He had kept the watch, however--the great fat-bellied thing which
had never run down in a hundred years. It was his mascot. To lose that
watch would be like losing his share in the promises of the Church. So
his fingers ran along the new gold-fourteen-carat-chain, to the watch at
the end of it; and he took it out a little ostentatiously, since he saw
that the eyes of the girl were on him. Involuntarily he wished to impress
her.
He might have saved himself the trouble. She was impressed. It was quite
another matter however, whether he would have been pleased to know that
the impression was due to his resemblance to a Spanish conspirator, whose
object was to destroy the Monarchy and the Church, as had been the object
of the middle-aged conspirator--the girl's father--who had the good
fortune to escape from justice. It is probable that if Jean Jacques had
known these facts, his story would never have been written, and he would
have died in course of time with twenty children and a seat in the
legislature; for, in spite of his ardent devotion to philosophy and its
accompanying rationalism, he was a devout monarchist and a child of the
Church.
Sad enough it was that, as he shifted his glance from the watch, which
ticked loud enough to wake a farmhand in the middle of the day, he found
those Spanish eyes which had been so lost in studying him.
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