graciously at him, for Dr. Gendron was well-known in those parts;
he was even celebrated, despite the nearness of Paris. Loving his
art and exercising it with a passionate energy, he yet owed his
renown less to his science than his manners. People said: "He is
an original;" they admired his affectation of independence, of
scepticism, and rudeness. He made his visits from five to nine in
the morning--all the worse for those for whom these hours were
inconvenient. After nine o'clock the doctor was not to be had.
The doctor was working for himself, the doctor was in his
laboratory, the doctor was inspecting his cellar. It was rumored
that he sought for secrets of practical chemistry, to augment still
more his twenty thousand livres of income. And he did not deny it;
for in truth he was engaged on poisons, and was perfecting an
invention by which could be discovered traces of all the alkaloids
which up to that time had escaped analysis. If his friends
reproached him, even jokingly, on sending away sick people in the
afternoon, he grew red with rage.

"Parbleu!" he answered, "I find you superb! I am a doctor four
hours in the day. I am paid by hardly a quarter of my patients
--that's three hours I give daily to humanity, which I despise.
Let each of you do as much, and we shall see."

The mayor conducted the new-comers into the drawing-room, where he
installed himself to write down the results of his examination.

"What a misfortune for my town, this crime!" said he to M. Domini.
"What shame! Orcival has lost its reputation."

"I know nothing of the affair," returned the judge. "The gendarme