francs quarterly. Here is the amount for the first quarter, and
in three months' time I shall send you a similar amount. I say
'shall SEND,' because my business compels me to return to England,
and take up my abode there. Here is my London address; and if any
serious trouble befalls you, write to me. Now, my duty being
fulfilled, farewell."

"Go to the devil, you old preacher!" growled Wilkie, as he saw the
door close on the retreating figure of M. Patterson, who had acted
as his guardian for ten years. None of M. Patterson's wise advice
lingered in the young fellow's mind. To use a familiar
expression, "It went in through one ear and came out through the
other." Only two facts had made an impression upon him: that he
was to be his own master henceforth, and that he had a fortune at
his command. There it lay upon the table, five thousand francs in
glittering gold.

If M. Wilkie had taken the trouble to attentively examine the
rooms which had suddenly become his own, he would perhaps have
recognized the fact that a loving hand had prepared them for his
reception. Countless details revealed the delicate taste of a
woman, and the thoughtful tenderness of a mother. None of those
little superfluities which delight a young man had been forgotten.
There was a box of choice cigars upon the table, and a jar of
tobacco on the mantel-shelf. But Wilkie did not take time to
discover this. He hastily slipped five hundred francs into his
pocket, locked the rest of his money in a drawer, and went out
with as lofty an air as if all Paris belonged to him, or as if he
had enough money to purchase it.