nds, one of those handsome
Gardes de Paris who had promised to marry her, and for whom she had
waited in vain, the rascal!

She burst forth in reproaches, while she prepared her master's bed,
too sincere, she declared, to keep anything on her mind, or to keep her
mouth closed, when it was a question of his health and reputation. M.
Tabaret made no reply, not being in the mood for argument. He bent his
head to the storm, and turned his back to the hail. But, as soon as
Mannette had finished what she was about, he put her out of the room,
and double locked the door.

He busied himself in forming a new line of battle, and in deciding upon
prompt and active measures. He rapidly examined the situation. Had
he been deceived in his investigations? No. Were his calculations of
probabilities erroneous? No. He had started with a positive fact, the
murder. He had discovered the particulars; his inferences were correct,
and the criminal was evidently such as he had described him. The man M.
Daburon had had arrested could not be the criminal. His confidence in a
judicial axiom had led him astray, when he pointed to Albert.

"That," thought he, "is the result of following accepted opinions and
those absurd phrases, all ready to hand, which are like mile-stones
along a fool's road! Left free to my own inspirations, I should have
examined this case more thoroughly, I would have left nothing to chance.
The formula, 'Seek out the one whom the crime benefits' may often be
as absurd as true. The heirs of a man assassinated are in reality all
benefited by the murder; while the assassin obtains at most the victim's
watch and purse. Three persons were interested in Widow Lerouge's
death:--Albert, Madame Gerdy, and the Count de Commarin. It is plain to
me that Albert is not the criminal. It is not Madame Gerdy, who is dying
from the shock caused by the unexpected announcement of the crime. There
remains, then, the Count. Can it be he? If so, he certainly did not do
it himself. He must have hired some wretch, a wretch of good position,
if you please, wearing patent leather boots of a good make, and smoking
trabucos cigars with an amber mouth-piece. These well-dressed
villains ordinarily lack nerve. They cheat, they forge; but they don't
assassinate. Supposing, though, that the count did get hold of some
dare-devil fellow. He would simply have replaced one accomplice by
another still more dangerous. That would be idiotic, and the count is a
s