perhaps I should be in better
humor now, and would not have wasted these two days in such a senseless
way."

Then he tried very hard to recall the figure of the poor child. But she
exercised no more power over him now than she had when she was present
in the body. At last sleep took compassion on his troubled soul.

The next morning he resigned himself with no little bitterness to his
fate, and betook himself to Jansen's workshop. He hoped that he should
be in better mood when once he had a piece of clay between his fingers.

He started back in positive alarm, therefore, when, while crossing one
of the large, deserted squares, he saw the very person whom he had
yesterday sought so diligently, coming out of a hotel door and
advancing straight upon him. The lieutenant wore his usual suit--a
close-buttoned green riding-jacket, high top-boots, and a gray hat,
with a little feather, slightly tipped toward the left ear. His dry,
yellow face, with its black imperial, had a most grim and defiant look,
but it was instantly lighted up by a polite smile when he caught sight
of his young friend of the "Paradise."

"I missed your visit day before yesterday, and have not been able to
return it yet because I have been in service again. An old acquaintance
has fallen upon me from the skies, a Baron N----" (he gave the name of
Irene's uncle). "I got acquainted with this jolly crony some years ago
in Algiers, when, just to get a smell of powder, I was fool enough to
take the field against _Messieurs les Arabes_, although they had never
done me the slightest harm in the world. The baron was trying at the
time to become a lion-hunter; but he afterward preferred to offer his
homage to the king of the desert from a respectful distance, and to
travel back to his peaceful home with a skin bought at a bazaar, and a
good store of burnooses and shawls. He was the sensible man of the two.
For my part, it was a long time before I could get rid of the ugly
remembrance that I had really done my hunting in earnest, and had
probably deprived several of those poor devils of the pleasure of
protecting their native soil against the French invaders. And now my
old tent-fellow comes upon me here like a ghost--though a very portly
and jolly one--and drags me about with him for days; in fact, I am
coming from his hotel at this very moment."

Felix involuntarily gave a glance toward the windows of the hotel. It
cost him a hard struggle to suppress all si