"There I am entirely with you," said Riche. "He is certainly the most gifted man I ever met. His marvellous discoveries are not all of a character that meet the public eye, as they are too mathematical and too far above the grasp of the general public to be appreciated; but you have only to ask any member of the Institute or of any of the royal societies of Europe what they think of him, and they will tell you he has a remarkable future before him. There is really nothing that seems impossible to him, if he only gives his mind to it. Isn't that your opinion, Mademoiselle Renée?" But Renée never answered. The fresh excitement on hearing the good news had revived her for the moment, and then the reaction set in, and she fell back exhausted, and dropped asleep. Villebois pointed to Renée, and held his fingers to his lips, then beckoning to the others to follow him, he slipped out of the room on tip-toe. Riche quickly pulled down the blinds, and made the room dark, while Renée was left alone to her slumbers. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 10: Small is the gulf that lies twixt life and death.] [Footnote 11: Ne'er heaven permits that he should die who does not merit death.] [Footnote 12: The Tempest.] [Footnote 13: Omniscient am I not, yet much is known to me. Faust, part 1, act 4.] CHAPTER XVI THE SHADOW OF DEATH Que l'oumbro, e toujour l'oumbro, es pire que la mort![14] Mistal (_Mireille Chant xii._) 'Fleet footed is the approach of woe But with a lingering step and slow Its form departs.'--Longfellow, _Coplas de Manrique_. Dr. Roux was a man who had risen to his present position by strict attention to his profession. He was an able man, and thoroughly versed in all the mysteries of his art. His reports to the Juge d'Instruction were always models of accuracy and precision, and were accepted without question by the Parquet. But now he confessed he was in a dilemma. "Here is a nice state of things," he soliloquised, "I come to Dr. Villebois' house for the purpose of making a post-mortem examination, and after getting everything ready to begin, two doctors whom I have never seen before persuade me to abandon my task. Now if I say he is dead I shall be blamed for not performing the autopsy; but if, on the other hand, I state that he is not dead, they will naturally ask me what proofs I have, and I must confess I have none. I had better talk it over with Paul Romaine. I fancy he will be at leisure during the afternoon." "Well, it is too late now, he will have gone home." The next day at four o'clock Roux knocked at the door of the Government laboratory. At the moment of Roux's arrival, Paul was busily engaged in tidying up the laboratory previous to his going home. "Well, what brings you here?" called out Paul as his visitor was ushered in. "I haven't seen you since we were students together at the Salpetrière under old Charcot. It is the unexpected that always happens."