go--those folk down there are rich enough to
keep him. The only drawback is that my old woman is so cross in the
morning, and she spends her life thinking of new traps. _Ah, ben!--Je
la laisse faire!_'

'And this place suits you?'

'Admirably--till the cold comes. Then I march. I must have the sun.'

He shivered again. Fenwick, struck by something in his tone, looked at
him more closely.

'How are you, by the way?' he asked, repentantly, 'I ought to have
inquired before. You mentioned consulting some big man here. What did
he say to you?'

'Oh, that I am phthisical, and must take care,' said Watson,
carelessly--'that's no news. Ah! by the way'--he hurried the change of
subject--'you know, of course, that Lord Findon and madame are to be
at Versailles?'

'They will be there to-night,' said Fenwick, after a moment.

'Ah! to-night. Then you meet them?'

'I shall see them, of course.'

'What a blessed thing to be rid of that fellow!--What's she been doing
since?'

Fenwick replied that since the death of her husband--about a year
before this date--Madame de Pastourelles, worn out with nursing, had
been pursuing health--in Egypt and elsewhere. Her father, stepmother,
and sister had been travelling with her. The sister and she were to
stay at Versailles till Christmas. It was a place for which Madame de
Pastourelles had an old affection.

'And I suppose you know that you will find the Welbys there too?'

Fenwick made a startled movement.

'The _Welbys_? How did you hear that?'

'I had my usual half-yearly letter from Cuningham yesterday. He's
the fellow for telling you the news. Welby has begun a big picture of
Marie Antoinette, at Trianon, and has taken a studio in Versailles for
the winter.'

Fenwick turned away and began to pace the bare floor of the studio.

'I didn't know,' he said, evidently discomposed.

'By the way, I have often meant to ask you. I trust he wasn't mixed
up in the "hanging" affair?' said Watson, with a quick look at his
companion.

'He was ill the day it was done, but in my opinion he behaved in an
extremely mean and ungenerous manner afterwards!' exclaimed Fenwick,
suddenly flushing from brow to chin.

'You mean he didn't support you?'

'He shilly-shallied. He thought--I have very good reason to
believe--that I had been badly treated--that there was personal
feeling in the matter--resentment of things that I had written--and so
on but he would never come out into the open a