tance was but a few lines, saying that if the child was well and
thriving, I need not write; but if it died or became dangerously ill, I
might at any time write a line to Madame -----, Poste Restante, Vienna.
She was travelling about, but the letter would be sure to reach her
sooner or later. The only other letter I had was to apprise me that
she was coming to remove the child, and might be expected in three days
after the receipt of her letter."

"And all the other communications from her were merely remittances in
blank envelopes?"

"Exactly so."

Graham, finding he could learn no more, took his departure. On his way
home, meditating the new idea that his adventure that day suggested, he
resolved to proceed at once, accompanied by M. Renard, to Munich, and
there learn what particulars could be yet ascertained respecting those
certificates of the death of Louise Duval, to which (sharing Richard
King's very natural belief that they had been skilfully forged) he had
hitherto attached no importance.

CHAPTER VII.

No satisfactory result attended the inquiries made at Munich save indeed
this certainty,--the certificates attesting the decease of some person
calling herself Louise Duval had not been forged. They were indubitably
genuine. A lady bearing that name had arrived at one of the principal
hotels late in the evening, and had there taken handsome rooms. She was
attended by no servant, but accompanied by a gentleman, who, however,
left the hotel as soon as he had seen her lodged to her satisfaction.
The books of the hotel still retained the entry of her name,--Madame
Duval, Francaise rentiere. On comparing the handwriting of this entry
with the letter from Richard King's first wife, Graham found it to
differ; but then it was not certain, though probable, that the entry had
been written by the alleged Madame Duval herself. She was visited the
next day by the same gentleman who had accompanied her on arriving.
He dined and spent the evening with her. But no one at the hotel could
remember what was the gentleman's name, nor even if he were announced by
any name. He never called again. Two days afterwards, Madame Duval was
taken ill; a doctor was sent for, and attended her till her death. This
doctor was easily found. He remembered the case perfectly,--congestion
of the lungs, apparently caused by cold caught on her journey. Fatal
symptoms rapidly manifested themselves, and she died on the third day
from the se