Monsieur de Villardin sighed deeply, but replied, "You must, my dear Count, allow me to have my will in this respect. Accept the trust, I beseech you; and as we may all feel very sure that my remaining years will be few, I have named you in some papers that I drew up yesterday for a still more important charge, which I must entreat you to undertake. It is that of one of the guardians to my child when I am dead." The reply was such as might be expected, but the conversation ended in Monsieur de Loris accepting both the offices which Monsieur de Villardin put upon him. A few days after, the necessary papers were brought, drawn up in legal form, and having been read in silence by both parties, were duly signed. The next morning the Count de Loris left us, pouring upon Monsieur de Villardin expressions of affection and esteem, every one of which went home to his heart like a dagger. The Duke seemed relieved when he was gone; but there seemed still another painful task to be performed; at least I judged so from the anxious expression of his eyes, as he sometimes turned them upon the face of the Confessor. At length, one morning, after walking for half an hour upon the terrace, he turned to Father Ferdinand, who at the moment was coming forth into the garden to take his customary stroll with me, and said, "Now, good Father, I am ready, if you can do me the favour." "It is one that must never be refused, my son," replied the Priest; "I follow you:" and they turned towards the château. Both had become somewhat paler as they spoke; and in about two hours afterwards I was joined by the Priest, with a countenance on which strong and terrible emotions had left traces which could not be mistaken. He tried to appear calm, indeed, and succeeded in a certain degree, by speaking for some time of indifferent things. At length, when he had obtained command of himself, he said, "In the letter which you wrote to me when I was at Rennes, and which brought me so suddenly back to the château, you said, my son, that you really doubted the sanity of Monsieur de Villardin, from the extraordinary change that had come over him. Now tell me truly, I beseech you, was that an expression hazarded without attaching to it its full meaning; or was it your real conviction at the time that the mind of your friend was unhealthily affected? It is of much consequence that I should know." "I will tell you, my good Father, most sincerely,"--I replied, seeing that the feelings of the Confessor were, in truth, most deeply interested; "Indeed I will give you an answer that will show you I speak without reserve. Did I not believe, then, that during the four or five days preceding the dreadful accident which lately happened, the mind of Monsieur de Villardin was decidedly deranged, I would not stay in his house another hour."