eemed to
repent of her petulance; she stooped and kissed the thin face sunk in
the pillow's softness. Then, rising, "I am sorry," she continued stiffly
and decidedly. "But it is impossible!"

"Still--if a vacancy should occur?" he pleaded.

Her eyes met his defiantly. "We will inform you," she said.

"Thank you," he answered humbly. "Perhaps I am fatiguing your mother?"

"I think you are a little tired, dear," the girl said, stooping over
her. "A little fatigues you."

Madame's cheeks were flushed; her eyes shone brightly, even feverishly.
Claude saw this, and having pushed his plea and his suit as far as he
dared, he hastened to take his leave. His thoughts had been busy with
his chances all the time, his eyes with the woman's face; yet he bore
away with him a curiously vivid picture of the room, of the bow-pot
blooming in the farther dormer, of the brass skillet beside the green
boughs which filled the hearth, of the spinning wheel in the middle of
the floor, and the great Bible on the linen chest beside the bed, of the
sloping roof, and a queer triangular cupboard which filled one corner.

At the time, as he followed the girl downstairs, he thought of none of
these things. He only asked himself what mystery lay in the bosom of
this quiet house, and what he should say when he stood in the room below
at bay before her. Of one thing he was still sure--sure, ay and surer,
since he had seen her with her mother,

The sky might fall, fish fly, and sheep pursue
The tawny monarch of the Libyan strand!

but he lodged here. The mention of his adversary of last night, which
had not escaped his ear, had only hardened him in his resolution. The
room of Esau--or was it Louis' room--must be his! He must be Jacob the
Supplanter.

She did not speak as she preceded him down the stairs, and before they
emerged one after the other into the living-room, which was still
unoccupied, he had formed his plan. When she moved towards the outer
door to open it he refused to follow: he stood still. "Pardon me," he
said, "would you mind giving me the name of the young man who admitted
me?"

"I do not see----"

"I only want his name."

"Esau Tissot."

"And his room? Which was it?"

Grudgingly she pointed to the nearer of the two closets, that of which
the door stood open.

"That one?"

"Yes."

He stepped quickly into it, and surveyed it carefully. Then he laid his
cap on the low truckle-bed. "Very good," he said, rais