fund of the Invalides de la Marine. The slight hypochondria which made
him invent his imaginary ills is easily explained by his actual
suffering during the emigration. He served in the Russian navy until
the day when the Emperor Alexander ordered him to be employed against
France; he then resigned and went to live at Odessa, near the Duc de
Richelieu, with whom he returned to France. It was the duke who
obtained for this glorious relic of the old Breton navy the pension
which enabled him to live. On the death of Louis XVIII. he returned to
Guerande, and became, after a while, mayor of the city.

The rector, the chevalier, and Mademoiselle de Pen-Hoel had regularly
passed their evenings for the last fifteen years at the hotel de
Guenic, where the other noble personages of the neighborhood also
came. It will be readily understood that the du Guenics were at the
head of the faubourg Saint-Germain of the old Breton province, where
no member of the new administration sent down by the government was
ever allowed to penetrate. For the last six years the rector coughed
when he came to the crucial words, /Domine, salvum fac regem/.
Politics were still at that point in Guerande.



IV

A NORMAL EVENING

/Mouche/ is a game played with five cards dealt to each player, and
one turned over. The turned-over card is trumps. At each round the
player is at liberty to run his chances or to abstain from playing his
card. If he abstains he loses nothing but his own stake, for as long