In reply to my questions concerning his nephew, he informed me, with joy and pride, that good Jacques Marlot had fully justified me in saving him from the gallows, and had made a happy transition from the state of an indifferent printer to that of a steady, wealthy, respectable farmer. He would be delighted to see me, he added, and to show me all the thriving children with which the good-tempered brunette he had taken to his bosom had blessed his fireside since last I saw him. Promising to go down and pay him a visit the next day, I left the good old man, and returned to the library, intending to wait there for Monsieur de Villardin. I found him there, however, already; and, as he was in conversation with Father Ferdinand, I was immediately about to withdraw, when he beckoned me into the room, saying, with a smile, "A fair lady has been asking for you, De Juvigny, and will not be satisfied till you pay her a visit. Your playfellow has not forgotten you, I can assure you." I expressed, of course, how delighted I should be to see her; and the Duke immediately led me up to Laura's apartments, where I found her stretched upon a sofa, a good deal changed, it is true, and pale and languid from the illness she had lately undergone. She was still, however, a lively, sweet girl of little more than twelve years old, and, with the same affectionate familiarity in which we had always lived, she put her arms round me whenever I approached, and kissed my cheek as I bent over her. Monsieur de Villardin smiled. "You see, Laura," he said, "as I told you, he has grown a great man since you saw him, and you must now call him Monsieur le Baron de Juvigny." "No, no," replied she, half angrily; "he shall never be anything but John Hall with me--the same John Hall who saved my life, and who saved your life, papa." "He has saved it again, my dear child," replied Monsieur de Villardin, "and conferred many another benefit on me, besides." "Thank you, thank you!" cried she, holding out her hand to me; "and pray always do be near papa, and take care of him; for you know I have no one else to love in the world but him, and you, and good Father Ferdinand, now that mamma is dead." Monsieur de Villardin burst into tears, and quitted the apartment, while our good friend Lise, who had now become Mademoiselle de Villardin's chief attendant, chid her for mentioning her mother to Monsieur de Villardin, saying, "You know, Mademoiselle Laura, he is so grieved for her that it is painful for him even to hear her named." "So am I grieved for her," replied Laura; "yet I always love to think of her, and hope that I shall never forget her." After speaking a few words of greeting to Lise, and a few more to Mademoiselle de Villardin, seeing that she was far too weak to bear much conversation, I left her, and, retiring to my own apartments, lay down to rest.