gain.

But I met Ma'ame Dupont by accident soon after. She has left Mr.
Farewell's service.

She still weighs one hundred kilos.

I often call on her of an evening.

Ah, well!

CHAPTER III

ON THE BRINK

1.

You would have thought that after the shameful way in which Theodore
treated me in the matter of the secret treaty that I would then and
there have turned him out of doors, sent him back to grub for scraps
out of the gutter, and hardened my heart once and for all against that
snake in the grass whom I had nurtured in my bosom.

But, as no doubt you have remarked ere this, I have been burdened by
Nature with an over-sensitive heart. It is a burden, my dear Sir, and
though I have suffered inexpressibly under it, I nevertheless agree
with the English poet, George Crabbe, whose works I have read with a
great deal of pleasure and profit in the original tongue, and who
avers in one of his inimitable "Tales" that it is "better to love
amiss than nothing to have loved."

Not that I loved Theodore, you understand? But he and I had shared so
many ups and downs together of late that I was loath to think of him
as reduced to begging his bread in the streets. Then I kept him by me,
for I thought that he might at times be useful to me in my business.

I kept him to my hurt, as you will presently see.

In those days--I am now speaking of the time immediately following the
Restoration of our beloved King Louis XVIII to the throne of his
forbears--Parisian society was, as it were, divided into two distinct
categories: those who had become impoverished by the revolution and
the wars of the Empire, and those who had made their fortunes thereby.
Among the former was M. le Marquis de Firmin-Latour, a handsome young
officer of cavalry; and among the latter was one Mauruss Mosenstein, a
usurer of the Jewish persuasion, whose wealth was reputed in millions,
and who had a handsome daughter biblically named Rachel, who a year
ago had become Madame la Marquise de Firmin-Latour.

From the first moment that this brilliant young couple appeared upon
the firmament of Parisian society I took a keen interest in all their
doings. In those days, you understand, it was in the essence of my
business to know as much as possible of the private affairs of people
in their position, and instinct had at once told me that in the case
of M. le Marquis de Firmin-Latour such knowledge might prove very
remunerative.

Thus I very so