r his friend and confidant."

"Is he all that?" asked Claude.

"O, I suppose so," said Mimi. "They have secrets together, and make,
together, plans that I know nothing about."

"Do you suppose," asked Claude, "that you will ever be in any way
connected with their plans?"

He put this question, which was a general one, in a very peculiar
tone, which indicated some deeper meaning. It seemed as though Mimi
understood him, for she threw at him a hurried and half-frightened
look.

"Why?" she asked. "What makes you ask such a question as that?"

"O, I don't know," said Claude. "The thought merely entered my
mind--perhaps because I dislike him, and suspect him, and am ready to
imagine all kinds of evil about him."

Mimi regarded him now with a very earnest look, and said nothing for
some time.

"Have you any recollection," she asked, at length, "of ever having
seen his face anywhere, at any time, very long ago?"

Claude shook his head.

"Not the slightest," said he. "I never saw him in all my life, or any
one like him, till I saw him on the raft. But what makes you ask so
strange a question?"

"I hardly know," said Mimi, "except that he seems so in papa's
confidence,--and I know that papa's chief trouble arises from some
affair that he had with some Montresor,--and I thought--well, I'll
tell you what I thought. I thought that, as this Montresor had to
leave France--that perhaps he had been followed to America, or sought
after; and, as you are a member of that family, you might have seen
some of those who were watching the family; and the Count do Cazeneau
seemed to be one who might be connected with it. But I'm afraid I'm
speaking in rather a confused way; and no wonder, for I hardly know
what it is that I do really suspect."

"O, I understand," said Claude; "you suspect that my father was
badly treated, and had to leave France, and that this man was at the
bottom of it. Well, I dare say he was, and that he is quite capable
of any piece of villany; but as to his hunting us in America, I can
acquit him of that charge, as far as my experience goes, for I never
saw him, and never heard of any one ever being on our track. But
can't you tell me something more definite about it? Can't you tell me
exactly what you know?"

Mimi shook her head.

"I don't know anything," said she, "except what little I told
you--that poor papa's trouble of mind comes from some wrong which he
did to some Montresor, who had to go to Am