Chapter V.

"An ill-favored thing, sir, but mine own."
-- _As You Like It._

It was near mid-day, and the advocate was en-
gaged in his office, when the notary with whom
Narcisse had been placed, suddenly entering, angrily
demanded:

"Where is Narcisse, where is your son, sir? Here
I am wanting his assistance, now, and he is missing,
he is gone, no one knows where, nor where he has
stowed those papers. Where is he, sir; where is
the boy, I say; where is your son?"

The advocate looked up at this sudden disturb-
ance, and, drawing a deep sigh, exclaimed with bit-
ter emphasis:

"I would he were nowhere; that he were erased
from the book of being; I would he were in heaven,
-- or else -- in your office, Monsieur Veuillot. Is that
a bad wish for either?"

"But he is not in my office," said Veuillot.

"Nor in heaven neither, I fear," rejoined the
advocate.

"Where is he, then?" demanded the excited no-
tary: "where is your son?"

"Such a son!" murmured the advocate, shrugging
his shoulders. "Do you wish to be pleasant with me,
Monsieur Veuillot? my evil genius call him. Son!

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v?