tten.

Pere Bonamy, the priest who confirmed him, was fonder of the boy
than of any one, boy or girl, that he had ever prepared for
communion, and could hardly speak of him with decent gravity, on
account of his extraordinary confessions--all of which were
concocted in the depths of Barty's imagination for the sole purpose
of making the kind old cure laugh; and the kind old cure was just as
fond of laughing as was Barty of playing the fool, in and out of
season. I wonder if he always thought himself bound to respect the
secrets of the confessional in Barty's case!

And Barty would sing to him--even in the confessional:

"Stabat mater dolorosa
Juxta crucem lachrymosa
Dum pendebat fllius" ...

in a voice so sweet and innocent and pathetic that it would almost
bring the tears to the good old cure's eyelash.

"Ah! ma chere Mamzelle Marceline!" he would say--"au moins s'ils
etaient tous comme ce petit Josselin! ca irait comme sur des
roulettes! Il est innocent comme un jeune veau, ce mioche anglais!
Il a le bon Dieu dans le coeur!"

"Et une boussole dans l'estomac!" said Mlle. Marceline.

I don't think he was quite so _innocent_ as all that, perhaps--but
no young beast of the field was ever more _harmless_.

That year the examinations were good all round; even _I_ did not
disgrace myself, and Barty was brilliant. But there were no
delightful holidays for me to record. Barty went to Yorkshire, and I
remained in Paris with my mother.

There is only one thing more worth mentioning that year.

My father had inherited from _his_ father a system of shorthand,
which he called _Blaze_--I don't know why! _His_ father had learnt
it of a Dutch Jew.

It is, I think, the best kind of cipher ever invented (I have taken
interest in these things and studied them). It is very difficult to
learn, but I learnt it as a child--and it was of immense use to me
at lectures we used to attend at the Sorbonne and College de France.

Barty was very anxious to know it, and after some trouble I obtained
my father's permission to impart this calligraphic crypt to Barty,
on condition he should swear on his honor never to reveal it: and
this he did.

With his extraordinary quickness and the perseverance he always had
when he wished a thing very much, he made himself a complete master
of this occult science before he left school, two or three years
later: it took _me_ seven years--beginning when I was four! It does
equally we