servant, and we reached Dantzic. There we got on board a Dutch vessel
and went to London. It took us two months to get there. My mother was
ill in England, and expecting me. Paz and I took care of her till her
death, which the Polish troubles hastened. Then we left London and
came to France. Men who go through such adversities become like
brothers. When I reached Paris, at twenty-two years of age, and found
I had an income of over sixty thousand francs a year, without counting
the proceeds of the diamonds and the pictures sold by my mother, I
wanted to secure the future of my dear Paz before I launched into
dissipation. I had often noticed the sadness in his eyes--sometimes
tears were in them. I had had good reason to understand his soul,
which is noble, grand, and generous to the core. I thought he might
not like to be bound by benefits to a friend who was six years younger
than himself, unless he could repay them. I was careless and
frivolous, just as a young fellow is, and I knew I was certain to ruin
myself at play, or get inveigled by some woman, and Paz and I might
then be parted; and though I had every intention of always looking out
for him, I knew I might sometime or other forget to provide for him.
In short, my dear angel, I wanted to spare him the pain and
mortification of having to ask me for money, or of having to hunt me
up if he got into distress. SO, one morning, after breakfast, when we
were sitting with our feet on the andirons smoking pipes, I produced,
--with the utmost precaution, for I saw him look at me uneasily,--a
certificate of the Funds payable to bearer for a certain sum of money
a year."

Clementine jumped up and went and seated herself on Adam's knee, put
her arms round his neck, and kissed him. "Dear treasure!" she said,
"how handsome he is! Well, what did Paz do?"