"The trouble!" I cried, "and the cost! Had you money, M. Paul?"
"Plenty of money!" said he heartily. "The disposal of my large
teaching connection put me in possession of a handsome sum with part
of it I determined to give myself the richest treat that I _have_
known or _shall_ know. I like this. I have reckoned on this hour
day and night lately. I would not come near you, because I would not
forestall it. Reserve is neither my virtue nor my vice. If I had put
myself into your power, and you had begun with your questions of look
and lip--Where have you been, M. Paul? What have you been doing? What
is your mystery?--my solitary first and last secret would presently
have unravelled itself in your lap. Now," he pursued, "you shall live
here and have a school; you shall employ yourself while I am away; you
shall think of me sometimes; you shall mind your health and happiness
for my sake, and when I come back--"
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