The morning of the following day the enemy arrived at Chur, whence he proceeded to Berne.  Deponent saith not why he failed to turn aside at Soleure, as he had expressed his intention of doing in order to pay tribute there to the memory of the great Kosciuszko.  The facts of the case are, that from Berne he went direct to Lausanne, and that immediately on reaching there he hastened to the Saxon Casino.  When he seated himself at the gaming-table, he experienced a violent palpitation of the heart.  His ears tingled, his brain was on fire, and the cold sweat started out on his forehead.  He cast fierce glances right and left; he seemed to see in his partner’s eyes his past, his future, and Mlle. Moriaz life-size.  Fortune made amends for the harshness she had shown him at Milan.  After a night of anguish and many vicissitudes, at daybreak Count Abel had twenty thousand francs in his pocket.  It was sufficient to pay his debts, which he was anxious to do, and to enable him to await without too much impatience the moment for executing his projects.

He left the casino, his face flushed and radiant; he was so joyful that he became tender and affectionate, and, had M. Guldenthal himself come in his way, he could have embraced him.

CHAPTER IV

Although he had said nothing about it to Mlle. Moriaz in narrating to her his voyages and Odysseys, Count Abel was already acquainted with Paris, having made several long sojourns there.  This may seem improbable.  Gone in his early youth to America, he had not recrossed the ocean until he returned to fight in Poland; since then he had lived in Roumania and Vienna.  Where, then, had he found time to visit France?  Certain it is, however, that he was at home on the boulevard, and that he knew well the streets that led to the places where Paris amuses itself; but he had no thoughts now for amusements.  Notwithstanding the fact that his purse was full, he proposed to live a retired and austere life.  He found suitable apartments in one of the lodging-houses of Rue Mont-Thabor.  These apartments, on the fifth floor, were pleasant but modest; they consisted of two rooms having a view of the chestnut-trees in the garden of the Tuileries.  The portress was a nice woman, whose good-will Count Abel gained on the very first day.  He considered it useful, in the affairs of this world, to be at peace with both conscience and portress.

After getting installed in his garret his first care was to write to M. Moses Guldenthal.  He informed him that he was ready to refund interest and capital, and he commissioned him to pay off some trifling debts that he had left in Vienna; he also desired him to send him the bracelet, which he hoped to make use of.  He felt a genuine relief in the thought that he owed no man anything, that his condition was clear and transparent.  When a man is proud he likes to be out of debt, and when he is clever he foresees