It was half a league distant. Coming and going he had time to make
friends with Aubertin, and this was the easier that the old gentleman,
who was a physiognomist as well as ologist, had seen goodness and
sensibility in Edouard's face. At the end of the walk he begged the
doctor to accept the chrysalis. The doctor coquetted. "That would be a
robbery. You take an interest in these things yourself--at least I hope
so."

The young rogue confessed modestly to the sentiment of entomology, but
"the government worked him so hard as to leave him no hopes of shining
in so high a science," said he sorrowfully.

The doctor pitied him. "A young man of your attainments and tastes to
be debarred from the everlasting secrets of nature, by the fleeting
politics of the day."

Riviere shrugged his shoulders. "Somebody must do the dirty work," said
he, chuckling inwardly.

The chrysalis went to Beaurepaire in the pocket of a grateful man,
who that same evening told the whole party his conversation with
young Riviere, on whom he pronounced high encomiums. Rose's saucy eyes
sparkled with fun: you might have lighted a candle at one and exploded a
mine at the other; but not a syllable did she utter.

The doctor proved a key, and opened the enchanted castle. One fine
day he presented his friend in the Pleasaunce to the baroness and her
daughters.