"Let us pray for the soul of one of the best men that I have known," said Archie, closing his eyes.
Jules and Blanche, in spite of remonstrances, would not resign to any one the task of watching beside their old friend during the three days that his body remained at the manor house.
"If one of our family had died," they said, "Jules would not have left him to another's care."
One day when Archie, in the course of one of his frequent visits to the D'Habervilles, was walking with Jules in front of the manor house, he saw approaching on foot an old man, decently clad, carrying a sealskin bag on his shoulders.
"Who is that man?" he asked.
"Ah," said Jules, "that is our friend, M. D——, carrying his office on his back."
"What! His office?" said Archie.
"Certainly. He is an itinerant notary. Every three months he travels through certain districts, drawing up new deeds and finishing up copies of the rough drafts which he always carries with him in order that he may not be taken unawares. He is an excellent and very amiable man, French by birth, and very intelligent. On coming to Canada he began with a small trade in pictures which proved unprofitable, and then, remembering that he had formerly studied for two years with an advocate in France, he boldly presented himself before the judges, and passed an examination, which, if not brilliant, was at least satisfactory enough for his new country, and then returned home in triumph with a notary's commission in his pocket. I assure you that every one gets on well with his deeds, which are drawn with a most scrupulous honesty that supplies the place of the diction, purer but often tarnished by bad faith, of more learned notaries."
"Your nomadic notary," replied Archie, smiling, "arrives opportunely. I have work for him."
In fact, Lochiel, who was already well advanced in the task of clearing which he was so actively engaged upon for the benefit of his friend Dumais, made over to him in due form all his real estate, reserving only for himself during his life-time the half of the new and spacious house which he had built.