Is it possible that this is Antoine, with his shock head covered with powder?
Yes; that grating voice, which no mental change avails to subdue, is his, and he announces that Monsieur le Cure has arrived.

It is the old Cure of the village (who has survived the troubles of the Revolution), and many are the evenings he spends at the chateau, and many the times in which the closing acts of a noble life are recounted to him, the life of his old friend whom he hopes ere long to see--of Monsieur the Preceptor.

He is kindly welcomed by Monsieur and by Madame, and they pass on together into the chateau.

And when Monsieur the Viscount's steps have ceased to echo from the terrace, Monsieur Crapaud buries himself once more among the violets.
* * * * * Monsieur the Viscount is dead, and Madame sleeps also at his side; and their possessions have descended to their son.
Not the least valued among them is a case with a glass front and sides, in which, seated upon a stone is the body of a toad stuffed with exquisite skill, from whose head gleam eyes of genuine topaz.
Above it in letters of gold is a date, and this inscription:-- "MONSIEUR THE VISCOUNT'S FRIEND." ADIEU! THE YEW-LANE GHOSTS CHAPTER I.
"Cowards are cruel." OLD PROVERB.
This story begins on a fine autumn afternoon when, at the end of a field over which the shadows of a few wayside trees were stalking like long thin giants, a man and a boy sat side by side upon a stile.

They were not a happy-looking pair.