well, your abbe?" "Undoubtedly he will be made a bishop some day," said Oscar. "By your family influence?" inquired Georges gravely. "We shall probably contribute to his rise, for the Abbe Frayssinous is constantly at our house." "Ah! you know the Abbe Frayssinous?" asked the count. "He is under obligations to my father," answered Oscar. "Are you on your way to your estate?" asked Georges. "No, monsieur; but I am able to say where I am going, if others are not. I am going to the Chateau de Presles, to the Comte de Serizy." "The devil! are you going to Presles?" cried Schinner, turning as red as a cherry. "So you know his Excellency the Comte de Serizy?" said Georges. Pere Leger turned round to look at Oscar with a stupefied air. "Is Monsieur de Serizy at Presles?" he said. "Apparently, as I am going there," replied Oscar. "Do you often see the count," asked Monsieur de Serizy. "Often," replied Oscar. "I am a comrade of his son, who is about my age, nineteen; we ride together on horseback nearly every day." "'Aut Caesar, aut Serizy,'" said Mistigris, sententiously. Pierrotin and Pere Leger exchanged winks on hearing this statement. "Really," said the count to Oscar, "I am delighted to meet with a young man who can tell me about that personage. I want his influence on a rather serious matter, although it would cost him nothing to oblige me. It concerns a claim I wish to press on the American government. I should be glad to obtain information about Monsieur de Serizy." "Oh! if you want to succeed," replied Oscar, with a knowing look, "don't go to him, but go to his wife; he is madly in love with her; no one knows more than I do about that; but she can't endure him." "Why not?" said Georges.