llow me, and not
wishing to quit me, he had come on foot, and so quickly that he was
bathed in perspiration. Nevertheless, the moment he saw us he sprang
up full of life from the bench on which he had thrown himself under the
bower of vine-branches, and came to meet us.

"Patience!" he cried, in a dramatic style which would have made me smile
had it been possible for me to display a glimmer of mirth at such a
moment. "Old fool! . . . Slanderer at your age? . . . Fie, sir! . . .
Ruined by good fortune . . . you are . . . yes."

Patience, impassive as ever, shrugged his shoulders and said to his
friend:

"Marcasse, you do not know what you are saying. Go and rest awhile at
the bottom of the orchard. This matter does not concern you. I want to
speak to your master alone. I wish you to go," he added, taking him by
the arm; and there was a touch of authority in his manner to which the
sergeant, in spite of his ticklish prided, yielded from instinct and
habit.

As soon as we were alone Patience proceeded to the point; he began by a
series of questions to which I resolved to submit, so that I might the
more quickly obtain some light on the state of affairs around me.

"Will you kindly inform me, monsieur," he said, "what you purpose doing
now?"

"I purpose remaining with my family," I answered, "as long as I have
a family; and when this family is no more, what I shall do concerns no
one."

"But, sir," replied Patience, "if you were told that you could not
remain under the same roof with them without causing the death of one or
the other, would you persist in staying?"

"If I were convinced that this was so," I rejoined, "I would not appear
in their presence. I would remain at their door and await the last
day of their life, or the first day of their renewed health, and again
implore a love I have not yet ceased to deserve."

"Ah, we have come to this!" said Patience, with a smile of contempt. "I
should not have believed it. However, I am very glad; it makes matters
clearer."

"What do you mean?" I cried. "Speak, you wretch! Explain yourself!"

"You are the only wretch here," he answered coldly, at the same time
sitting down on the one stool in the cottage, while I remained standing
before him.

I wanted to draw an explanation from him, at all costs. I restrained my
feelings; I even humbled myself so far as to say that I should be ready
to accept advice, if he would consent to tell me the words that Edmee
had u