crying bitterly, and I cannot abandon her so--"

"Be quite easy, Hector. She will find a home with honest people, and I
will answer for her conduct."

"Well, then, I can go with you," said the Baron, escorting his wife to
the cab.

Hector, the Baron d'Ervy once more, had put on a blue coat and trousers,
a white waistcoat, a black stock, and gloves. When the Baroness had
taken her seat in the vehicle, Atala slipped in like an eel.

"Oh, madame," she said, "let me go with you. I will be so good, so
obedient; I will do whatever you wish; but do not part me from my Daddy
Vyder, my kind Daddy who gives me such nice things. I shall be beaten--"

"Come, come, Atala," said the Baron, "this lady is my wife--we must
part--"

"She! As old as that! and shaking like a leaf!" said the child. "Look at
her head!" and she laughingly mimicked the Baroness' palsy.

The stove-fitter, who had run after the girl, came to the carriage door.

"Take her away!" said Adeline. The man put his arms round Atala and
fairly carried her off.

"Thanks for such a sacrifice, my dearest," said Adeline, taking the
Baron's hand and clutching it with delirious joy. "How much you are
altered! you must have suffered so much! What a surprise for Hortense
and for your son!"

Adeline talked as lovers talk who meet after a long absence, of a
hundred things at once.

In ten minutes the Baron and his wife reached the Rue Louis-le-Grand,
and there Adeline found this note awaiting her:--

"MADAME LA BARONNE,--

"Monsieur le Baron Hulot d'Ervy lived for one month in the Rue de
Charonne under the name of Thorec, an anagram of Hector. He is now
in the Passage du Soleil by the name of Vyder. He says he is an
Alsatian, and does writing, and he lives with a girl named Atala
Judici. Be very cautious, madame, for search is on foot; the Baron
is wanted, on what score I know not.

"The actress has kept her word, and remains, as ever,

"Madame la Baronne, your humble servant,

"J. M."

The Baron's return was hailed with such joy as reconciled him to
domestic life. He forgot little Atala Judici, for excesses of profligacy
had reduced him to the volatility of feeling that is characteristic of
childhood. But the happiness of the family was dashed by the change that
had come over him. He had been still hale when he had gone away from
his home; he had come back almost a hundred, broken, bent, and his
expression even debased.

A splendid