nd nothing in the world would
have induced him, avaricious though he was, to commit an act that was
positively wrong. Only the line that separates good from evil was not
very clearly defined in his mind. This was due in a great measure to his
education, and to the fact that it had been long before he realized that
police regulations do not constitute the highest moral law. It was due
also to chance, and, since he had no decided calling, to the necessity
of depending for a livelihood upon the many strange professions which
impecunious and untrained individuals, both of the higher and lower
classes, adopt in Paris.

However, on the following morning he arrayed himself in his best
apparel, and at exactly half-past eleven o'clock he rang at his
employer's door. M. Fortunat had made quick work with his clients that
morning, and was ready, dressed to go out. He took up his hat and said
only the one word, "Come." The place where the agent conducted his
clerk was the wine-shop in the Rue de Berry, where he had made inquiries
respecting Madame d'Argeles the evening before; and on arriving there,
he generously offered him a breakfast. Before entering, however, he
pointed out Madame d'Argeles's pretty house on the opposite side of the
street, and said to him: "The woman whom you are to follow, and whose
son you are to discover, will emerge from that house."

At that moment, after a night passed in meditating upon his mother's
prophetic warnings, Chupin was again beset by the same scruples which
had so greatly disturbed him on the previous evening. However, they
soon vanished when he heard the wine-vendor, in reply to M. Fortunat's
skilful questions, begin to relate all he knew concerning Madame Lia
d'Argeles, and the scandalous doings at her house. The seeker after lost
heirs and his clerk were served at a little table near the door;
and while they partook of the classical beef-steak and; potatoes--M.
Fortunat eating daintily, and Chupin bolting his food with the appetite
of a ship-wrecked mariner--they watched the house opposite.

Madame d'Argeles received on Saturdays, and, as Chupin remarked, "there
was a regular procession of visitors."

Standing beside M. Fortunat, and flattered by the attention which such
a well-dressed gentleman paid to his chatter, the landlord of the house
mentioned the names of all the visitors he knew. And he knew a good
number of them, for the coachmen came to his shop for refreshments when
their m