keep himself wide awake. We talked to one another in whispers.

"Tell me all you know about mam'zelle," I said. He had been chary of his
knowledge before, but his heart seemed open at this moment. Most hearts
are more open at midnight than at any other hour.

"There's not much to tell, doctor," he answered. "Her name is Ollivier,
as I said to you; but she does not think she is any kin to the Olliviers
of Guernsey. She is poor, though she does not look as if she had been
born poor, does she?"

"Not in the least degree," I said. "If she is not a lady of birth, she
is one of the first specimens of Nature's gentlefolks I have ever come
across."

"Ah, there is a difference!" he said, sighing. "I feel it, doctor, in
every word I speak to her, and every step I walk with her eyes upon me.
Why cannot I be like her, or like you? You'll be on a level with her,
and I am down far below her."

I looked at him curiously. The slouching figure--well shaped as it
was--the rough, knotted hands, the unkempt mass of hair about his head
and face, marked him for what he was--a toiler on the sea as well as on
the land. He understood my scrutiny, and colored under it like a girl.

"You are a better fellow than I am, Tardif," I said; "but that has
nothing to do with our talk. I think we ought to communicate with the
young lady's friends, whoever they may be, as soon as there are any
means of communicating with the rest of the world. We should be in a fix
if any thing should happen to her. Have you no clew to her friends?"