meet again, great would have been the surprise of both. It was, however, so decreed.

For the right understanding of the emotion with which Doctor Quiès was overpowered for fully a quarter of an hour after the departure of Magloire, it is indispensable to know that being a great lover of the game of chess, which he rightly regarded rather as a science than an amusement, he had competed with the best players in Europe,

and was at the present time finishing one of the most interesting games he had ever played, by correspondence, with Mynheer Poggenbeck, of Haarlem.

The urgent matter now was to find the place from which the black queen had been dislodged by Magloire

The doctor scratched his head, hesitated, finally took up his pen and wrote,

"MY DEAR ADVERSARY,-An unlucky accident has dis

turbed one of the played D. 7 R.

this is the move."

pieces on my board. I think I have Let me know by return of post whether

He folded the letter, rang for Gertrude, and without giving a thought to the sale of the farm of La Cochariotte, he went gravely on with his description of the spearhead, which was to make it as clear as daylight that SaintPignon les Girouettes was a fortified town of the first class in the year of grace 450.

CHAPTER VI.

PROVING THAT IF TWENTY LITTLE RIVULETS MAKE

A BIG RIVER, A THOUSAND PIN-PRICKS ARE EQUAL TO A SWORD-THRUST.

WHILE the doctor, smiling and calm, was pursuing his labours, M. Anthime Bonamy, one of the wealthy citizens of Saint-Pignon, an influential elector, a member of the Geographical, Numismatical, and Archæological Society, and a correspondent of several other learned bodies, reentered his own house in a rage.

M. Anthime Bonamy was a tall, thin, solemn personage. Every day he was dressed in black, every day he wore a white necktie, spectacles on his nose, and an air of gravity; but on this particular day, although he was in a rage, he was graver than usual. His thin lips were so tightly closed that his mouth looked like a slit made with a penknife underneath his nose; and that long, sharp nose, reddened with anger, seemed to share in the general disturbance.

"It is infamous!" exclaimed Anthime, bursting like a rocket into the room where Mme. Bonamy, his wife (her maiden name was Legras), sat at her needlework.

"What is the matter now?'

"The matter is that I have been done out of La Cochariotte by a bid of one hundred francs. Do Do you hear that? One hundred francs! And again it is that fellow Quiès who has cut the ground from under my feet." "Pray be calm, Anthime."

"Be calm, indeed! Can't you understand that I shall

have no rest until the day comes when I shall be rid of this detested rival?"

"The rivalry is only accidental."

"He appears not to meddle with me, but I know what

he is capable of. I know the man from A to Z."

M. Bonamy stalked majestically into his study.

"I think he is very inoffensive."

"Madam," said M. Bonamy, drawing himself up, "never say that again in my presence."

Mme. Bonamy bent over her work, and M. Bonamy stalked majestically into his study.

Those few words exchanged between the husband and wife show that M. Bonamy cordially hated Doctor Quiès, who had not the least notion that he had an enemy in all Saint-Pignon les Girouettes, and was, if possible, still farther from suspecting how he could have given rise to such an animosity.

We shall be able to understand and explain it, if we do but take the trouble to remember that one drop of water has only to meet other drops of water on its way, to become a river or a torrent.

The large sum of M. Bonamy's enmity was composed of a thousand petty spites, which, though all puerile and insignificant in themselves, had been accumulating for a long time; for we must go back to the schooldays of both the hater and the hated if we would see the figures that head the first column of the account.

Anthime, plodding and eager, had been beaten by Baptistin always and in everything. Prize for composition, verses, history, mathematics; Baptistin; Accessit: Anthime.

If cuffs were exchanged, Anthime got the most of them. If the wrath of a master was aroused by some misdeed whose author was unknown, Anthime was charged with it. Baptistin was not even suspected.

Anthime finished his studies and left the school unperceived, absolutely ignored. At the same time nothing but Baptistin was talked about all over the town.

Shortly afterwards Anthime, who wished to marry, cast his eyes upon one of the best matches in Saint-Pignon, Mdlle. Duclos. His parents had selected Mdlle. Legras as a wife for him. The Legras family, on their side, preferred Baptistin. If Baptistin would marry Mdlle. Legras, then Anthime could marry Mdlle. Duclos. Unfortunately Baptistin positively refused, and out of spite Mdlle. Legras became Mme. Bonamy.

There are things which it is difficult to forget.

Before this unpleasant impression had had time to wear