‘Precisely,’ returned the Doctor; ‘so do I. And, in the so transform the most excellent of men transcended his same way, I prefer my present moderate fortune to my belief. Paris, he protested, was even an agreeable place of former wealth. Golden mediocrity! cried the adorable an-residence. ‘Nor when I lived in that city did I feel much cients; and I subscribe to their enthusiasm. Have I not good difference,’ he pleaded.
wine, good food, good air, the fields and the forest for my
‘What!’ cried the Doctor. ‘Did you not steal when you walk, a house, an admirable wife, a boy whom I protest I were there?’
cherish like a son? Now, if I were still rich, I should indubi-But the boy could never be brought to see that he had tably make my residence in Paris – you know Paris – Paris done anything wrong when he stole. Nor, indeed, did the and Paradise are not convertible terms. This pleasant noise Doctor think he had; but that gentleman was never very of the wind streaming among leaves changed into the grind-scrupulous when in want of a retort.
ing Babel of the street, the stupid glare of plaster substi-
‘And now,’ he concluded, ‘do you begin to understand?
tuted for this quiet pattern of greens and greys, the nerves My only friends were those who ruined me. Gretz has been shattered, the digestion falsified – picture the fall! Already my academy, my sanatorium, my heaven of innocent plea-you perceive the consequences; the mind is stimulated, the sures. If millions are offered me, I wave them back: retro, heart steps to a different measure, and the man is himself sathanas! – Evil one, begone! Fix your mind on my ex-no longer. I have passionately studied myself – the true ample; despise riches, avoid the debasing influence of cit-business of philosophy. I know my character as the musi-ies. Hygiene – hygiene and mediocrity of fortune – these cian knows the ventages of his flute. Should I return to be your watchwords during life!’
Paris, I should ruin myself gambling; nay, I go further – I The Doctor’s system of hygiene strikingly coincided with should break the heart of my Anastasie with infidelities.’
his tastes; and his picture of the perfect life was a faithful 161
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description of the one he was leading at the time. But it is candy, throw it in the deepest of the river – I will homologate easy to convince a boy, whom you supply with all the facts your action. Save me from that part of myself which I dis-for the discussion. And besides, there was one thing admi-own. If you see me falter, do not hesitate; if necessary, rable in the philosophy, and that was the enthusiasm of the wreck the train! I speak, of course, by a parable. Any ex-philosopher. There was never any one more vigorously tremity were better than for me to reach Paris alive.’
determined to be pleased; and if he was not a great logi-Doubtless the Doctor enjoyed these little scenes, as a cian, and so had no right to convince the intellect, he was variation in his part; they represented the Byronic element certainly something of a poet, and had a fascination to se-in the somewhat artificial poetry of his existence; but to duce the heart. What he could not achieve in his custom-the boy, though he was dimly aware of their theatricality, ary humour of a radiant admiration of himself and his cir-they represented more. The Doctor made perhaps too little, cumstances, he sometimes effected in his fits of gloom.
the boy possibly too much, of the reality and gravity of
‘Boy,’ he would say, ‘avoid me to-day. If I were super-these temptations.
stitious, I should even beg for an interest in your prayers. I One day a great light shone for Jean-Marie. ‘Could not am in the black fit; the evil spirit of King Saul, the hag of riches be used well?’ he asked.
the merchant Abudah, the personal devil of the mediaeval
‘In theory, yes,’ replied the Doctor. ‘But it is found in monk, is with me – is in me,’ tapping on his breast. ‘The experience that no one does so. All the world imagine they vices of my nature are now uppermost; innocent pleasures will be exceptional when they grow wealthy; but posses-woo me in vain; I long for Paris, for my wallowing in the sion is debasing, new desires spring up; and the silly taste mire. See,’ he would continue, producing a handful of sil-for ostentation eats out the heart of pleasure.’
ver, ‘I denude myself, I am not to be trusted with the price
‘Then you might be better if you had less,’ said the boy.
of a fare. Take it, keep it for me, squander it on deleterious
‘Certainly not,’ replied the Doctor; but his voice qua-162
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vered as he spoke.
father to you, and yet take too much to drink; but the best
‘Why?’ demanded pitiless innocence.
natures are ever slow to accept such truths.
Doctor Desprez saw all the colours of the rainbow in a The Doctor thoroughly possessed his heart, but perhaps moment; the stable universe appeared to be about capsiz-he exaggerated his influence over his mind. Certainly Jean-ing with him. ‘Because,’ said he – affecting deliberation Marie adopted some of his master’s opinions, but I have after an obvious pause – ‘because I have formed my life yet to learn that he ever surrendered one of his own. Con-for my present income. It is not good for men of my years victions existed in him by divine right; they were virgin, to be violently dissevered from their habits.’
unwrought, the brute metal of decision. He could add oth-That was a sharp brush. The Doctor breathed hard, and ers indeed, but he could not put away; neither did he care if fell into taciturnity for the afternoon. As for the boy, he they were perfectly agreed among themselves; and his spiri-was delighted with the resolution of his doubts; even won-tual pleasures had nothing to do with turning them over or dered that he had not foreseen the obvious and conclusive justifying them in words. Words were with him a mere ac-answer. His faith in the Doctor was a stout piece of goods.
complishment, like dancing. When he was by himself, his Desprez was inclined to be a sheet in the wind’s eye after pleasures were almost vegetable. He would slip into the dinner, especially after Rhone wine, his favourite weak-woods towards Acheres, and sit in the mouth of a cave ness. He would then remark on the warmth of his feeling among grey birches. His soul stared straight out of his eyes; for Anastasie, and with inflamed cheeks and a loose, flushe did not move or think; sunlight, thin shadows moving in tered smile, debate upon all sorts of topics, and be feebly the wind, the edge of firs against the sky, occupied and and indiscreetly witty. But the adopted stable-boy would bound his faculties. He was pure unity, a spirit wholly ab-not permit himself to entertain a doubt that savoured of stracted. A single mood filled him, to which all the objects ingratitude. It is quite true that a man may be a second of sense contributed, as the colours of the spectrum merge 163
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and disappear in white light.
CHAPTER V: TREASURE TROVE
So while the Doctor made himself drunk with words, the adopted stable-boy bemused himself with silence.
THE DOCTOR’S CARRIAGE was a two-wheeled gig with a hood; a kind of vehicle in much favour among country doctors.
On how many roads has one not seen it, a great way off between the poplars! – in how many village streets, tied to a gate-post! This sort of chariot is affected – particularly at the trot – by a kind of pitching movement to and fro across the axle, which well entitles it to the style of a Noddy.
The hood describes a considerable arc against the landscape, with a solemnly absurd effect on the contemplative pedestrian. To ride in such a carriage cannot be numbered among the things that appertain to glory; but I have no doubt it may be useful in liver complaint. Thence, perhaps, its wide popularity among physicians.
One morning early, Jean-Marie led forth the Doctor’s noddy, opened the gate, and mounted to the driving-seat.
The Doctor followed, arrayed from top to toe in spotless linen, armed with an immense flesh-coloured umbrella, and girt with a botanical case on a baldric; and the equipage drove off smartly in a breeze of its own provocation. They 164
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were bound for Franchard, to collect plants, with an eye to how he was expected to pass his days in prayer. A letter is the ‘Comparative Pharmacopoeia.’
preserved, addressed to one of these solitaries by the supe-A little rattling on the open roads, and they came to the rior of his order, full of admirable hygienic advice; bidding borders of the forest and struck into an unfrequented track; him go from his book to praying, and so back again, for the noddy yawed softly over the sand, with an accompani-variety’s sake, and when he was weary of both to stroll ment of snapping twigs. There was a great, green, softly about his garden and observe the honey bees. It is to this murmuring cloud of congregated foliage overhead. In the day my own system. You must often have remarked me arcades of the forest the air retained the freshness of the leaving the “Pharmacopoeia” – often even in the middle of night. The athletic bearing of the trees, each carrying its a phrase – to come forth into the sun and air. I admire the leafy mountain, pleased the mind like so many statues; and writer of that letter from my heart; he was a man of thought the lines of the trunk led the eye admiringly upward to on the most important subjects. But, indeed, had I lived in where the extreme leaves sparkled in a patch of azure.
the Middle Ages (I am heartily glad that I did not) I should Squirrels leaped in mid air. It was a proper spot for a devo-have been an eremite myself – if I had not been a professed tee of the goddess Hygieia.
buffoon, that is. These were the only philosophical lives
‘Have you been to Franchard, Jean-Marie?’ inquired the yet open: laughter or prayer; sneers, we might say, and Doctor. ‘I fancy not.’
tears. Until the sun of the Positive arose, the wise man had
‘Never,’ replied the boy.
to make his choice between these two.’
‘It is ruin in a gorge,’ continued Desprez, adopting his
‘I have been a buffoon, of course,’ observed Jean-Marie.
expository voice; ‘the ruin of a hermitage and chapel. His-
‘I cannot imagine you to have excelled in your profes-tory tells us much of Franchard; how the recluse was often sion,’ said the Doctor, admiring the boy’s gravity. ‘Do you slain by robbers; how he lived on a most insufficient diet; ever laugh?’
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‘Oh, yes,’ replied the other. ‘I laugh often. I am very tation, if there was anything like a cutting wind, one or fond of jokes.’
other had a pneumonia for his trouble.’
‘Singular being!’ said Desprez. ‘But I divagate (I per-
‘I should like to have seen them turning into dust,’ said ceive in a thousand ways that I grow old). Franchard was Jean-Marie. ‘Otherwise, I should not have cared so greatly.’
at length destroyed in the English wars, the same that lev-
‘You have no imagination,’ cried the Doctor. ‘Picture to elled Gretz. But – here is the point – the hermits (for there yourself the scene. Dwell on the idea – a great treasure were already more than one) had foreseen the danger and lying in the earth for centuries: the material for a giddy, carefully concealed the sacrificial vessels. These vessels copious, opulent existence not employed; dresses and ex-were of monstrous value, Jean-Marie – monstrous value –
quisite pictures unseen; the swiftest galloping horses not priceless, we may say; exquisitely worked, of exquisite ma-stirring a hoof, arrested by a spell; women with the beauti-terial. And now, mark me, they have never been found. In ful faculty of smiles, not smiling; cards, dice, opera sing-the reign of Louis Quatorze some fellows were digging ing, orchestras, castles, beautiful parks and gardens, big hard by the ruins. Suddenly – tock! – the spade hit upon an ships with a tower of sailcloth, all lying unborn in a coffin obstacle. Imagine the men fooling one to another; imagine
– and the stupid trees growing overhead in the sunlight, how their hearts bounded, how their colour came and went.
year after year. The thought drives one frantic.’
It was a coffer, and in Franchard the place of buried trea-
‘It is only money,’ replied Jean-Marie. ‘It would do harm.’
sure! They tore it open like famished beasts. Alas! it was
‘O, come!’ cried Desprez, ‘that is philosophy; it is all not the treasure; only some priestly robes, which, at the very fine, but not to the point just now. And besides, it is touch of the eating air, fell upon themselves and instantly not “only money,” as you call it; there are works of art in wasted into dust. The perspiration of these good fellows the question; the vessels were carved. You speak like a turned cold upon them, Jean-Marie. I will pledge my repu-child. You weary me exceedingly, quoting my words out 166
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of all logical connection, like a parroquet.’
valley, it was plainly the Doctor who had given utterance
‘And at any rate, we have nothing to do with it,’ re-to the sound. He looked right and left, and there was turned the boy submissively.
Desprez, standing in a niche between two boulders, and They struck the Route Ronde at that moment; and the looking round on his adopted son with a countenance as sudden change to the rattling causeway combined, with white as paper.
the Doctor’s irritation, to keep him silent. The noddy jigged
‘A viper!’ cried Jean-Marie, running towards him. ‘A along; the trees went by, looking on silently, as if they had viper! You are bitten!’
something on their minds. The Quadrilateral was passed; The Doctor came down heavily out of the cleft, and, ad-then came Franchard. They put up the horse at the little vanced in silence to meet the boy, whom he took roughly solitary inn, and went forth strolling. The gorge was dyed by the shoulder.
deeply with heather; the rocks and birches standing lumi-
‘I have found it,’ he said, with a gasp.
nous in the sun. A great humming of bees about the flow-
‘A plant?’ asked Jean-Marie.
ers disposed Jean-Marie to sleep, and he sat down against Desprez had a fit of unnatural gaiety, which the rocks a clump of heather, while the Doctor went briskly to and took up and mimicked. ‘A plant!’ he repeated scornfully.
fro, with quick turns, culling his simples.
‘Well – yes – a plant. And here,’ he added suddenly, show-The boy’s head had fallen a little forward, his eyes were ing his right hand, which he had hitherto concealed behind closed, his fingers had fallen lax about his knees, when a his back – ‘here is one of the bulbs.’
sudden cry called him to his feet. It was a strange sound, Jean-Marie saw a dirty platter, coated with earth.
thin and brief; it fell dead, and silence returned as though it
‘That?’ said he. ‘It is a plate!’
had never been interrupted. He had not recognised the
‘It is a coach and horses,’ cried the Doctor. ‘Boy,’ he Doctor’s voice; but, as there was no one else in all the continued, growing warmer, ‘I plucked away a great pad 167
Robert Louis Stevenson
of moss from between these boulders, and disclosed a crev-But when he looked back at the Doctor, who had fol-ice; and when I looked in, what do you suppose I saw? I lowed close behind and was silently observing, the words saw a house in Paris with a court and garden, I saw my died from his lips. Desprez was once more the colour of wife shining with diamonds, I saw myself a deputy, I saw ashes; his lip worked and trembled; a sort of bestial greed you – well, I – I saw your future,’ he concluded, rather possessed him.
feebly. ‘I have just discovered America,’ he added.
‘This is childish,’ he said. ‘We lose precious time. Back
‘But what is it?’ asked the boy.
to the inn, harness the trap, and bring it to yon bank. Run
‘The Treasure of Franchard,’ cried the Doctor; and, for your life, and remember – not one whisper. I stay here throwing his brown straw hat upon the ground, he whooped to watch.’
like an Indian and sprang upon Jean-Marie, whom he suf-Jean-Marie did as he was bid, though not without sur-focated with embraces and bedewed with tears. Then he prise. The noddy was brought round to the spot indicated; flung himself down among the heather and once more and the two gradually transported the treasure from its place laughed until the valley rang.
of concealment to the boot below the driving seat. Once it But the boy had now an interest of his own, a boy’s inwas all stored the Doctor recovered his gaiety.
terest. No sooner was he released from the Doctor’s acco-
‘I pay my grateful duties to the genius of this dell,’ he said.
lade than he ran to the boulders, sprang into the niche, and,
‘O, for a live coal, a heifer, and a jar of country wine! I am in thrusting his hand into the crevice, drew forth one after the vein for sacrifice, for a superb libation. Well, and why another, encrusted with the earth of ages, the flagons, not? We are at Franchard. English pale ale is to be had – not candlesticks, and patens of the hermitage of Franchard. A classical, indeed, but excellent. Boy, we shall drink ale.’
casket came last, tightly shut and very heavy.
‘But I thought it was so unwholesome,’ said Jean-Marie,
‘O what fun!’ he cried.
‘and very dear besides.’
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‘Fiddle-de-dee!’ exclaimed the Doctor gaily. ‘To the inn!’
the glass but not tasting it, while the Doctor emptied and And he stepped into the noddy, tossing his head, with an refilled his own, at first with clouded brow, but gradually elastic, youthful air. The horse was turned, and in a few yielding to the sun, the heady, prickling beverage, and his seconds they drew up beside the palings of the inn garden.
own predisposition to be happy.
‘Here,’ said Desprez – ‘here, near the table, so that we
‘Once in a way,’ he said at last, by way of a concession may keep an eye upon things.’
to the boy’s more rigorous attitude, ‘once in a way, and at They tied the horse, and entered the garden, the Doctor so critical a moment, this ale is a nectar for the gods. The singing, now in fantastic high notes, now producing deep habit, indeed, is debasing; wine, the juice of the grape, is reverberations from his chest. He took a seat, rapped loudly the true drink of the Frenchman, as I have often had occa-on the table, assailed the waiter with witticisms; and when sion to point out; and I do not know that I can blame you the bottle of Bass was at length produced, far more charged for refusing this outlandish stimulant. You can have some with gas than the most delirious champagne, he filled out a wine and cakes. Is the bottle empty? Well, we will not be long glassful of froth and pushed it over to Jean-Marie.
proud; we will have pity on your glass.’
‘Drink,’ he said; ‘drink deep.’
The beer being done, the Doctor chafed bitterly while
‘I would rather not,’ faltered the boy, true to his training.
Jean-Marie finished his cakes. ‘I burn to be gone,’ he said,
‘What?’ thundered Desprez.
looking at his watch. ‘Good God, how slow you eat!’ And
‘I am afraid of it,’ said Jean-Marie: ‘my stomach – ‘
yet to eat slowly was his own particular prescription, the
‘Take it or leave it,’ interrupted Desprez fiercely; ‘but main secret of longevity!
understand it once for all – there is nothing so contempt-His martyrdom, however, reached an end at last; the pair ible as a precisian.’
resumed their places in the buggy, and Desprez, leaning Here was a new lesson! The boy sat bemused, looking at luxuriously back, announced his intention of proceeding 169
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to Fontainebleau.
‘farewell! Though called to other scenes, I will not forget
‘To Fontainebleau?’ repeated Jean-Marie.
thee. Thy name is graven in my heart. Under the influence
‘My words are always measured,’ said the Doctor. ‘On!’
of prosperity I become dithyrambic, Jean-Marie. Such is The Doctor was driven through the glades of paradise; the impulse of the natural soul; such was the constitution the air, the light, the shining leaves, the very movements of of primaeval man. And I – well, I will not refuse the credit the vehicle, seemed to fall in tune with his golden medita-
– I have preserved my youth like a virginity; another, who tions; with his head thrown back, he dreamed a series of should have led the same snoozing, countryfied existence sunny visions, ale and pleasure dancing in his veins. At last for these years, another had become rusted, become ste-he spoke.
reotype; but I, I praise my happy constitution, retain the
‘I shall telegraph for Casimir,’ he said. ‘Good Casimir! a spring unbroken. Fresh opulence and a new sphere of du-fellow of the lower order of intelligence, Jean-Marie, disties find me unabated in ardour and only more mature by tinctly not creative, not poetic; and yet he will repay your knowledge. For this prospective change, Jean-Marie – it study; his fortune is vast, and is entirely due to his own may probably have shocked you. Tell me now, did it not exertions. He is the very fellow to help us to dispose of our strike you as an inconsistency? Confess – it is useless to trinkets, find us a suitable house in Paris, and manage the dissemble – it pained you?’
details of our installation. Admirable Casimir, one of my
‘Yes,’ said the boy.
oldest comrades! It was on his advice, I may add, that I
‘You see,’ returned the Doctor, with sublime fatuity, ‘I invested my little fortune in Turkish bonds; when we have read your thoughts! Nor am I surprised – your education added these spoils of the mediaeval church to our stake in is not yet complete; the higher duties of men have not been the Mahometan empire, little boy, we shall positively roll yet presented to you fully. A hint – till we have leisure –
among doubloons, positively roll! Beautiful forest,’ he cried, must suffice. Now that I am once more in possession of a 170
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modest competence; now that I have so long prepared fruits, real turtle, a magnificent piece of silk for his wife, a myself in silent meditation, it becomes my superior duty to preposterous cane for himself, and a kepi of the newest proceed to Paris. My scientific training, my undoubted com-fashion for the boy; in and out of the telegraph office, mand of language, mark me out for the service of my coun-whence he despatched his telegram, and where three hours try. Modesty in such a case would be a snare. If sin were a later he received an answer promising a visit on the mor-philosophical expression, I should call it sinful. A man must row; and generally pervaded Fontainebleau with the first not deny his manifest abilities, for that is to evade his obli-fine aroma of his divine good humour.
gations. I must be up and doing; I must be no skulker in The sun was very low when they set forth again; the shad-life’s battle.’
ows of the forest trees extended across the broad white So he rattled on, copiously greasing the joint of his in-road that led them home; the penetrating odour of the consistency with words; while the boy listened silently, his evening wood had already arisen, like a cloud of incense, eyes fixed on the horse, his mind seething. It was all lost from that broad field of tree-tops; and even in the streets eloquence; no array of words could unsettle a belief of of the town, where the air had been baked all day between Jean-Marie’s; and he drove into Fontainebleau filled with white walls, it came in whiffs and pulses, like a distant music.
pity, horror, indignation, and despair.
Half-way home, the last gold flicker vanished from a great In the town Jean-Marie was kept a fixture on the driv-oak upon the left; and when they came forth beyond the ing-seat, to guard the treasure; while the Doctor, with a borders of the wood, the plain was already sunken in pearly singular, slightly tipsy airiness of manner, fluttered in and greyness, and a great, pale moon came swinging skyward out of cafes, where he shook hands with garrison officers, through the filmy poplars.
and mixed an absinthe with the nicety of old experience; in The Doctor sang, the Doctor whistled, the Doctor talked.
and out of shops, from which he returned laden with costly He spoke of the woods, and the wars, and the deposition 171
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of dew; he brightened and babbled of Paris; he soared into unable even to communicate with the police. Such is the cloudy bombast on the glories of the political arena. All monstrous condition of the law.* It is a mere instance of was to be changed; as the day departed, it took with it the what remains to be done, of the injustices that may yet be vestiges of an outworn existence, and to-morrow’s sun was righted by an ardent, active, and philosophical deputy.’
to inaugurate the new. ‘Enough,’ he cried, ‘of this life of Jean-Marie put his faith in Madame Desprez; and as they maceration!’ His wife (still beautiful, or he was sadly par-drove forward down the road from Bourron, between the tial) was to be no longer buried; she should now shine be-rustling poplars, he prayed in his teeth, and whipped up fore society. Jean-Marie would find the world at his feet; the horse to an unusual speed. Surely, as soon as they arthe roads open to success, wealth, honour, and post-humous rived, madame would assert her character, and bring this renown. ‘And O, by the way,’ said he, ‘for God’s sake waking nightmare to an end.
keep your tongue quiet! You are, of course, a very silent Their entrance into Gretz was heralded and accompa-fellow; it is a quality I gladly recognise in you – silence, nied by a most furious barking; all the dogs in the village golden silence! But this is a matter of gravity. No word seemed to smell the treasure in the noddy. But there was must get abroad; none but the good Casimir is to be trusted; no one in the street, save three lounging landscape paint-we shall probably dispose of the vessels in England.’
ers at Tentaillon’s door. Jean-Marie opened the green gate
‘But are they not even ours?’ the boy said, almost with a and led in the horse and carriage; and almost at the same sob – it was the only time he had spoken.
moment Madame Desprez came to the kitchen threshold
‘Ours in this sense, that they are nobody else’s,’ replied with a lighted lantern; for the moon was not yet high enough the Doctor. ‘But the State would have some claim. If they to clear the garden walls.
were stolen, for instance, we should be unable to demand
‘Close the gates, Jean-Marie!’ cried the Doctor, some-their restitution; we should have no title; we should be
*Let it be so, for my tale!
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what unsteadily alighting. ‘Anastasie, where is Aline?’
‘But, my husband; you put me in a whirl,’ she cried. ‘I do
‘She has gone to Montereau to see her parents,’ said not comprehend.’
madame.
‘The turtle, my adored, the turtle!’ cried the doctor; and
‘All is for the best!’ exclaimed the Doctor fervently. ‘Here, he pushed her towards the kitchen, lantern and all.
quick, come near to me; I do not wish to speak too loud,’
Jean-Marie stood dumfounded. He had pictured to him-he continued. ‘Darling, we are wealthy!’
self a different scene – a more immediate protest, and his
‘Wealthy!’ repeated the wife.
hope began to dwindle on the spot.
‘I have found the treasure of Franchard,’ replied her hus-The Doctor was everywhere, a little doubtful on his legs, band. ‘See, here are the first fruits; a pineapple, a dress for perhaps, and now and then taking the wall with his shoul-my ever-beautiful – it will suit her – trust a husband’s, trust der; for it was long since he had tasted absinthe, and he a lover’s, taste! Embrace me, darling! This grimy episode was even then reflecting that the absinthe had been a misis over; the butterfly unfolds i