harming face, is it not? She has been finely educated at a fashionable
convent. In a word, a pearl, that you shall wear. And now I must tell you
the flaw, for there is one. Who is blameless? The daughter of one of our
leading actresses, after leaving the convent she returned to live with
her mother. It was there, in this environment-ahem! ahem!--that an
accident happened to her. To be brief, she has a sweet little child that
the father would have recognized assuredly, had he not been already
married. But at least he has provided for its future by an endowment of
two hundred thousand francs, in such a way that whoever marries the
mother and legitimizes the child will enjoy the interest of this sum
until the child's majority. If that ever arrives--these little creatures
are so fragile! You being a physician, you know more about that than any
one. In case of an accident the father will inherit half the money from
his son; and if it seems cruel for an own father to inherit from his own
son, it is quite a different thing when it is a stranger who receives the
fortune. This is all, my dear sir, plainly and frankly, and I will not do
you the injury to suppose that you do not see the advantages of what I
have said to you without need of my insisting further. If I have not
explained clearly,"

"But nothing is more clear."

"--it is the fault of this pain that paralyzes me."

And he groaned while holding his jaw.

"You have a troublesome tooth?" Saniel said, with the tone of a physician
who questions a patient.

"All my teeth trouble me. To tell the truth, they are all going to
pieces."

"Have you consulted a doctor?"

"Neither a doctor nor a dentist. I have faith in medicine, of course; but
when I consult doctors, which seldom happens, I notice that they think
much more of their own affairs than of what I am saying, and that keeps
me away from them. But, my dear sir, when a client consults me, I put
myself in his place."

While he spoke, Saniel examined him, which he had not done until this
moment, and he saw the characteristic signs of rapid consumption. His
clothes hung on him as if made for a man twice his size, and his face was
red and shining, as if he were covered with a coating of cherry jelly.

"Will you show me your teeth?" he asked. "It may be possible to relieve
your sufferings."

"Do you think so?"

The examination did not last long.

"Your mouth is often dry, is it not?" he asked.

"Yes."

"You ar