Brigitte that the twelve thousand francs a year I expected to make
out of it were better in her pocket than in mine."

"It seems that Dutocq continues the honorable profession of spy which he
formerly practised at the ministry of finance," said la Peyrade, "and,
like others who do that dirty business, he makes his reports more witty
than truthful--"

"Take care!" said Cerizet; "you are talking of my patron in his own
lair."

"Look here!" said la Peyrade. "I have come to talk to you on serious
matters. Will you do me the favor to drop the Thuilliers and all their
belongings, and give me your attention?"

"Say on, my friend," said Cerizet, laying down his pen, which had never
ceased to run, up to this moment, "I am listening."

"You talked to me some time ago," said la Peyrade, "about marrying a
girl who was rich, fully of age, and slightly hysterical, as you were
pleased to put it euphemistically."

"Well done!" cried Cerizet. "I expected this; but you've been some time
coming to it."

"In offering me this heiress, what did you have in your mind?" asked la
Peyrade.

"Parbleu! to help you to a splendid stroke of business. You had only to
stoop and take it. I was formally charged to propose it to you; and,
as there wasn't any brokerage, I should have relied wholly on your
generosity."

"But you are not the only person who was commissioned to make me that
offer. A woman had the same order."

"A woman!" cried Cerizet in a perfectly natural tone of surprise. "Not
that I know of."

"Yes, a foreigner, young and pretty, whom you must have met in the
family of the bride, to whom she seems to be ardently devoted."

"Never," said Cerizet, "never has there been the slightest question of
a woman in this negotiation. I have every reason to believe that I am
exclusively charged with it."

"What!" said la Peyrade, fixing upon Cerizet a scrutinizing eye, "did
you never hear of the Comtesse Torna de Godollo?"

"Never, in all my life; this is the first time I ever heard that name."

"Then," said la Peyrade, "it must really have been another match; for
that woman, after many singular preliminaries, too long to explain to
you, made me a formal offer of the hand of a young woman much richer
than Mademoiselle Colleville--"

"And hysterical?" asked Cerizet.

"No, she did not embellish the proposal with that accessory; but there's
another detail which may put you on the track of her. Madame de Godollo
exhorted me, if I wis