more was the melancholy, deserted aspect of the domain; the gravel
of the avenues carefully raked, with never a trace of footsteps; the
distant expanses quite deserted, save that now and then a solitary
gardener passed by; and the house looking lifeless, with all its windows
closed, excepting two, which were barely set ajar.

However, a valet who had decided to show himself began to question
them, and when he learnt that they wished to see 'monsieur,' he became
insolent, and replied that 'monsieur' was behind the house in the
gymnasium, and then went indoors again.

Sandoz and Claude followed a path which led them towards a lawn, and
what they saw there made them pause. Dubuche, who stood in front of a
trapeze, was raising his arms to support his son, Gaston, a poor sickly
boy who, at ten years of age, still had the slight, soft limbs of early
childhood; while the girl, Alice, sat in a perambulator awaiting her
turn. She was so imperfectly developed that, although she was six years
old, she could not yet walk. The father, absorbed in his task, continued
exercising the slim limbs of his little boy, swinging him backwards and
forwards, and vainly trying to make him raise himself up by his wrists.
Then, as this slight effort sufficed to bring on perspiration, he
removed the little fellow from the trapeze and rolled him in a rug. And
all this was done amid complete silence, alone under the far expanse of
sky, his face wearing a look of distressful pity as he knelt there in
that splendid park. However, as he rose up he perceived the two friends.

'What! it's you? On a Sunday, and without warning me!'

He had made a gesture of annoyance, and at once explained that the maid,
the only woman to whom he could trust the children, went to Paris on
Sundays, and that it was consequently impossible for him to leave Gaston
and Alice for a minute.

'I'll wager that you came to lunch?' he added.

As Claude gave Sandoz an imploring glance, the novelist made haste to
answer:

'No, no. As it happens, we only have time enough to shake hands with
you. Claude had to come down here on a business matter. He lived at
Bennecourt, as you know. And as I accompanied him, we took it into our
heads to walk as far as here. But there are people waiting for us, so
don't disturb yourself in the least.'

Thereupon, Dubuche, who felt relieved, made a show of detaining them.
They certainly had an hour to spare, dash it all! And they all three
began t