tune with his golden meditations; with his head thrown back, he dreamed a

series of sunny visions, ale and pleasure dancing in his veins. At last

he spoke.

'I shall telegraph for Casimir,' he said. 'Good Casimir! a fellow of the

lower order of intelligence, Jean-Marie, distinctly not creative, not

poetic; and yet he will repay your study; his fortune is vast, and is

entirely due to his own exertions. He is the very fellow to help us to

dispose of our trinkets, find us a suitable house in Paris, and manage

the details of our installation. Admirable Casimir, one of my oldest

comrades! It was on his advice, I may add, that I invested my little

fortune in Turkish bonds; when we have added these spoils of the mediaeval

church to our stake in the Mahometan empire, little boy, we shall

positively roll among doubloons, positively roll! Beautiful forest,' he

cried, 'farewell! Though called to other scenes, I will not forget thee.

Thy name is graven in my heart. Under the influence of prosperity I

become dithyrambic, Jean-Marie. Such is the impulse of the natural soul;

such was the constitution of primaeval man. And I--well, I will not

refuse the credit--I have preserved my youth like a virginity; another,

who should have led the same snoozing, countryfied existence for these

years, another had become rusted, become stereotype; but I, I praise my

happy constitution, retain the spring unbroken. Fresh opulence and a new

sphere of duties find me unabated in ardour and only more mature by

knowledge. For this prospective change, Jean-Marie--it may probably have

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