arly fifteen
years ago?"

"Is it perhaps intentionally, my father, that you recall the date of my
marriage? I readily admit that the love of one's neighbour may enlighten
you as to another love to which you have yourself been a stranger. I
daresay it seems odd to you that a man of my age should be anxious about
so little, as though he were a love-sick youth; but for some time past I
have had presentiments of evil, and I am really becoming superstitious!"

He again stood still, gazing up the river, and, seeing nothing, resumed
his place between the two priests, who had continued their walk.

"Yes," he continued, "I have presentiments which refuse to be shaken
off. I am not so old that age can have weakened my powers and reduced me
to childishness, I cannot even say what I am afraid of, but separation
is painful and causes an involuntary terror. Strange, is it not?
Formerly, I used to leave my wife for months together, when she was
young and my son only, an infant; I loved her passionately, yet I could
go with pleasure. Why, I wonder, is it so different now? Why should
a journey to Paris on business, and a few hours' delay, make, me so
terribly uneasy? Do you remember, my father," he resumed, after a pause,
turning to the cure, "do you remember how lovely Marie looked on our
wedding-day? Do you remember her dazzling complexion and the innocent
candour of her expression?--the sure token of the most truthful and
purest of minds! That is why I love her so much now; we do not now sigh
for one another, but the second love is stronger than the first, for
it is founded on recollection, and is tranquil and confident in
friendship.... It is strange that they have not returned; something
must have happened! If they do not return this evening, and I do not now
think it possible, I shall go to Paris myself to-morrow."

"I think;" said the other priest, "that at twenty you must indeed have
been excitable, a veritable tinder-box, to have retained so much energy!
Come, monsieur, try to calm yourself and have patience: you yourself
admit it can only be a few hours' delay."

"But my son accompanied his mother, and he is our only one, and so
delicate! He alone remains of our three children, and you do not realise
how the affection of parents who feel age approaching is concentrated on
an only child! If I lost Edouard I should die!"

"I suppose, then, as you let him go, his presence at Paris was
necessary?"

"No; his mother went to