t of tears: 'You don't care about
him; you don't even wish to see him. If you know what grief you cause
me!'

"At last I was so much harassed by her that I promised, one day, to go,
next morning, to the Champs Elysees, when she took the child there for
an airing.

"But at the moment when I was leaving the house, I was stopped by a
sudden apprehension. Man is weak and foolish. What if I were to get fond
of this tiny being of whom I was the father--my son?

"I had my hat on my head, my gloves in my hands. I flung down the gloves
on my desk, and my hat on a chair:

"No. Decidedly I will not go; it is wiser not to go.'

"My door flew open. My brother entered the room. He handed me an
anonymous letter he had received that morning:

"'Warn the Comte de L----, your brother, that the little woman of the
Rue Casette is impudently laughing at him. Let him make some inquiries
about her.'

"I had never told anybody about this intrigue, and I now told my brother
the history of it from the beginning to the end. I added:

"For my part, I don't want to trouble myself any further about the
matter; but will you, like a good fellow, go and find out what you can
about her?

"When my brother had left me, I said to myself: 'In what way can she
have deceived me? She has other lovers? What does it matter to me? She
is young, fresh, and pretty; I ask nothing more from her. She seems to
love me, and as a matter of fact, she does not cost me much. Really, I
don't understand this business.'

"My brother speedily returned. He had learned from the police all that
was to be known about her husband: 'A clerk in the Home Department, of
regular habits and good repute, and, moreover, a thinking man, but
married to a very pretty woman, whose expenses seemed somewhat
extravagant for her modest position.' That was all.

"Now, my brother having sought for her at her residence, and finding
that she was gone out, succeeded, with the assistance of a little gold,
in making the doorkeeper chatter: 'Madame D----, a very worthy woman,
and her husband a very worthy man, not proud, not rich, but generous.'

"My brother asked for the sake of saying something:

"'How old is her little boy now?'

"'Why, she has not got any little boy, monsieur.'

"'What? Little Leon?'

"'No, monsieur, you are making a mistake.'

"'I mean the child she had while she was in Italy, two years ago?'

"'She has never been in Italy, monsieur; she has not quitted the hous