been well named, after all, when they called him Prosper, so lyrical would he wax over the constitution and cooking of "_bouillabaisse_," over the South, and the buildings of his native Aix-en-Provence. In all France you could not have found a greater contrast than those two who had come to us so under the weather; nor in all France two better instances of the way men can regain health of body and spirit in the right surroundings. We had a tremendous fall of snow that winter, and had to dig ourselves out of it. Poirot and Bidan were of those who dug. It was amusing to watch them. Bidan dug easily, without afterthought. "_Le grand-père_" dug, with half an eye at least on his future; in spite of those stiff fingers he shifted a lot of snow, but he rested on his shovel whenever he thought you could see him--for he was full of human nature. To see him and Bidan set off for town together! Bidan pale, and wambling a little still, but gay, with a kind of birdlike detachment; "_le grand-père_" stocky, wooden, planting his huge feet rather wide apart and regarding his companion, the frosted trees, and the whole wide world, with his humorous stare. Once, I regret to say, when spring was beginning to come, Bidan-Prosper returned on "_le grand-père's_" arm with the utmost difficulty, owing to the presence within him of a liquid called Clairette de Die, no amount of which could subdue "_le grand-père's_" power of planting one foot before the other. Bidan-Prosper arrived hilarious, revealing to the world unsuspected passions; he awoke next morning sad, pale, penitent. Poirot, _au contraire_, was morose the whole evening, and awoke next morning exactly the same as usual. In such different ways does the gift of the gods affect us. They had their habits, so diverse, their constitutions, and their dreams--alas! not yet realised. I know not where they may be now; Bidan-Prosper cannot yet be cooking at the Ritz in London town; but "_grand-père_" Poirot may perchance be distributing again his vegetables in the streets of Nancy, driving his two good little horses--_des gaillards_--with the reins hooked round "_l'empereur_." Good friends--good luck! XIII THE MUFFLED SHIP