nd here is a commissionaire come with a message from the Athenee. I
have told Madame Beck I dare not deliver it, and she says I am to
charge you with it."

"Me? No, that is rather too bad! It is not in my line of duty. Come,
come, Rosine! bear your own burden. Be brave--charge once more!"

"I, Mademoiselle?--impossible! Five times I have crossed him this day.
Madame must really hire a gendarme for this service. Ouf! Je n'en puis
plus!"

"Bah! you are only a coward. What is the message?"

"Precisely of the kind with which Monsieur least likes to be pestered:
an urgent summons to go directly to the Athenee, as there is an
official visitor--inspector--I know not what--arrived, and Monsieur
_must_ meet him: you know how he hates a _must_."

Yes, I knew well enough. The restive little man detested spur or curb:
against whatever was urgent or obligatory, he was sure to revolt.
However, I accepted the responsibility--not, certainly, without fear,
but fear blent with other sentiments, curiosity, amongst them. I opened
the door, I entered, I closed it behind me as quickly and quietly as a
rather unsteady hand would permit; for to be slow or bustling, to
rattle a latch, or leave a door gaping wide, were aggravations of crime
often more disastrous in result than the main crime itself. There I
stood then, and there he sat; his humour was visibly bad--almost at its
worst; he had been giving a lesson in arithmetic--for he gave lessons
on any and every subject that struck his fancy--and arithmetic being a
dry subject, invariably disagreed with him: not a pupil but trembled
when he spoke of figures. He sat, bent above his desk: to look up at
the sound of an entrance, at the occurrence of a direct breach of his
will and law, was an effort he could not for the moment bring himself
to make. It was quite as well: I thus gained time to walk up the long
classe; and it suited my idiosyncracy far better to encounter the near
burst of anger like his, than to bear its menace at a distance.

At his estrade I paused, just in front; of course I was not worthy of
immediate attention: he proceeded with his lesson. Disdain would not
do: he must hear and he must answer my message.

Not being quite tall enough to lift my head over his desk, elevated
upon the estrade, and thus suffering eclipse in my present position, I
ventured to peep round, with the design, at first, of merely getting a
better view of his face, which had struck me when I entere