y! If she
is to be saved, Monsieur Lecoq, her name must not be spoken. I ask
of you, is it possible? Answer me."

The old man was very violent, yet his speech was simple, devoid of
the pompous phrases of passion. Anger lit up his eyes with a
strange fire; he seemed young again--he loved, and defended his
beloved.

M. Lecoq was silent; his companion insisted.

"Answer me."

"Who knows?"

"Why seek to mislead me? Haven't I as well as you had experience
in these things? If Tremorel is brought to trial, all is over with
Laurence! And I love her! Yes, I dare to confess it to you, and
let you see the depth of my grief, I love her now as I have never
loved her. She is dishonored, an object of contempt, perhaps still
adores this wretch--what matters it? I love her a thousand times
more than before her fall, for then I loved her without hope, while
now--"

He stopped, shocked at what he was going to say. His eyes fell
before M. Lecoq's steady gaze, and he blushed for this shameful yet
human hope that he had betrayed.

"You know all, now," resumed he, in a calmer tone; "consent to aid
me, won't you? Ah, if you only would, I should not think I had
repaid you were I to give you half my fortune--and I am rich--"

M. Lecoq stopped him with a haughty gesture.

"Enough, Monsieur Plantat," said he, in a bitter tone, "I can do a
service to a person whom I esteem, love and pity with all my soul;
but I cannot sell such a service."

"Believe that I did not wish--"

"Yes, yes, you wished to pay me. Oh, don't excuse yourself, don't
deny it. There are professions, I know, in which manhood and
integrity seem to count for nothing. Why offer me money? What
reason have you for judging me so mean as to sell my favors? You
are like the rest, who can't fancy what a man in my position is.
If I wanted to be rich--richer than you--I could be so in a
fortnight. Don't you see that I hold in my hands the honor and
lives of fifty people? Do you think I tell all I know? I have
here," added he, tapping his forehead, "twenty secrets that I could
sell to-morrow, if I would, for a plump hundred thousand apiece."

He was indignant, but beneath his anger a certain sad resignation
might be perceived. He had often to reject such offers.

"If you go and resist this prejudice established for ages, and say
that a detective is honest and cannot be otherwise, that he is
tenfold more honest than any merchant or notary, because he has
tenfold the tempta