France, the Restoration--known as the Second--having been brought
about by the Allied Powers with a high hand after the Hundred Days
and the final downfall of Napoleon.

Frenchman may well have known that it might be worth his while to
return to France and seek fortune there; but he never spoke of this
knowledge nor made reference to the recollections of his childhood,
which cast a cold reserve over his soul and steeped it with such a
deadly hatred of France and all things French, that he desired to
sever all memories that might link him with his native country or
awake in the hearts of any children he should beget the desire to
return thither.

A year after his marriage his wife died, and thus her son, left to
the care of a lonely and misanthropic father, was brought up a
Frenchman after all, and lisped his first words in that tongue.

"He lived long enough to teach him to speak French and think like a
Frenchman, and then he died," said Captain Clubbe--"a young man
reckoning by years, but in mind he was an older man than I am to-
day."

"And his secret died with him?" suggested Dormer Colville, looking
at the end of his cigar with a queer smile. But Captain Clubbe made
no answer.

"One may suppose that he wanted it to die with him, at all events,"
added Colville, tentatively.

"You are right," was the reply, a local colloquialism in common use,