher and higher every day,"
exclaimed Monsieur Ramin, in a voice of anguish.

"It went lower and lower, till it disappeared altogether," composedly
replied Bonelle.

"And your asthma--"

"The asthma remains, but asthmatic people are proverbially long-lived.
It is, I have been told, the only complaint that Methusalah was
troubled with." With this Bonelle opened his door, shut it, and
disappeared.

Ramin was transfixed on the stairs; petrified with intense
disappointment, and a powerful sense of having been duped. When he
was discovered, he stared vacantly, and raved about an Excellent
Opportunity of t