by a nightcap
drawn up at the top and surmounted by a muslin frill. His appearance did
not contradict his complaint of illness; he was barely four feet six in
height, his limbs were bony, his face sharp, thin, and pale. Thus
attired, coughing incessantly, dragging his feet as if he had no strength
to lift them, holding a lighted candle in one hand and an egg in the
other, he suggested a caricature-some imaginary invalid just escaped from
M. Purgon. Nevertheless, no one ventured to smile, notwithstanding his
valetudinarian appearance and his air of affected humility. The
perpetual blinking of the yellow eyelids which fell over the round and
hollow eyes, shining with a sombre fire which he could never entirely
suppress, reminded one of a bird of prey unable to face the light, and
the lines of his face, the hooked nose, and the thin, constantly
quivering, drawn-in lips suggested a mixture of boldness and baseness, of
cunning and sincerity. But there is no book which can instruct one to
read the human countenance correctly; and some special circumstance must
have roused the suspicions of these four persons so much as to cause them
to make these observations, and they were not as usual deceived by the
humbug of this skilled actor, a past master in the art of deception.

He continued after a moment's silence, as if he did not wish to interrupt
their mute observation--

"Will you oblige me by a neighbourly kindness?"

"What is it, Derues?" asked Madame Legrand. A violent cough, which
appeared to rend his chest, prevented him from answering immediately.
When it ceased, he looked at the abbe, and said, with a melancholy
smile--

"What I ought to ask in my present state of health is your blessing, my
father, and your intercession for the pardon of my sins. But everyone
clings to the life which God has given him. We do not easily abandon
hope; moreover, I have always considered it wrong to neglect such means
of preserving our lives as are in our power, since life is for us only a
time of trial, and the longer and harder the trial the greater our
recompense in a better world. Whatever befalls us, our answer should be
that of the Virgin Mary to the angel who announced the mystery of the
Incarnation: 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to
Thy word.'"

"You are right," said the abbe, with a severe and inquisitorial look,
under which Derues remained quite untroubled; "it is an attribute of God
to re