red
stopping short on his way up at the lower floor,--a proceeding which
could not fail to give rise to countless conjectures.

He therefore ordered the driver to pull up at the corner of the rue
Royale, whence, along a pavement that was now nearly dry, he picked his
way on tiptoe to the house. It so chanced that he was not seen by either
the porter or his wife; the former being beadle of the church of the
Madeleine, was absent at a service, and the wife had just gone up to
show a vacant apartment to a lodger. Theodose was therefore able to
glide unobserved to the door of the sanctuary he desired to penetrate.
A soft touch of his hand to the silken bell-rope caused a sound which
echoed from the interior of the apartment. A few seconds elapsed, and
then another and more imperious bell of less volume seemed to him
a notification to the maid that her delay in opening the door was
displeasing to her mistress. A moment later, a waiting-woman, of middle
age, and too well trained to dress like a "soubrette" of comedy, opened
the door to him.

The lawyer gave his name, and the woman ushered him into a dining-room,
severely luxurious, where she asked him to wait. A moment later,
however, she returned, and admitted him into the most coquettish and
splendid salon it was possible to insert beneath the low ceilings of an
entresol. The divinity of the place was seated before a writing-table
covered with a Venetian cloth, in which gold glittered in little spots
among the dazzling colors of the tapestry.

"Will you allow me, monsieur, to finish a letter of some importance?"
she said.

The barrister bowed in sign of assent. The handsome Hungarian then
concluded a note on blue English paper, which she placed in an envelope;
after sealing it carefully, she rang the bell. The maid appeared
immediately and lighted a little spirit lamp; above the lamp was
suspended a sort of tiny crucible, in which was a drop of sealing-wax;
as soon as this had melted, the maid poured it on the envelope,
presenting to her mistress a seal with armorial bearings. This the
countess imprinted on the wax with her own beautiful hands, and then
said:--

"Take the letter at once to that address."

The woman made a movement to take the letter, but, either from haste or
inadvertence, the paper fell from her hand close to la Peyrade's feet.
He stooped hastily to pick it up, and read the direction involuntarily.
It bore the words, "His Excellency the Minister of