24 



THE AD VENTURES OF 



and lay down humbly at my feet. Lucien, who was afraid 

 I should behave harshly to his favorite, hid his face in his 

 hands. I was vanquished. 



" Come along, then, and let us take Gringalet !" I said. 



So I caressed the dog, which, clearly seeing that he had 

 gained his cause, bounded along the road in the most ex- 

 travagant leaps, clearly indicative of his emotions of pleas- 

 ure. In spite of all his efforts to keep them back, tears es- 

 caped from 'Lucien's eyes, and I had to turn my head away 

 to avoid having to recall the promise he made to refrain 

 from crying. But, nevertheless, although I wished him to 

 learn how to bear stoically any physical suffering, I had no 

 desire to quench in him the evidences of a feeling heart — 

 that potent source of our sweetest pleasure and our bitter- 

 est sorrow. 



The gates of the town were still closed. On arriving in 

 front of the guard-house, I rapped at the window to awake 

 the old man, the guardian of the keys of the town. 



" "Won't he open the gate for us ? Shall we be obliged 

 to go home again ? Can't we start to-day, M. Sumichrast ?" 

 eagerly asked Lucien. 



"Keep quiet," replied Sumichrast; "the porter is an old 

 man, and we are disturbing him earlier than we ought, which 

 always puts him a little out of temper. However active we 

 may be, it is a good thing to know ' how to wait.'" 



At last the door-keeper made his appearance, the chains 

 dropped one by one, the heavy gate turned on its hinges, 

 and Lucien was the first to spring out into the open road. 

 The sky was starless, the morning dew chilled our blood, 

 and we felt that uncomfortable feeling which, in the tropics, 

 affects the traveller just at the period when night gives 

 place to day. I led Lucien by the hand, lest, in the dim 

 light, he might fall. He shivered with cold, but was unwill- 

 ing to complain ; I stepped on quickly in order that he 



