s. By a curious chance,
Paz and I happened to come together again, at the same hour and the same
place, on the other side of the Vistula. I saw the poor captain arrested
by some Prussians, who made themselves the blood-hounds of the Russians.
When we have fished a man out of the Styx we cling to him. This new
danger for poor Paz made me so unhappy that I let myself be taken too,
thinking I could help him. Two men can get away where one will
perish. Thanks to my name and some family connections in Prussia, the
authorities shut their eyes to my escape. I got my dear captain through
as a man of no consequence, a family servant, and we reached Dantzic.
There we got on board a Dutch vessel and went to London. It took us two
months to get there. My mother was ill in England, and expecting me.
Paz and I took care of her till her death, which the Polish troubles
hastened. Then we left London and came to France. Men who go through
such adversities become like brothers. When I reached Paris, at
twenty-two years of age, and found I had an income of over sixty
thousand francs a year, without counting the proceeds of the diamonds
and the pictures sold by my mother, I wanted to secure the future of
my dear Paz before I launched into dissipation. I had often noticed the
sadness in his eyes--sometimes tears were in them. I had had good reason
to understand his soul, which is noble, grand, and generous to the core.
I thought he might not like to be bound by benefits to a friend who
was six years younger than himself, unless he could repay them. I was
careless and frivolous, just as a young fellow is, and I knew I was
certain to ruin myself at play, or get inveigled by some woman, and Paz
and I might then be parted; and though I had every intention of always
looking out for him, I knew I might sometime or other forget to provide
for him. In short, my dear angel, I wanted to spare him the pain and
mortification of having to ask me for money, or of having to hunt me up
if he got into distress. SO, one morning, after breakfast, when we were
sitting with our feet on the andirons smoking pipes, I produced,--with
the utmost precaution, for I saw him look at me uneasily,--a certificate
of the Funds payable to bearer for a certain sum of money a year."

Clementine jumped up and went and seated herself on Adam's knee, put
her arms round his neck, and kissed him. "Dear treasure!" she said, "how
handsome he is! Well, what did Paz do?"

"Thaddeus t