"No, monsieur; as that isn't to your taste, it isn't to mine either; but I have thought of the plaything to give the child." "Go to fetch it at once." "Here it is, monsieur!" said Adamas, producing the object, which he had deposited in the window recess. "As I noticed that the child was dying with longing for Fleurial, and as you could not give him Fleurial, I remembered seeing in the garret a number of toys that had been lying there a long while, and, among others, this dog of tow, which is not very badly worm-eaten, and which resembles Fleurial, except that its coat is like a black sheep's and it hasn't much tail left." "And except a thousand other differences, which result in its not looking in the least like him! But where did you say this toy came from, Adamas?" "From the garret, monsieur." "Very good; and you say that there are others there?" "Yes, monsieur; a little horse with only three legs, a broken drum, some little toy weapons, the remains of a feudal donjon----" Adamas paused abruptly as he noticed that the marquis was gazing with an absorbed expression at the stuffed dog, while a tear made a furrow through the paint on his cheek. "I have done some stupid thing!" said the old servant to himself; "for God's sake, my dear good master, what makes you weep?" "I do not know--a moment's weakness!" said the marquis, wiping his cheek with his perfumed handkerchief, upon which a considerable portion of the roses of his complexion remained; "I fancied that I recognized that plaything, and if I am right, Adamas, it is a relic that must not be given away! It was my poor brother's!" "Really, monsieur? Ah! I am nothing but an old fool! I ought to have thought of that. I supposed that it was something that you used to play with when you were a little child." "No! when I was a child, I had no playthings. It was a time of war and sorrow in this country; my father was a terrible man, and to amuse me showed me fetters and chains, peasants astride the wooden horse, and prisoners hanging on the elms in the park. Later, much later, he had a second wife and a second son." "I know it, monsieur--young Monsieur Florimond, whom you loved so dearly! The flower of young gentlemen, most assuredly! And he disappeared in such a strange way!"