cost of admission thereunto by no means dear; and with all his grousing
(in respect of which he was conscientious, holding it at once a duty
and a perquisite of his disability) he was at heart in no haste
whatever to be discharged as whole and hale. The plain truth is, the
man malingered shamelessly and even took a certain pride in the low
cunning which enabled him to pose on as the impatient patient when he
was so very well content to take his ease, be waited on and catered to,
and listen for the footsteps of Eve de Montalais and the accents of her
delightful voice.

These last he heard not often enough by half. Still, he seldom lacked
company in the long hours when Eve was busy with the petty duties of
her days, and left him lorn. Madame de Sévénié had taken a flattering
fancy to him, and frequently came to gossip beside his bed or chair. He
found her tremendously entertaining, endowed as she was with an
excellent and well-stored memory, a gift of caustic characterization
and a pretty taste in the scandal of her bygone day and generation, as
well as with a mind still active and better informed on the affairs of
to-day than that of many a Parisienne of the haute monde and half her
age.

During the first bedridden week, Georges d'Aubrac visited Duchemin at
least once each day to compare wounds and opinions concerning the
inefficiency of the local gendarmerie. For that body accomplished
nothing toward laying by the heels the authors of the attacks on
d'Aubrac and Duchemin, but (for all Duchemin can say to the contrary)
is still following "clues" with the fruitless diligence of so many
American police detectives on the trail of a bank messenger accused of
stealing bonds.