than a fortnight since taking a sea voyage to-morrow! Do you know that
under the most favorable circumstances it will be another five or six
weeks before the bone unites, and that even then the greatest care
will be necessary?"

His gaiety passed.

"Five more weeks here?"

"I fear so."

"But our agreement shall come into operation at once. You will visit
me daily? Rather, you will live here?"

"If it pleases you. I am sure I shall be charmed to live here."

"Let the time go quickly--let it fly! Ah, Mr. Foster, you will like
Bruges. It is the most dignified of cities. It has the picturesqueness
of Nuremburg, the waterways of Amsterdam, the squares of Turin, the
monuments of Perugia, the cafés of Florence, and the smells of
Cologne. I have an old house there of the seventeenth century; it is
on the Quai des Augustins."

"A family affair?" I questioned.

"No; I bought it only a few years ago from a friend. I fear I cannot
boast of much family. My mother made lace, my father was a
schoolmaster. They are both dead, and I have no relatives."

Somewhere in the building a clock struck three, and at that instant