"Why, that was a charming dream of yours," she said; "and one must
have real genius to dream such a dream."

"Then I am a real genius when I am asleep," I responded.

"When you dream," she replied; "and you are always dreaming."

I know that Madame de Gabry, in making this remark, only wished to
please me; but that intention alone deserves my utmost gratitude;
and it is therefore in a spirit of thankfulness and kindliest
remembrance that I write down her words, which I will read over and
over again until my dying day, and which will never be read by any
one save myself.

I passed the next few days in completing the inventory of the
manuscripts in the Lusance library. Certain confidential observations
dropped by Monsieur Paul de Gabry, however, caused me some painful
surprise, and made me decide to pursue the work after a different
manner from that in which I had begun it. From those few words I
learned that the fortune of Monsieur Honore de Gabry, which had been
badly managed for many years, and subsequently swept away to a large
extent through the failure of a banker whose name I do not know,
had been transmitted to the heirs of the old French nobleman only
under the form of mortgaged real estate and irrecoverable assets.

Monsieur Paul, by agreement with his joint heirs, had decided to sell
the library, and I was intrusted with the task of making arrangements
to have the sale effected upon advantageous terms. But totally
ignorant as I was of all the business methods and trade-customs, I