.

HE ANSWERS AN AWKWARD QUESTION.
The next morning Brillon brought a note from Ian Belward, which said that he was starting, and asked Gaston to be sure and come to Paris.
The note was carelessly friendly.

After reading it, he lay thinking.
Presently he chanced to see Jacques look intently at him.
"Well, Brillon, what is it ?" he asked genially.

Jacques had come on better than Gaston had hoped for, but the light play of his nature was gone--he was grave, almost melancholy; and, in his way, as notable as his master.

Their life in London had changed him much.