Volume III Part 20 (1/2)

”'Yes,' the old man replied with a smile; and then he added in his harsh, tre I am only sixty, and I feel as if I should have lusty, hot blood in me until I am seventy'

”And then suddenly, very ly, as he had done once before, he said to the portrait:

”'I say, marchioness, what a pity that you did not know this handso fellow!'

”I remembered that apostrophe and that look very well, when I went to bed about an hour later, nearly drunk, in the large rooold, to which I was shown by a tall, broad-shouldered footht_, yes! But that i to sleep, which was just what I could not do The Chaars had certainly ether On the contrary, I was excited, , my blood was heated, and I was in a half-sleep in which I felt that I was verywas in a vibration and expansion, just as if I had been s while I ake; but I saw the door open and the marchioness come in, who had stepped down, out of her fraown Her high head-dress was replaced by a simple knot of ribbon, which confined her powdered hair into a snized her quite plainly, by the tre It was her face with its piercing eyes, its pointed nose and its s to me as she appeared in her portrait Bah! Perhaps that was ht! But I had not even tieness of the sight, nor to discuss the host?'

”No, I had no time, and that is the fact, for the candle was suddenly blown out and theme in her arms, and one fixed idea, the only one that I had, haunted ood limbs, and was she still frisky at seventy?'

And I did not care host or not; I only thought of one thing: 'Has she really good limbs?'”

”By Jove, yes! She did not speak Oh, marchioness! marchioness! And suddenly in spite of myself and to convince myself that it was not a ood heavens! I a,' two lips replied, trying to press theainst ars and brandy! The voice was that of the little old round, and ju:

”'Beast! beast!'

”Then I heard the door sla on the stairs as he ran away; so I dressed hastily in the dark and went downstairs, still shouting

”In the hall belohere I could see through the upper s that the daas breaking, I el in his hand He was bawling also, in Breton, and pointed to the open door, outside where e who did not speak French? Should I face his cudgel? There was no reason for doing so; and besides, I was even un and , which were in the hall, and went off without turning round

”Disgusted with sport in that part of the country, I returned to Brest the same day, and there, ti about the little old man

”'Oh, I know!' so of the manor-house at Hervenidozse, where the old countess lives, who dresses like a h of relief, and much to the astonishment of my informant, I replied:

”'Oh! so much the better!'”

JEROBOAM

Anyone who said, or even insinuated, that the Reverend William Greenfield, Vicar of St Sampson's, Tottenham, did not make his wife Anna perfectly happy, would certainly have been very malicious In their twelve years of married life, he had honored her with twelve children, and could anybody decently ask anything more of a saintly man?

Saintly to heroism in truth! For his wife Anna, as endoith invaluable virtues, whichmothers, had not been equally endowed physically, for, in one word, she was hideous Her hair, which was coarse though it was thin, was the color of the national _half-and-half_, but of thick _half-and-half_ which looked as if it had been already sed several times, and her complexion, which was muddy and pimply, looked as if it were covered with sandand protruding, seemed as if they were about to start out of their sockets in order to escape from that mouth with scarcely any lips, whose sulphurous breath had turned the frouely, one very ht and the other very htened squint; no doubt in order that they ht not see her nose, of which they felt asha, pendant, sallow, and ending in a violet knob, it irresistibly re which cannot be h the inconceivable irony of nature, was at the sa either the elegance of sliht have been taken for a body which had forrown thin, while the covering had re on the fra but skin and bones, but then she had too many bones and too little skin

It will be seen that the reverend gentleman had done his duty, his whole duty,a dozen times on this altar

Yes, a dozen times bravely and loyally! A dozen times, and his wife could not deny it nor dispute the number, because the children were there to prove it A dozen times, and not one less!

And alas! not once more; and that was the reason why, in spite of appearances, Mrs Anna Greenfield ventured to think, in the depths of her heart, that the Reverend William Greenfield, Vicar of St Sampson's, Tottenhaht so all the ed to renounce all hope of that annual sacrifice, which was so easy and so fugitive formerly, but which had now fallen into disuse In fact, at the birth of the twelfth child, the reverend gentlereatly blessed our union, my dear Anna We have reached the sacred number of the twelve tribes of Israel, andto persevere in the works of the flesh, it would be mere debauchery, and I cannot suppose that you would wish me to end my exemplary life in lustful practices”