"I have just been bit!"
"By a serpent?" asked Mrs. Weldon, with alarm.
"No, no! It was not a serpent, but an insect," replied Cousin Benedict.
"Ah! I have it! I have it!"
"Well, crush your insect," said Harris, "and let us sleep, Mr.
Benedict!"
"Crush an insect!" cried Cousin Benedict. "Not so! I must see what it is!"
"Some mosquito!" said Harris, shrugging his shoulders.
"No! It is a fly," replied Cousin Benedict, "and a fly which ought to be very curious!"
Dick Sand had lit a little portable lantern, and he approached Cousin
Benedict.
"Divine goodness!" cried the latter. "Behold what consoles me for all my deceptions! I have, then, at last made a discovery!"
The honest man was raving. He looked at his fly in triumph. He would willingly kiss it.