"You, M. Périères, are to be congratulated on the articles which have appeared in the _Revue de France_. Your ideas are good, your reflections often profound, and you put your thoughts into language both elegant and concise. In the field you would be admirably adapted for writing despatches, without, however, precluding you from taking your part in the campaign as a combatant. You would scarcely advance without an order, but once committed to the fray you would bear yourself as bravely as would M. de Morin. You are gazetted to an infantry regiment, and so I dispose of your case." The third aspirant, with whom alone Madame de Guéran had now to deal, was a man of about thirty, fair, of medium height, with a rather sad expression, and whose clothes, of a serious cut, made him look somewhat older than he really was. "My dear M. Desrioux," said the Baroness to him, "in my eyes you possess a rare merit, very rare, indeed, amongst men of your means; that of having adopted the medical profession, a profession which binds you down to a course of severe study, and condemns you to a continuous slavery. Accept my sincere congratulations, and if I do not, as I have done in the case of these other gentlemen, post you to any particular branch of the service, it is not that I doubt your courage, but that a military surgeon, a _rôle_ for which you are admirably adapted, cannot be considered as belonging to any special arm, or, I might almost say, to any nationality, for he hastens to the succour of all who call upon him, be they friends or foes, wheresoever they may be. You may, therefore, resume your own position, my dear doctor, and consider your case disposed of." Then turning once more to all three, she continued with all the charm of manner which was so natural to her— "You cannot accuse me of having been too hard upon you or ill-treated you in any way. Indeed, I have dwelt upon your merits alone, and any one hearing me might place you all in the calendar as minor saints. But I will be quite open with you. I have spoken well of you because I have nothing to say against you. It is not by accident that you meet here to-night in my house, or that, during the past six months you have been admitted by degrees to intimacy with me—it is solely because I so willed it. In view of certain projects, of which I am about to apprise you, I have chosen you out of all my acquaintances, and, as I believe, I have chosen well." Her hearers bowed in silence, and she resumed—