t, who is so
much talked about just now."

"I might have suspected it. The whole audience was looking at him. The
actresses played at him all the time. Do you know him? What sort of a
man is he?"

"I know him. That is, I am treating him. Thanks, my dear duke, that's
all. Everything is all right there. When he arrived in Paris a month
ago, the change of climate disturbed him a little. He sent for me, and
since then has taken a great fancy to me. All that I know of him is
that he has a colossal fortune, made in Tunis, in the Bey's service,
that he has a loyal heart, a generous mind in which ideas of
humanity--"

"At Tunis?" the duke interposed, being naturally far from sentimental
and humanitarian. "Then, why the name of Nabob?"

"Bah! Parisians don't look so deep as that. In their eyes every rich
stranger is a nabob, no matter where he comes from. This one, however,
has just the physique for the part, coppery complexion, eyes like coals
of fire, and in addition a gigantic fortune, of which he makes, I have
no hesitation in saying, a most noble and most intelligent use. I owe
it to him"--here the doctor assumed an air of modesty--"I owe it to him
that I have succeeded at last in inaugurating the Work of Bethlehem for
nursing infants, which a morning newspaper that I was looking over just
now--the _Messager_, I think,--calls 'the great philanthropic idea of
the century.'"

The duke glanced in an absent-minded way at the sheet the doctor handed
him. He was not the man to be taken in by paid puffs.

"This Monsieur Jansoulet must be very wealthy," he said coldly. "He is
a partner in Cardailhac's theatre. Monpavon persuades him to pay his
debts, Bois-l'Hery stocks his stable for him and old Schwalbach
furnishes a picture gallery. All that costs money."

Jenkins began to laugh.

"What can you expect, my dear duke; you are an object of great interest
to the poor Nabob. Coming to Paris with a firm purpose to become a
Parisian, a man of the world, he has taken you for his model in
everything, and I do not conceal from you that he would be very glad to
study his model at closer quarters."

"I know, I know, Monpavon has already asked leave to bring him here.
But I prefer to wait and see. One must be on one's guard with these
great fortunes that come from such a distance. _Mon Dieu_, I don't
say, you know, that if I should meet him elsewhere than in my own
house, at the theatre, or in somebody's salon--"

"It happens th