d, not directly answering the implied question. "Portions of
the art are indeed lost, unless, as I suspect, there is much credulous
exaggeration in the accounts transmitted to us. To kill by a flower,
a pair of gloves, a soap-ball,--kill by means which elude all possible
suspicion,--is it credible? What say you? An amusing research, indeed,
if one had leisure! But enough of this now; it grows late. We dine
with M. de----; he wishes to let his hotel. Why, Lucretia, if we knew
a little of this old art, par Dieu! we could soon hire the hotel! Well,
well; perhaps we may survive my cousin Jean Bellanger!"

Three days afterwards, Lucretia stood by her husband's side in the
secret chamber. From the hour when she left it, a change was perceptible
in her countenance, which gradually removed from it the character
of youth. Paler the cheek could scarce become, nor more cold the
discontented, restless eye. But it was as if some great care had settled
on her brow, and contracted yet more the stern outline of the lips.
Gabriel noted the alteration, but he did not attempt to win her
confidence. He was occupied rather in considering, first, if it were
well for him to sound deeper into the mystery he suspected; and,
secondly, to what extent, and on what terms, it became his interest to
aid the designs in which, by Dalibard's hints and kindly treatment, he
foresaw that he was meant to participate.

A word now on the rich kinsman of the Dalibards. Jean Bellanger had been
one of those prudent Republicans who had put the Revolution to profit.
By birth a Marseillais, he had settled in Paris, as an epicier, about
the year 1785, and had distinguished himself by the adaptability and
finesse which become those who fish in such troubled waters. He had
sided with Mirabeau, next with Vergniaud and the Girondins. These he
forsook in time for Danton, whose facile corruptibility made him a
seductive patron. He was a large purchaser in the sale of the emigrant
property; he obtained a contract for the supply of the army in the
Netherlands; he abandoned Danton as he had abandoned the Girondins, but
without taking any active part in the after-proceedings of the Jacobins.
His next connection was with Tallien and Barras, and he enriched himself
yet more under the Directory than he had done in the earlier stages
of the Revolution. Under cover of an appearance of bonhomie and good
humour, a frank laugh and an open countenance, Jean Bellanger had always
retai