one thing about him," added the little
notary.

"Oh, tell us, Monsieur Achille!" cried Ernestine, eagerly.

"His tiger's name is Paradise!"

"Paradise!" echoed every one included in the little circle.

"Can a man be called Paradise?" asked Madame Herbelot, who had joined
her sister-in-law.

"It tends to prove," continued the notary, "that the master is an angel;
for when his tiger follows him--you understand."

"It is the road of Paradise! very good, that," said Madame Marion,
anxious to flatter Achille Pigoult in the interests of her nephew.

"Monsieur," said Antonin's valet in the dining-room, "the tilbury has a
coat of arms--"

"Coat of arms!"

"Yes, and droll enough they are! There's a coronet with nine points and
pearls--"

"Then he's a count!"

"And a monster with wings, flying like a postilion who has dropped
something. And here is what is written on the belt," added the man,
taking a paper from his pocket. "Mademoiselle Anicette, the Princesse de
Cadignan's lady's maid, who came in a carriage" (the Cinq-Cygne carriage
before the door of the Mulet!) "to bring a letter to the gentleman,
wrote it down for me."

"Give it to me."

The sub-prefect read the words: _Quo me trahit fortuna_.

Though he was not strong enough in French blazon to know the house that
bore that device, Antonin felt sure that the Cinq-Cygnes would not
send their chariot, nor the Princess de Cadignan a missive by her maid,
except to a person of the highest nobility.

"Ha! so you know the maid of the Princess de Cadignan! happy man!" said
Antonin.

Julien, a young countryman, after serving six months in the household
of the Comte de Gondreville, had entered the service of the sub-prefect,
who wanted a servant of the _right style_.

"But, monsieur, Anicette is my father's god-daughter. Papa, who wanted
to do well by the girl, whose father was dead, sent her to a dressmaker
in Paris because my mother could not endure her."

"Is she pretty?"

"Rather; the proof is that she got into trouble in Paris; but finally,
as she has talent and can make gowns and dress hair, she got a place
with the princess."

"What did she tell you about Cinq-Cygne? Is there much company?"

"A great deal, monsieur. There's the princess and Monsieur d'Arthez, the
Duc de Maufrigneuse and the duchess and the young marquis. In fact the
chateau is full. They expect Monseigneur the Bishop of Troyes to-night."

"Monsieur Troubert! I should like to know