The Launching of Roger Brook

maids were carrying downstairs.

Roger was torn between the desire to linger with her and his urge to get back to the inn, but, seeing that she was now busy with other matters, he succumbed to the latter. With a farewell wave he left the mansion and, half running, half walking, made his way to the Du Guesclin.

On his arrival he learned from the landlord that the Doctor's body had been removed to the city mortuary. He then inquired about his purse. The man averred that he had neither found it nor had it been given to him, and together they went to the dark passage under the stairs to look for it.

The passage was a straight one with no niches in which such a thing could have remained concealed for long. In vain Roger stared at first one end of it then the other, and ran several times up and down the stairs to ascertain the exact point at which the purse had dropped, and if it could possibly have got caught up on something during its fall. After a quarter of an hour of frantic searching he had to admit that it was not there, and that whoever had picked it up must have made off with it.

It occurred to him that Fouche might have seen it drop, and, after the abortive chase, returned to the inn to make a search for it that had proved successful; but he had no proof of that and any one of the servants of the inn, the landlord or a visitor, might equally well have picked it up and decided that fifty-four louis were worth straining one's conscience to keep.

Sadly depressed, he gave up the hunt and set about making arrangements for the Doctor's funeral. Having no other resources than the few francs in his pocket he saddled Monsieur de Montaigne and, taking him to an apothecary, sold the remaining contents of his panniers for two louis. Then, he hardened his heart and disposed of the old mule for a further four crowns.

That afternoon he managed to raise two more louis on the Doctor's medical instruments; then he went in search of a priest who would give his poor old friend decent burial. As the verdict of the Court had spread about the town this proved far from easy; but by nightfall he found a poor priest in the parish of St. Helier de Vern who was broad-minded enough to undertake the business for a payment of three louis.

Next morning he was the sole mourner at the Doctor's funeral, and he came away from it with only four crowns and two francs in his pocket; the expenses of the funeral having absorbed the remainder of the money he had succeeded in raising from the sale of his late partner's effects.

Yet he was not unduly downhearted regarding his own prospects. He felt certain that his beautiful little protectress would find a means to open for him a new and much more promising career.

On leaving the cemetery he hurried to the Hotel de Rochambeau. At its door he was met by the supercilious Aldegonde. In less than a minute that pompous functionary shattered his hopes and took obvious delight in so doing.

'Mademoiselle left yesterday for Monseigneur It Marquis's chateau in the country,' he announced with evident enjoyment. 'And she will not be in Rennes again for several weeks.' Upon which he rudely slammed the door.

Sadly Roger turned away. Once again Georgina's foretelling of his future had proved correct. No good had come to him from his partner­ship with old Aristotle Fenelon. He was back where he had started eleven weeks ago. In fact, his situation was somewhat worse, as the summer had gone; he was again almost penniless, and considerably further from home. At his age he could not conceivably set up to be a journeyman-doctor who had travelled the world in search of a hundred miraculous remedies, and he knew no other trade. Once more he was destitute in a strange land without either prospects or friends.

CHAPTER XII

THE MAN IN GREEN

As Roger walked aimlessly away from the Hotel de Rochambeau one fact emerged clearly from his unhappy musings; it was imperative that within the next few days he should find himself some sort of work.

Rennes was the best part of fifty miles from St. Malo, its nearest sea­port. Even had he now been prepared to admit defeat and endeavour to beg a passage home on promise of payment the other end, his few crowns would not support him for so long a tramp; and the poverty of the French countryside made it, unlike England, no place in which one could with any ease pick up a night's board and lodging here and there in return for casual work. Whatever he might decide to do later, he saw that, for the time being, he must somehow secure employment in Rennes which would enable him, by careful saving, to build up a capital of at least five louis before taking any further decision as to his future.

It then occurred to him that he was not altogether friendless. Maitre Leger had not only given him very shrewd legal advice the day before on Athenais's instructions, but behaved towards him in the most pleasant and kindly manner.

Turning about he retraced his steps to the Hotel and once more bearded the supercilious Monsieur Aldegonde, who told him that the lawyer lived in the Rue d'Antrain a few doors from the Hotel de Ville, and that the street lay only just across the Place.

Following these directions Roger soon found the house. It proved to be a commodious old building serving both as home and office, as could be seen from the green wire blinds in the ground floor room and the heads of several young men bowed over ledgers that were visible above them. Going in, Roger gave his name and asked to see Maitre Leger.

A youth, a little older than himself, with fiery red hair and a spotty face, took his message, and asked him to wait in a small musty-smelling ante-chamber. Ten minutes later he returned and conducted Roger to a room on the first floor, where he found the immaculately dressed lawyer seated at a big desk strewn with parchments and law books.

'Good day to you, my young friend,' said the man in green affably. 'In what way can I be of service to you?'

'I want your advice and help, if you would be kind enough to give it to me,' replied Roger, sitting down in a comfortable elbow chair to which the lawyer waved him; and without beating about the bush he explained the precarious position in which Doctor Aristotle Fenelon's death had left him.

Maitre Leger adjusted a pair of steel-rimmed spectacles which were now perched upon his thin, sharp nose, sat back with the tips of his fingers placed together and listened attentively. When Roger had done, he said:

'Your position is certainly a difficult one, and I think that much your best course would be to return to your parents. If I advance you the necessary money for your journey to Strasbourg can you give me an honourable undertaking as to my reimbursement, in due course?'

Roger flushed slightly. For a moment he thought of taking the money and using it to return to England, but his whole mind still revolted at the thought of reappearing penniless at home to throw himself on his father's mercy; so he said, a triffly awkwardly:

'Your offer. Monsieur, is most kindly meant, and I deeply appreciate it. But I left home on account of a most bitter quarrel with my step­father, who had made my life unbearable, so I am most loath to go back as long as there is the least possibility of my being able to earn my own livelihood.'

The lawyer nodded sympathetically. 'Well, in that case, if you will tell me your qualifications, I will see if I can suggest anything.'

'At school, Monsieur, I did well at composition and I write a fair hand. Unfortunately, I know nothing of bookkeeping, but I am strong in languages; my Greek is fair and my tutor was good enough to com­pliment me many times upon my Latin.'

Maitre Leger looked at him with a sudden increase of interest. 'A good understanding of Latin is a valuable asset; and, of course, you speak and write fluent German?'

This was a facer that Roger had not expected, and to have denied it would have immediately disclosed his story of being a native of Alsace to be false, so he avoided telling a direct he by saying quickly: 'I also did well in English; in fact, 'tis said that I have quite a gift for that tongue.'

'These languages, coupled with a legible hand and the ability to compose, clearly fit you to enter one of the learned professions,' Maitre Leger announced. 'Has it ever occurred to you to take up the law?'

Again Roger was slightly nonplussed. He had wanted a life of excitement and travel, and few things could have been further removed from that than the dry-as-dust occupation of poring over legal documents. But in his mind at this moment there was no thought of choosing a permanent career, only of obtaining some temporary work