Victor answered him with that humane thrill of the deep tones, which at times he had:  ’No:  don’t be alarmed; I feel the devil.  If one has wealth and a desperate wish, he will speak.  All he does, is to make me more charitable to those who give way to him.  I believe in a devil.’

‘Horns and tail?’

‘Bait and hook.’

‘I haven’t wealth, and I wish only for dinner,’ Fenellan said.

’You know that Armandine is never two minutes late.  By the way, you haven’t wealth—­you have me.’

‘And I thank God for you!’ said Fenellan, acutely reminiscent of his having marked the spiritual adviser of Mrs. Burman, the Rev. Groseman Buttermore, as a man who might be useful to his friend.

CHAPTER XIV

DISCLOSES A STAGE ON THE DRIVE TO PARIS

A fortnight later, an extremely disconcerting circumstance occurred:  Armandine was ten minutes behind the hour with her dinner.  But the surprise and stupefaction expressed by Victor, after glances at his watch, were not so profound as Fenellan’s, on finding himself exchangeing the bow with a gentleman bearing the name of Dr. Themison.  His friend’s rapidity in pushing the combinations he conceived, was known:  Fenellan’s wonder was not so much that Victor had astonished him again, as that he should be called upon again to wonder at his astonishment.  He did; and he observed the doctor and Victor and Nataly:  aided by dropping remarks.  Before the evening was over, he gathered enough of the facts, and had to speculate only on the designs.  Dr. Themison had received a visit from the husband of Mrs. Victor Radnor concerning her state of health.  At an interview with the lady, laughter greeted him; he was confused by her denial of the imputation of a single ailment:  but she, to recompose him, let it be understood, that she was anxious about her husband’s condition, he being certainly overworked; and the husband’s visit passed for a device on the part of the wife.  She admitted a willingness to try a change of air, if it was deemed good for her husband.  Change of air was prescribed to each for both.  ‘Why not drive to Paris?’ the doctor said, and Victor was taken with the phrase.

He told Fenellan at night that Mrs. Burman, he had heard, was by the sea, on the South coast.  Which of her maladies might be in the ascendant, he did not know.  He knew little.  He fancied that Dr. Themison was unsuspicious of the existence of a relationship between him and Mrs. Burman:  and Fenellan opined, that there had been no communication upon private affairs.  What, then, was the object in going to Dr. Themison?  He treated her body merely; whereas the Rev. Groseman Buttermore could be expected to impose upon her conduct.  Fenellan appreciated his own discernment of the superior uses to which a spiritual adviser may be put, and he too agreeably flattered himself for the corrective reflection