l, if I must, I must. About three weeks ago, one morning, I had just
finished with half a dozen clients at my office in the Rue de Fame, when
my servant brought me Catenac's card. After some talk, he asked me if I
could find out a person that he had utterly lost sight of. Of course I
said, yes, I could. Upon this he asked me to make an appointment for ten
the next morning, when some one would call on me regarding the affair.
At the appointed time a shabbily dressed man was shown in. I looked at
him up and down, and saw that, in spite of his greasy hat and threadbare
coat, his linen was of the finest kind, and that his shoes were the work
of one of our best bootmakers. 'Aha,' said I to myself, 'you thought to
take me in, did you!' I handed him a chair, and he at once proceeded
to let me into his reasons for coming. 'Sir,' said he, 'my life has not
been a very happy one, and once I was compelled to take to the Foundling
Asylum a child that I loved very dearly, the son of a woman whom I
adored. She is dead now, and I am old and solitary. I have a small
property, and would give half of it to recover the child. Tell me,
is there any chance of my doing so?' You must imagine, my dear sir,"
continued he, after a slight pause, "that I was much interested in this
story, for I said to myself, that the man's fortune must be a very small
one if half of it would not amply repay me for making a journey to the
Foundling Hospital. So I agreed to undertake the business, but the old
fellow was too sharp for me. 'Stop a bit, and let me finish,' said he,
'and you will see that your task will not be so easy as you seem to
think it.' I, of course, bragged of my enormous sources of information,
and the probability of ultimate success."

"Keep to your story," said Tantaine impatiently, "I know all about
that."

"I will leave you, then, to imagine all I said to the old man, who
listened to me with great satisfaction. 'I only hope that you are as
skilful as M. Catenac says you are, and have as much influence and power
as you assert, for no man has a finer chance than you now have. I have
tried all means up to this, but I have failed.' I went first to the
hospital where the child had been placed, and they showed me the
register containing the date of his admission, but no one knew what had
become of him, for at twelve years of age he had left the place, and no
one had heard of him since; and in spite of every effort, I have been
unable to discove