e. Do you know him? You do. Well, she was kept there a
prisoner, until we helped her to escape an hour or so ago."

He did not seem to comprehend even then. I could see little of his
face, but there was doubt and wonder in his tone when he spoke.
"Mirepoix the glover," he murmured. "He is an honest man enough,
though a Catholic. She was kept there! Who kept her there?"

"The Abbess of the Ursulines seems to have been at the bottom of it," I
explained, fretting with impatience. This wonder was misplaced, I
thought; and time was passing. "Madame d'O found out where she was," I
continued, "and took her home, and then sent me to fetch you, hearing
you had crossed the river. That is the story in brief."

"That woman sent you to fetch me?" he repeated again.

"Yes," I answered angrily. "She did, M. de Pavannes."

"Then," he said slowly, and with an air of solemn conviction which
could not but impress me, "there is a trap laid for me! She is the
worst, the most wicked, the vilest of women! If she sent you, this is
a trap! And my wife has fallen into it already! Heaven help her--and
me--if it be so!"

CHAPTER VIII.

THE PARISIAN MATINS.

There are some statements for which it is impossible to be prepared;
statements so strong and so startling that it is impossible to answer
them except by action--by a blow. And this of M. de Pavannes was one
of these. If there had been any one present, I think I should have
given him the lie and drawn upon him. But alone with him at midnight
in the shadow near the bottom of the Rue des Fosses, with no witnesses,
with every reason to feel friendly towards him, what was I to do?

As a fact, I did nothing. I stood, silent and stupefied, waiting to
hear more. He did not keep me long.

"She is my wife's sister," he continued grimly. "But I have no reason
to shield her on that account! Shield her? Had you lived at court
only a month I might shield her all I could, M. de Caylus, it would
avail nothing. Not Madame de Sauves is better known. And I would not
if I could! I know well, though my wife will not believe it, that
there is nothing so near Madame d'O's heart as to get rid of her sister
and me--of both of us--that she may succeed to Madeleine's inheritance!
Oh, yes, I had good grounds for being nervous yesterday, when my wife
did not return," he added excitedly.

"But there at least you wrong Madame d'O!" I cried, shocked and
horrified by an accusation,