stle, could not keep still, tortured by the
invincible desire to give vent to his delight. The two brothers, in
two armchairs that matched, one on each side of the center-table,
stared in front of them, in similar attitudes full of dissimilar
expression.

At last the tea appeared. The lawyer took a cup, sugared it, and drank
it, after having crumbled into it a little cake which was too hard to
crunch. Then he rose, shook hands, and departed.

"Then it is understood," repeated Roland. "To-morrow, at your place,
at two?"

"Quite so. To-morrow, at two."

Jean had not spoken a word.

When their guest had gone, silence fell again till father Roland
clapped his two hands on his younger son's shoulders, crying:

"Well, you devilish lucky dog! You don't embrace me!"

Then Jean smiled. He embraced his father, saying:

"It had not struck me as indispensable."

The old man was beside himself with glee. He walked about the room,
strummed on the furniture with his clumsy nails, turned about on his
heels, and kept saying:

"What luck! what luck! Now, that is really what I call luck!"

Pierre asked:

"Then you used to know this Marechal well?"

And his father replied:

"I believe you! Why, he used to spend every evening at our house.
Surely you remember he used to fetch you from school on half-holidays,
and often took you back again after dinner. Why, the very day when
Jean was born it was he who went for the doctor. He had been
breakfasting with us when your mother was taken ill. Of course we knew
at once what it meant, and he set off post-haste. In his hurry he took
my hat instead of his own. I remember that because we had a good laugh
over it afterward. It is very likely that he may have thought of that
when he was dying, and as he had no heir he may have said to himself:
'I remember helping to bring that youngster into the world, so I will
leave him my savings.'"

Mme. Roland, sunk in a deep chair, seemed lost in reminiscences once
more. She murmured, as though she were thinking aloud:

"Ah, he was a good friend, very devoted, very faithful, a rare soul in
these days."

Jean got up.

"I shall go out for a little walk," he said.

His father was surprised and tried to keep him; they had much to talk
about, plans to be made, decisions to be formed. But the young man
insisted, declaring that he had an engagement. Besides, there would be
time for settling everything before he came into possession of his
inher