e never found me averse to sacrifices," said
the Doctor very stiffly.

"And you will let me go and tell him that you have agreed? It will be
like your noble nature," she cried.

So it would, he perceived--it would be like his noble nature! Up jumped
his spirits, triumphant at the thought. "Go, darling," he said nobly,
"reassure him. The subject is buried; more--I make an effort, I have
accustomed my will to these exertions--and it is forgotten."

A little after, but still with swollen eyes and looking mortally
sheepish, Jean-Marie reappeared and went ostentatiously about his
business. He was the only unhappy member of the party that sat down that
night to supper. As for the Doctor, he was radiant. He then sang the
requiem of the treasure:--

"This has been, on the whole, a most amusing episode," he said. "We are
not a penny the worse--nay, we are immensely gainers. Our philosophy has
been exercised; some of the turtle is still left--the most wholesome of
delicacies; I have my staff, Anastasie has her new dress, Jean-Marie is
the proud possessor of a fashionable kepi. Besides, we had a glass of
Hermitage last night; the glow still suffuses my memory. I was growing
positively niggardly with that Hermitage, positively niggardly. Let me
take the hint: we had one bottle to celebrate the appearance of our
visionary fortune; let us have a second to console us for its
occultation. The third I hereby dedicate to Jean-Marie's wedding
breakfast."

CHAPTER VII

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF DESPREZ

The Doctor's house has not yet received the compliment of a description,
and it is now high time that the omission were supplied, for the house is
itself an actor in the story, and one whose part is nearly at an end. Two
stories in height, walls of a warm yellow, tiles of an ancient ruddy
brown diversified with moss and lichen, it stood with one wall to the
street in the angle of the Doctor's property. It was roomy, draughty, and
inconvenient. The large rafters were here and there engraven with rude
marks and patterns; the hand-rail of the stair was carved in countrified
arabesque; a stout timber pillar, which did duty to support the
dining-room roof, bore mysterious characters on its darker side, runes,
according to the Doctor; nor did he fail, when he ran over the legendary
history of the house and its possessors, to dwell upon the Scandinavian
scholar who had left them. Floors, doors, and rafters made a great
variety