"Well, then, I beg you, Edmond, do not flog him any more!"

"Let him alone, let him alone; I want to see if he will obey me now".

"I ask it as a favor, that you will not make the experiment." .

"Phanor, here! Thou shalt see that he will obey now. Here, Phanor! Why here! Phanor! - here! here! here!"

Phanor takes to flight once more, Edmond pursues him afresh, and the chase becomes as warm as ever through my shrubs and flowers.

Varai picked up the gentleman's cane, and held it ready to give him when he wanted to beat his dog, for fear he should borrow another from one of my trees. But Varai was more ingenious than I was; he opened the garden-gate, and Phanor, as he passed near it, closely pursued by his master, perceived the chance, made a bolt and disappeared. Edmond and I returned to the dining-room.

"It is astounding," said he, "a dog who obeys at the least sign! Well, come, we must make the best of it; let us resume our supper. Thou shalt see how I will make up for lost time. But, shouldst thou not send some one to look for Phanor? I am afraid he will be lost in this country of wolves, where he has never been before.

"Edmend, Varai is the only servant I have, and if he goes to look for Phanor, we shall have no supper. We will think of him presently".

"Ah! but I hope he won't be lost though!"

We resumed our repast. After Varai had, as usual, handed me some wine and water, he offered some to Edmond. "No thank you I no, thank you, my man of color, I never drink water.

" All the wicked are drinkers of water, As is well proved by the deluge".

Give me a little of that omelette. Hum! this is an omelette aux herbes! Now, dost thou know how I like an omelette? The one that is good, really good, is an omelette aux truffes! that's what I call an omelette! The table service is not bad; I made myself a present the other day of a pretty service in vermeil; one cannot have anything but vermeil, now porters eat out of silver".

All the supper-time this was the nature of his talk; and, to my great joy, as soon as the meal was over, he complained of being fatigued, and requested to be conducted to his chamber. Varai was soon back; Mr. Edmond wanted another candle, being accustomed to leave one burning; he could not endure darkness. Then Edmond wanted his bed warmed; then he must have some eau sucree, in case of feeling thirsty in the night; then another blanket and an additional pillow; and the chimney must be stopped up to keep out the air. At length he got into bed, and I quickly sought mine, for fear Varai should ask me any questions about this gentleman, as this would only increase my ill-humor.

He is come to pass a few days. What does he mean by a few days ? Why did not I at once think of telling him I was under an engagement to set out to-morrow on a journey ? Now it is too late.

The dog came back, was tied up, and passed the night in howling in such a horrible and melancholy manner as would affect the strongest nerves.

In the morning, when Varai informed him that breakfast was ready, Edmond cooly replied, "he could not get up so early as that;" breakfast was put off an hour. When he came down, I asked him if he had heard his dog?

"Oh! yes," said he; "poor Phanor! it's only because he does not know the house; he will behave better in two or three days. Tell me, now, blackey, what you have given him to eat?"

"I got him some dog biscuit of a neighbor".

"Oh, that will never do; he must have some soup, and that made thick, mind. Poor Phanor! he is not accustomed to dog biscuit - "that's all very well for nigger dogs".

We went into the garden; Varai brought us pipes. He condescended to take notice of a large cherry-tree pipe with its amber mouthpiece, of the size of an egg, and said, "Ay 1 I have one with a mouthpiece twice as large as that. Thy garden is pretty, Stephen; it is not large, but it is pretty. Well, well, well, and so thou amuseth thyself thus, eh ? in cultivating flowers in this way, eh ? Poor fellow! I have an uncle, now, just in the same way; he has a handsome garden, water and woods; I must bring Master Phanor into order before we go there; my uncle would not laugh if he played the same game in his garden that he played on his arrival here last night".

Whilst saying this he plucked a rose and put it into his button-hole.

" What are you about there ?"

" What am I about? why, I have gathered a middling sort of rose to wear in my button-hole".

"A middling rose! it is the last that tree will bear this year, the most beautiful of white roses, Madame Hardy. I hoped to see that for five or six days longer; I shall not see another for a year to come".

" Why, thou art worse than my uncle! Don't gather thy roses 1 Well, I won't touch another. What dost thou do here ? How can we amuse ourselves ?"

" We do not amuse ourselves here".

" Ah! well, never mind; I can read, I can walk. I suppose thou dost not keep thy horse?"

"No".

"That's a pity".

Such is my present melancholy condition, my dear friend - when it will be over I cannot tell. I seek every justifiable means of getting rid of this intruder, but he does not even tell me when he means to go.

Two shots in the garden caused me to hasten to see what is going on.

Nothing less than my friend Edmond practising in the garden, and who just killed a beautiful blackbird. This blackbird was, when alive, the leader of my band: I felt more sorrow than I will venture to tell you when I saw him lying on the ground, with his glossy black feathers stained with blood. All the cares I had taken for several years that the birds should find in my garden a sure and tranquil asylum were rendered abortive by this firing of the gun, - the more so from its appearing a kind of perfidy, a meditated murder. In every part of the neighborhood, the trees are cut down, birds are taken in snares and traps, or shot with guns. Here alone I have preserved large trees and thick bushes; here I have multiplied service and holly-trees with their coral berries, hawthorns with their garnet fruit, elders and privets, which bear umbels of black berries, the burning-bush with spikes of fire-coloured berries, ivies whose fruits become black with frost, laurustines with dark-blue fruits, azerolias or small medlars covered with little red apples, - in order that they might find food in abundance during the whole win ter.

In certain parts of my rivulet, I have even lessened the depth that they may bathe without danger.

And how richly have all these cares been repaid 1 In winter, the redbreasts come and live in my greenhouse, and familiarly hop about in other parts of my dwelling. Id rammer, the linnets make their nests in the bushes, and the wrens in the angles of the walk All allow themselves to be approached and to be seen; all seem to fly around me without flying away, and all fill my garden with enchanting music.

Instead of being seated, crammed into a theatre without fresh air, to hear for the hundredth time the same tenor, with the same apricot-coloured tunic and the same chocolate boots, sing the same air, accompanied by the same cries of admiration of people who wish to make part of the spectacle, I had three operas a day.

In the morning, at the break of day, the chaffinch warbled upon the highest branches of the trees, whilst the flowers open their corollas, whilst the rising sun tinted the heavens with rose and saffron.

Amidst the ardour of noontide heat, the male linnet, concealed beneath the shade of the linden-tree, raised his melodious voice, whilst his mate sat upon her eggs in her little nest of hair and grass.

But in the evening, when everything slept - when the stars sparkled in the heavens, when the moombeams played through the trees, when the evening-primroses with their yellow cups exhaled a sweet perfume, when the glowworms twinked in the grass, the nightingale raised its full and solemn voice, and sang throughout the night its religious and loving hymns!

And this Edmond comes with his gun to alarm, perhaps to send away all my musicians, to falsify my long and careful hospitality, which is now nothing more or less than treachery, since without it perhaps, without the confidence it had inspired, my poor blackbird would not have allowed any one to come near enough to him to make him so easy a victim.

What would I not have given to make all my birds, all my melodious guests, understand that it was not I who had made that report, it was not I that had committed that murder I to make them understand that they might come back, that I am not a traitor, that they will find peace and shade here again, that they may come in the winter without mistrust to feast upon the berries of my trees.

How is this all to be repaired ?

That chaffinch, which yesterday came to my very window, will never come again; he will depart from me and from my house; next year be will not again build his nest in that great elm, in which he has been accustomed to built it every year.

I got as quickly to Edmond as I could, and entreated him to suspend his sport, and he laughed at me. I was obliged to say that I insisted upon having no guns fired in my garden. Edmond replied that I abused the circumstance of its being my garden. It appeared to me that the abuse was on his part. Nevertheless, his reproach hurt me. I left him in the garden, and shut myself up in my study. I then questioned myself whether he really was in the wrong; if hospitality did not impose duties, difficult, it is true, but sacred, and if I had fulfilled them ? I inquired of myself what are the duties of hospitality. After serious examination, I did myself this justice, that, with the exception of washing his feet, as the ancient Hebrews did, I had performed, with respect to him, and in the most scrupulous manner, all the laws of hospitality. But still that reproach wounded me; he is in the wrong, but he believes that I abuse the circumstance of its being my garden; I have a great mind to go and ask his pardon!