y, that something important was
going on. Casting his eyes, while the barrister continued to talk to
him, upon the seats which his wife and her ladies of honour had
occupied during the whole evening, he perceived that they were empty;
whereupon the grave deputy-prosecutor cutting short, as most men would
have done under the circumstances, the argument of the barrister,
advanced by a clever series of manoeuvres towards the door of the
apartment; and at the moment when some domestics entered bearing
refreshments, glided out, in the fond and mistaken belief that no one
had remarked him.

At the door of the nuptial chamber he met his mother-in-law, who was
retiring with the various dignitaries, whose presence had been
considered necessary, as well as some matrons who had joined the
_cortege_. Pressing his hand, and with a faltering voice, the mother
whispered to him a few words, and it was understood that she spoke of
her daughter. M. Desalleux, smiling, replied with some affectionate
phrases. Most assuredly in that moment he was not thinking of poor
Peter Leroux.

At the moment of closing the door of the chamber, the bride was
already abed. He remarked, what appeared to him strange, that the
curtains of her bed were drawn. The room was quite silent.

The stillness, and the strange fact of the close-drawn curtains
embarrassed him. His heart beat violently. He looked around, and
remarked her dress and all her wedding-ornaments lying around him,
with a graceful air of negligence, in various parts of the room. With
a faltering voice he called upon his bride by name. Having no reply,
he returned, perhaps to gain time, towards the door, assured himself
that it was well fastened, then approaching the bed, he opened the
curtains gently.

By the flickering light of the lamp suspended from the ceiling, a
singular vision presented itself to his eyes. Near his _fiancee_, who
was fast asleep, the head of a man with black hair was lying on the
white pillow. Was he again the victim of an error of the senses, or
had some usurper dared to occupy his place? At all events, his
substitute took little notice of him; for, as well as his wife, he was
sound asleep, with his face turned towards the bottom of the alcove.
In the moment when M. Desalleux leaned over the bed, to examine the
features of this singular intruder, a long sigh, like that of a man
awaking from slumber, broke the silence of the chamber; and at the
same time the head of