“I had kept my journey secret, for the idea of Alcide finding me again kept me from sleeping. “‘Oh, do not be afraid,’ said Lerne, ‘I am no longer the hospital surgeon, I am going to work at research. We are going to live in the country, and nobody will come to seek you there.’ “So that is how I was brought here. “Ah, you should have seen the _château_ and the park, gardens, servants, carriages, and horses--nothing wanting! I was quite happy. “When we got here, the workmen were finishing off the additions to the conservatory and the laboratory. “Lerne kept an eye on their work. He was always joking, and repeating, ‘Ah, we are going to work there, we are going to work there,’ in the same sort of a tone in which schoolboys shout out, ‘Hurrah for the holidays!’ “They fitted up the laboratory. Lots of boxes were put in it, and when all was finished, Lerne set off one morning to Grey in the dog-cart. The avenue was still straight at that time. “I still see your uncle coming back with the five travelers and the dog which he had gone to get at the station--Donovan Macbeth, Johann, Wilhelm, Karl, Otto Klotz--you remember him--the tall dark fellow with the mustache?--and Nell. The Scot had joined the Germans at Nanthel. I think he must have known them before. “The assistants put up at the laboratory, and Macbeth slept in a bedroom in the _château_--Dr. Klotz also. “Klotz frightened me from the first, and yet he was a strong, handsome chap. “I could not help asking Lerne where he had picked up that jail-bird! My question amused him very much. “‘Oh, make your mind easy,’ he answered. ‘You are always imagining you see friends of M. Alcide. Professor Klotz has come from Germany. He is very learned. He is not an assistant, he is a collaborator, and will watch over the work of his three compatriots.’” * * * * * “Excuse me, Emma,” I said, interrupting her, “did my uncle speak German and English at that time?” “Not much, I think. He tried every day, but it was not much good. It was only at the end of a year, and all of a sudden, that he managed to speak it fluently. The assistants knew a few French words, and Klotz rather more, as well as a little English. “As for Macbeth, he only understood his own language. “Lerne told me that he had agreed to take him at Fonval because the young man’s father asked him; he wanted his son to work for a time under Lerne’s directions.” “Where was _your_ room, Emma?” “Near the laboratory. Oh, far away from Macbeth and Klotz!” she added with a smile. “How did all those men stand towards one another?” “They seemed good friends, but I do not know if they were really. I fancy that the four Germans were jealous of Macbeth. I saw nasty looks sometimes, but in any case, they can’t have hurt Donovan much, because his job was not in the laboratory, but in the _château_ and the conservatory.