much amused--"But my jumping had nothing to do with you either, my
small friend! I had a thought,--a sudden thought,--of a duty
forgotten."

"Oh, it was a thought, was it?" and Henri looked incredulous. "Do
thoughts always make you jump?"

"Tais-toi! Tais-toi!" murmured Patoux gently, between two whiffs of
his pipe--"Excuse him, Monsieur Cazeau,--he is but a child."

Cazeau writhed amicably.

"A delightful child," he murmured--"And the little girl--his sister-
-is also charming--Ah, what fine dark eyes!--what hair! Will she not
come and speak to me?"

He held out a hand invitingly towards Babette, but she merely made a
grimace at him and retired backwards. Patoux smiled benevolently.

"She does not like strangers," he explained.

"Good--very good! That is right! Little girls should always run away
from strangers, especially strangers of my sex," observed Cazeau
with a sniggering laugh--"And do these dear children go to school?"

Patoux took his pipe out of his mouth altogether, and stared
solemnly at the ceiling.

"Without doubt!--they are compelled to go to school," he answered
slowly; "but if I could have had my way, they should never have