THE TEEASUEE OS FEAKOHAED. 248

my husband ? Last night, you say, you found him !
He may be the worst of humbugs."

"I think not," replied the Doctor. "But do not
suppose me so unwaxy as to adopt him out of hand. I
am, I flatter myself, a finished man of the world ; I
have had all possibilities in view ; my plan is contrived
to meet them all. I take the lad as stable boy. If he
pilfer, if he grumble, if he desire to change, I shall see
I was mistaken ; I shaU recognize him for no son of
mine, and send him tramping."

"You will never do so when the time comes," said
his wife ; "I know your good heart."

She reached out her hand to him, with a sigh ; the
Doctor smiled as he took it and carried it to his lips ;
he had gained his point with greater ease than he had
dared to hope ; for perhaps the twentieth time he had
proved the efiBcacy of his trusty argument, his Excali-
bur, the hint of a return to Paris. Six months in the
capital, for a man of the Doctor's antecedents and re-
lations, implied no less a calamity than total ruin.
Anastasia had saved the remainder of his fortune by
keeping him strictly in the country. The very name
of Paris put her in a blue fear ; and she would have al-
lowed her husband to keep a menagerie in the back
garden, let alone adopting a stable-boy, rather than per-
mit the question of return to be discussed.
