being pursued--"

"Another word, Major," cried Don Luis, gayly, "and this time I really
will go out! I must say you have a nice way of sparing my modesty!"

"My dear Perenna," replied Comte d'Astrignac, "I always told you that you
had every good quality and only one fault, which was that you were not a
Frenchman."

"And I always answered, Major, that I was French on my mother's side and
a Frenchman in heart and temperament. There are things which only a
Frenchman can do."

The two men again gripped each other's hands affectionately.

"Come," said the Prefect, "we'll say no more of your feats of prowess,
Monsieur, nor of this report. I will mention one thing, however, which is
that, after two years, you fell into an ambush of forty Berbers, that you
were captured, and that you did not rejoin the Legion until last month."

"Just so, Monsieur le Préfet, in time to receive my discharge, as my five
years' service was up."

"But how did Mr. Cosmo Mornington come to mention you in his will, when,
at the time when he was making it, you had disappeared from view for
eighteen months?"

"Cosmo and I used to correspond."

"What!"