Months passed on. The little house was enveloped in the melancholy mists of autumn; then winter snows whitened the roof, followed by the fierce winds of March; and finally a new spring, with its lilacs and violets, gladdened the hearts of the inmates of the cottage. Nothing was changed there. D’Argenton, perhaps, had two or three new symptoms, dignified by Doctor Hirsch with singular names. Charlotte was as totally without salient characteristics, as pretty and sentimental, as she had always been. Jack had grown and developed amazingly, and having studied industriously, knew quite as much as other boys of his age. “Send him to school now,” said Doctor Rivals to his mother, “and I answer for his making a figure.” “Ah, doctor, how good you are!” cried Charlotte, a little ashamed, and feeling the indirect reproach conveyed in the interest expressed by a stranger, as contrasted with her own indifference. D’Argenton answered coldly that he would reflect upon the matter, that he had grave objections to a school, &c., and when alone with Charlotte, expressed his indignation at the doctor’s interference, but from that time took more interest in the movements of the boy. “Come here, sir,” said Labassandre, one day, to Jack. The child obeyed somewhat anxiously. “Who made that net in the chestnut-tree at the foot of the garden?” “It was I, sir.” Cécile had expressed a wish for a living squirrel, and Jack had manufactured a most ingenious snare of steel wire. “Did you make it yourself, without any aid?” “Yes, sir,” answered the child. “It is wonderful, very wonderful,” continued the singer, turning to the others. “The child has a positive genius for mechanics.” In the evening there was a grand discussion. “Yes, madame/,” said Labassandre, addressing Charlotte; “the man of the future, the coming man, is the mechanic. Rank has had its day, the middle classes theirs, and now it is the workman’s turn. You may to-day despise his horny hands, in twenty years he will lead the world.” “He is right,” interrupted D’Argenton, and Doctor Hirsch nodded approvingly. Singularly enough, Jack, who generally heard the conversation going on about him without heeding it, on this occasion felt a keen interest, as if he had a presentiment of the future.