My Library

a crowd I found at the barrière, and amidst it I noticed a bonné, or nurse, having in charge three beautiful children, one of whom, a lad of seven years, appeared to take an unusual interest in myself, doubtless observing that I was in a great hurry to accomplish something. This child, as it saw me, ran to the nurse, and said, ‘Ma bonné, Franchette, what’s the matter with the gentleman? Is he sick? What makes him look so queer?’ “ ‘Hush, child,’ said the woman in reply; ‘that gentleman is in search of what he won’t find this long time!’ “ ‘What is that, Franchette?’ “ ‘That gentleman is in search of his own ghost, mes enfants!’ replied the nurse, as the children clustered around her to hear the answer. “ ‘Ma foi!’ echoed the crowd of idlers, as they caught the woman’s words—whether spoken in jest or seriously I cannot say—‘Ma foi! the gentleman takes a cab to go in search of his own ghost!’ And the cab drove off as these words were echoed by a hundred tongues. “ ‘What the devil does it mean?’ asked I of myself, rather irreverently, as a Guebre would say, had one heard me. ‘What does it mean?’ What put such a queer notion as that in the woman’s head?’ And, while cogitating for an answer, the cab stopped before the required