o reply.

"If you had not come in late this morning, I should have let you know
that she was there, and then you would not have looked so taken back.
She noticed how surprised you were."

He had managed to give them two little knocks: First, there was a gentle
scolding for them being late; secondly, he had let them see that he, a
foreman, had noticed that they had been unable to hide their
discomfiture and that the girl had noticed it, too. And they were M.
Vulfran's nephews! Ah! ha!

"M. Vulfran told me yesterday that he had taken that girl to live at the
chateau with him, and that in the future she would work in his office."

"But who is the girl?"

"That's what I'd like to know. I don't think your uncle knows either. He
told me he wanted someone to be with him whom he could trust."

"Hasn't he got us?" asked Casimir.

"That is just what I said to him. I mentioned you both, and do you know
what he replied?"

He wanted to pause to give more effect to his words, but he was afraid
that they would turn their backs upon him before he had said what he
wanted.

"'Oh, my nephews,' he said, 'and what are they?' From the tone in which
he said those few words I thought it better not to reply," continued
Talouel. "He told me then that he intended to have that girl up at the
chateau with him because there was someone trying to tempt her to tell
something that she should not tell. He said he knew that she could be
trusted, but he said he didn't like others that he could not trust to
put the girl in such a position. He said she had already proved to him
that she could be trusted. I wonder who he meant had tried to tempt her?

"I thought it my duty to tell you this, because while M. Edmond is away
you two take his place," added Talouel.

He had given them several thrusts, but he wanted to give them one last
sharp knock.

"Of course, M. Edmond might return at any moment," he said. "I believe
that your uncle is on the right track at last. He has been making
inquiries, and from the looks of things I think we shall have him back
soon."

"What have you heard? Anything?" asked Theodore, who could not restrain
his curiosity.

"Oh, I keep my eyes open," said Talouel, "and I can tell you that that
girl is doing a lot of translating in the way of letters and cables that
come from India."

At that moment he looked from a window and saw a telegraph boy strolling
up to the office.

"Here is another cable coming," he said. "T