"Do you take him to the police-station? Shall I summon the
_gens-d'arme_?"

"No, no," replied the Pasteur, "he goes to keep an assignation, and is
in a hurry."

"Then why does he take you with him? Surely a clergyman will make a bad
third at such an affair?" ejaculated an outspoken lady who was standing
at her house door.

"Where is the street? I do not know it," asked the Pasteur.

"Nor do I," answered Godfrey, "but we shall come there all right. To
the left now."

"Oh! the influence! The strong influence!" muttered Monsieur Boiset.
"Behold! it leads him."

Truly it did lead him. Round corners and across squares they went into
an old part of the town with which neither of them was acquainted, till
at length Godfrey, diving beneath an archway, pulled up in front of an
antique doorway, saying:

"I think this is the place."

"Look at the writing and make sure," said the Pasteur, "for it seems
ridiculous----"

At that moment the door opened mysteriously, and Godfrey disappeared
into the passage beyond. Scarcely had the Pasteur time to follow him
when it shut again, although he could see no _concierge_.

"Doubtless it is one of those that works with a wire," he thought to
himself, but he had no time to stop to look, for already Godfrey was
climbing the stairs. Up he went, three floors, and up after him
scrambled the Pasteur. Suddenly Godfrey stopped at a door and not
waiting to ring the bell, knocked with his hand. Immediately it opened
and Godfrey, with his companion, passed into a very dark hall round
which were several other doors. Here in the gloom the Pasteur lost him.
Godfrey had gone through one of the doors, but which he could not see.
He stood still, listening, and presently heard a deep peculiar voice
speaking English with a very foreign accent, say:

"So you have come to see your godmamma, my dear little clever boy.
Well, I thought you would, and last night I sent you a pretty messenger
to give you remembrance."

Then the Pasteur found the handle of the door and entered the room. It
was a curious place draped, not without taste of a bizarre kind, in
vivid colours, wherein purple dominated, and it gave an idea of mingled
magnificence and squalor. Some of the furniture was very good, as were
one or two of the pictures, though all of it was of an odd and unusual
make. Thus, the sideboard was shaped like a sarcophagus, and supported
on solid sphinxes with gilded faces. In a corner of the room also