able thieves," the
exquisite creature went on peremptorily,

"It shall be done, Madame la Comtesse."

"And let me tell you," she now added, with the sweetest and archest of
smiles, "that if you succeed in this, M. le Comte de Nole de St. Pris
will gladly pay you the five thousand francs which he refuses to give
to those miscreants."

Five thousand francs! A mist swam before my eyes,

"Mais, Madame la Comtesse . . ." I stammered.

"Oh!" she added, with an adorable uptilting of her little chin, "I am
not promising what I cannot fulfil. M. le Comte de Nole only said
this morning, apropos of dog thieves, that he would gladly give ten
thousand francs to anyone who succeeded in ridding society of such
pests."

I could have knelt down on the hard floor, Sir, and . . .

"Well then, Madame," was my ready rejoinder, "why not ten thousand
francs to me?"

She bit her coral lips . . . but she also smiled. I could see that
my personality and my manners had greatly impressed her.

"I will only be responsible for the first five thousand," she said
lightly. "But, for the rest, I can confidently assure you that you
will not find a miser in M. le Comte de Nole de St. Pris."

I could have knelt down on the hard floor, Sir, and kissed her
exquisitely shod feet. Five thousand francs certain! Perhaps ten! A
fortune, Sir, in those days! One that would keep me in comfort--nay,
affluence, until something else turned up. I was swimming in the
empyrean and only came rudely to earth when I recollected that I
should have to give Theodore something for his share of the business.
Ah! fortunately that for the moment he was comfortably out of the way!
Thoughts that perhaps he had been murdered after all once more coursed
through my brain: not unpleasantly, I'll admit. I would not have
raised a finger to hurt the fellow, even though he had treated me with
the basest ingratitude and treachery; but if someone else took the
trouble to remove him, why indeed should I quarrel with fate?

Back I came swiftly to the happy present. The lovely creature was
showing me a beautifully painted miniature of Carissimo, a King
Charles spaniel of no common type. This she suggested that I should
keep by me for the present for purposes of identification. After this
we had to go into the details of the circumstances under which she had
lost her pet. She had been for a walk with him, it seems, along the
Quai Voltaire, and was returning home by the side of the ri