saying, he tapped me on the shoulder, and
motioned me to follow him.

I obeyed at once.

"Are you his son?" asked he, briefly.

"No," I replied.

"His nephew?--his clerk, then?"

"Neither; I am a lodger here, and do not even claim acquaintance with
the family."

"No matter," resumed he, dryly, "you will do as well as another; give me
pen and paper."

I took some from an open portfolio on the table and laid it before him,
and he wrote rapidly a few lines in a straggling hand:--

"The citizen Louis Bernois, age--; domiciled, Rue Neuve de Viardot, No.
318, avocat,"--"we may call him _avocat_, though he was only a writer,"
said he, looking up,--"wounded fatally in the lungs and heart, and
attended till his death, on this morning, by the doctor Joseph Caillot,
surgeon and licentiate. The above verified by me."--"Sign here," added
he, handing me the pen, "and put your quality. Say, 'Friend of the
family.'"

"But I never knew them; I have only lodged in the house for some months
back."

"What signifies that? It is a mere form for the authorities, to whom his
death must be reported, or his family exposed to trouble and annoyance.
I will take it to the bureau myself."

I signed my name, therefore, as he directed me, and sealed the "act"
with a seal I found on the table. The doctor pocketed the paper and
withdrew, not even bestowing on me a good-bye as he left the room.

Lizette came to me for instructions as to what was to be done. Madame
had never recovered consciousness from the very first moment of the
misfortune; mademoiselle was too young and too inexperienced to be
consulted on the occasion. The family, too, had only been a few months
in Paris, and had no acquaintance save with the tradespeople they dealt
with.

I asked the name of the _avocat_ for whom he usually transcribed the
deeds and papers, and learned that it was a certain Monsieur le Monnier,
a lawyer of high standing at the bar of Paris, and who lived in the
Rue Quincampoix! With what a strange sensation I heard the name of that
street, which was the same that Herr Robert spoke of as inhabited by his
father in the days of his greatest prosperity! The thought merely shot
through my head rapidly, for other and far more pressing considerations
demanded all my attention. I resolved at once to call on Monsieur le
Monnier and ask his advice and guidance in the difficult position I
then found myself. Dressing myself with all the care my scanty wardrob