ted a laugh; and the laughing group excited the jealousy
of a group of dowagers and the attention of a troop of men in black who
surrounded Simon Giguet. As for the latter, he was chafing in despair at
not being able to lay his fortune and his future at the feet of the rich
Cecile.

"Yes," continued Vinet, "a man distinguished for his birth, for
his manners, his fortune, his equipages,--a lion, a dandy, a
yellow-kid-glover!"

"Monsieur Olivier," said Ernestine, "he drives the prettiest tilbury you
ever saw."

"What? Antonin, you never told me he had a tilbury when we were
talking about that conspirator this morning. A tilbury! Why, that's an
extenuating circumstance; he can't be a republican."

"Mesdemoiselles, there is nothing that I will not do in the interests
of your amusement," said Antonin Goulard. "I will instantly proceed
to ascertain if this individual is a count, and if he is, what kind of
count."

"You can make a report upon him," said the superintendent of bridges.

"For the use of all future sub-prefects," added Olivier Vinet.

"How can you do it?" asked Madame Mollot.

"Oh!" replied the sub-prefect, "ask Mademoiselle Beauvisage whom she
would accept as her husband among all of us here present; she will not
answer. Allow me the same discretion. Mesdemoiselles, restrain your
anxiety; in ten minutes you shall know whether the Unknown is a count or
a commercial traveller."

X. THE REVELATIONS OF AN OPERA-GLASS

Antonin Goulard left the little group of young ladies, in which,
besides Cecile and Ernestine, were Mademoiselle Berton, daughter of the
tax-collector,--an insignificant young person who played the part of
satellite to Cecile,--and Mademoiselle Herbelot, sister of the second
notary of Arcis, an old maid of thirty, soured, affected, and dressed
like all old maids; for she wore, over a bombazine gown, an embroidered
fichu, the corners of which, gathered to the front of the bodice, were
knotted together after the well-known fashion under the Terror.

"Julien," said the sub-prefect to his valet, who was waiting in the
antechamber, "you who served six years at Gondreville ought to know how
a count's coronet is made."

"Yes, monsieur; it has pearls on its nine points."

"Very good. Go to the Mulet, and try to clap your eye on the tilbury of
the gentleman who is stopping there, and then come and tell me what is
painted on it. Do your business thoroughly, and bring me all the gossip
of th