c
history. The notary's ponderous voice and monotonous accent, accustomed
no doubt to listen to himself and to make himself listened to by his
clients or fellow-townsmen, were too much for my curiosity. Happily, he
soon went away.

"'Ah, ha, monsieur,' said he on the stairs, 'a good many persons would
be glad to live five-and-forty years longer; but--one moment!' and he
laid the first finger of his right hand to his nostril with a cunning
look, as much as to say, 'Mark my words!--To last as long as that--as
long as that,' said he, 'you must not be past sixty now.'

"I closed my door, having been roused from my apathy by this last
speech, which the notary thought very funny; then I sat down in my
armchair, with my feet on the fire-dogs. I had lost myself in a romance
_a la_ Radcliffe, constructed on the juridical base given me by Monsieur
Regnault, when the door, opened by a woman's cautious hand, turned on
the hinges. I saw my landlady come in, a buxom, florid dame, always
good-humored, who had missed her calling in life. She was a Fleming, who
ought to have seen the light in a picture by Teniers.

"'Well, monsieur,' said she, 'Monsieur Regnault has no doubt been giving
you his history of la Grande Breteche?'

"'Yes, Madame Lepas.'

"'And what did he tell you?'

"I repeated in a few words the creepy and sinister story of Madame de
Merret. At each sentence my hostess put her head forward, looking at
me with an innkeeper's keen scrutiny, a happy compromise between the
instinct of a police constable, the astuteness of a spy, and the cunning
of a dealer.

"'My good Madame Lepas,' said I as I ended, 'you seem to know more about
it. Heh? If not, why have you come up to me?'

"'On my word, as an honest woman----'

"'Do not swear; your eyes are big with a secret. You knew Monsieur de
Merret; what sort of man was he?'

"'Monsieur de Merret--well, you see he was a man you never could see
the top of, he was so tall! A very good gentleman, from Picardy, and who
had, as we say, his head close to his cap. He paid for everything down,
so as never to have difficulties with any one. He was hot-tempered, you
see! All our ladies liked him very much.'

"'Because he was hot-tempered?' I asked her.

"'Well, may be,' said she; 'and you may suppose, sir, that a man had to
have something to show for a figurehead before he could marry Madame de
Merret, who, without any reflection on others, was the handsomest and
richest heiress