received money from him to keep him informed of Mme. Acquet's doings.
Langelley, for his part, said that Placene was a rogue and that if "he
had already got his share of the plunder, he received at least as much
again from the police."

The poor woman who formed the pivot of these intrigues was not spared by
her unworthy accomplices. Having in mind Joseph Buquet and Chauvel, they
all suspected one another of having been her lovers. Vannier had thus
made her pay for her hospitality; Langelley and the gendarme Mallet
himself, had exacted the same price--accusations it was as impossible as
it was useless to refute. She herself well knew her own abasement, and
at times disgust seized her. On the evening of September 27th, she did
not return to Vannier's; escaping from this hell, she craved shelter
from a lacemaker named Adelaide Monderard, who lodged in the Rue du Han,
and who was Langelley's mistress. The girl consented to take her in and
gave her up one of the two rooms which formed her lodgings, and which
were reached by a very dark staircase. It was a poor room under the
roof, lighted by two small casements, the furniture being of the
shabbiest. Chauvel came to see her there the following day, and there it
was that she learnt of the expected arrival of Captain Delaitre, sent
by Mme. de Combray to save her, and secure her the means of going to
England. Mme. Acquet manifested neither regret nor joy. She was
astonished that her mother should think of her; but it seems that she
did not attach great importance to this incident, which was to decide
her fate. A single idea possessed her: how to find a retreat which would
allow of her escaping from Vannier's hateful guardianship; and
Langelley, who was very surprised at finding her at the lacemaker's,
seeing her perplexity offered to escort her to a country house, about a
league from the town, where his father lived. She set out with him that
very evening; at the same hour the false Captain Delaitre left Rouen,
and the ruse so cleverly planned by Licquet, put an end to Mme. Acquet's
lamentable adventures.

Arriving at the Hotel du Pare on October 2d, "Captain" Delaitre went to
the window of his room and saw a man hurrying down the street with a
very small woman on his arm, very poorly dressed. From his walk he
recognised Chauvel dressed as a bourgeois; the woman was Mme. Acquet.
The two men bowed, and Chauvel leaving his companion, went up to the
Captain's room. "There were co