o or three
times, "Help! help! robbers!" in a voice that was loud enough to rouse
the house.

"No, Toupillier," said the little old man; "you have not been robbed; I
came here in time to prevent it; nothing has been taken."

"Why don't you arrest that villain?" shouted the old pauper, pointing to
Cerizet.

"Monsieur is not a thief," replied the old man. "On the contrary, he
came up with me to lend assistance." Then, turning to Cerizet, he added,
in a low voice: "I think, my good friend, that we had better postpone
the interview I desire to have with you until to-morrow. Come at ten
o'clock to the adjoining house, and ask for Monsieur du Portail. After
what has passed this evening, there will, I ought to warn you, be
some danger to you in not accepting this conference. I shall find you
elsewhere, infallibly; for I have the honor to know who you are; you
are the man whom the Opposition journals were accustomed to call 'the
courageous Cerizet.'"

In spite of the profound sarcasm of this remark, Cerizet, perceiving
that he was not to be treated more rigorously than Madame Cardinal, felt
so pleased with this conclusion that he promised, very readily, to keep
the appointment, and then slipped away with all the haste he could.

CHAPTER XVI. DU PORTAIL

The next day Cerizet did not fail to appear at the rendezvous given
to him. Examined, at first, through the wicket of the door, he was
admitted, after giving his name, into the house, and was ushered
immediately to the study of Monsieur du Portail, whom he found at his
desk.

Without rising, and merely making a sign to his guest to take a chair,
the little old man continued the letter he was then writing. After
sealing it with wax, with a care and precision that denoted a nature
extremely fastidious and particular, or else a man accustomed to
discharge diplomatic functions, du Portail rang for Bruneau, his valet,
and said, as he gave him the letter:--

"For the justice-of-peace of the arrondissement."

Then he carefully wiped the steel pen he had just used, restored to
their places, symmetrically, all the displaced articles on his desk, and
it was only when these little arrangements were completed that he turned
to Cerizet, and said:--

"You know, of course, that we lost that poor Monsieur Toupillier last
night?"

"No, really?" said Cerizet, putting on the most sympathetic air he could
manage. "This is my first knowledge of it."

"But you probably expected