ations had been opened with the prisoner. Now that the
letter had been alluded to, it became necessary to take him into
confidence. At first he was astonished, then he looked displeased; and,
when he had been told every thing, he said,--

"This is great imprudence! This is too daring!"

Then looking at M. Folgat, he added,--

"Our profession has certain rules which cannot be broken without causing
trouble. To bribe a clerk, to profit by his weakness and his sympathy"--

The Paris lawyer had blushed imperceptibly. He said,--

"I should never have advised such imprudence; but, when it was once
committed, I did not feel bound to insist upon its being abandoned: and
even if I should be blamed for it, or more, I mean to profit by it."

M. Magloire did not reply; but, after having read Jacques's letter, he
said,--

"I am at M. de Boiscoran's disposal; and I shall go to him as soon as he
is no longer in close confinement. I think, as Miss Dionysia does, that
he will insist upon saying nothing. However, as we have the means of
reaching him by letter,--well, here I am myself ready to profit by the
imprudence that has been committed!--beseech him, in the name of his own
interest, in the name of all that is dear to him, to speak, to explain,
to prove his innocence."

Thereupon M. Magloire bowed, and withdrew suddenly, leaving his audience
in consternation, so very evident was it, that he left so suddenly
in order to conceal the painful impression which Jacques's letter had
produced upon him.

"Certainly," said M. de Chandore, "we will write to him; but we might
just as well whistle. He will wait for the end of the investigation."

"Who knows?" murmured Dionysia.

And, after a moment's reflection, she added,--

"We can try, however."

And, without vouchsafing any further explanation, she left the room, and
hastened to her chamber to write the following letter:--

"I must speak to you. There is a little gate in our garden which opens
upon Charity Lane, I will wait for you there. However late it may be
when you get these lines, come!

"DIONYSIA."

Then having put the note into an envelope, she called the old nurse,
who had brought her up, and, with all the recommendations which extreme
prudence could suggest, she said to her,--

"You must see to it that M. Mechinet the clerk gets this note to-night.
Go! make haste!"

IX.

During the last twenty-four hours, Mechinet had changed so much, that
his sisters re