tance. The Englishman may have known him by sight.
The kind of acquaintance he might have had with the quadroon was not
likely to vary much from an acquaintance with some unknown neighbor's cat
on which he mildly hoped to bestow a pitcher of water if ever he caught
him under his window.

Camille mentioned the Englishman approvingly to three other friends of
Attalie, when, with what they thought was adroitness, they turned
conversation upon her pecuniary welfare. They were Jean d'Eau, a
slumberous butcher; Richard Reau, an embarrassed baker; and one ----
Ecswyzee, an illiterate but prosperous candlestick-maker. These names may
sound inexact, but _can you prove_ that these were not their names and
occupations? We shall proceed.

These three simple souls were bound to Attalie by the strong yet tender
bonds of debit and credit. She was not distressingly but only
interestingly "behind" on their well-greased books, where Camille's
account, too, was longer on the left-hand side. When they alluded
inquiringly to her bill, he mentioned the Englishman vaguely and assured
them it was "good paper to hold," once or twice growing so extravagant as
to add that his (Camille's) own was hardly better!

The tradesmen replied that they hadn't a shadow of doubt. In fact, they
said, their mention, of the matter was mere jest, etc.

III.

Ducour's Meditations.

There were a few points in this case upon which Camille wished he could
bring to bear those purely intellectual--not magical--powers of divination
which he modestly told his clients were the secret of all his sagacious
advice. He wished he could determine conclusively and exactly what was the
mutual relation of Attalie and her lodger. Out of the minutest corner of
one eye he had watched her for years.

A quadroon woman's lot was a hard one; any true woman would say that, even
while approving the laws and popular notions of necessity that made that
lot what it was. The law, popular sentiment, public policy, always looked
at Attalie's sort with their right eye shut. And according to all the
demands of the other eye Camille knew that Attalie was honest, faithful.
But was that all; or did she stand above and beyond the demands of law and
popular sentiment? In a word, to whom was she honest, faithful; to the
Englishman merely, or actually to herself? If to herself actually, then in
case of his early death, for Camille had got a notion of that, and had got
it from Attalie, who ha