employer. "I promise you I'll leave him,
mother," he declared, "so you may be quite easy in mind."

"Very well; but now, at this moment, where are you going?"

There was only one way of completely reassuring the good woman, and that
was to tell her all. Chupin did so with absolute frankness. "Ah, well!"
she said, when the narrative was finished. "You see now how easy it is
to lead you astray! How could you be induced to play the part of a spy,
when you know so well what it leads to? It's only God's protecting care
that has saved you again from an act which you would have reproached
yourself for all your life. Your employer's intentions are good now; but
they WERE criminal when he ordered you to follow Madame d'Argeles. Poor
woman! She had sacrificed herself for her son, she had concealed herself
from him, and you were working to betray her. Poor creature! how she
must have suffered, and how much I pity her! To be what she is, and to
see herself denounced by her own son! I, who am only a poor plebeian,
should die of shame under such circumstances."

Chupin blew his nose so loudly that the window-panes rattled; this was
his way of repressing his emotion whenever it threatened to overcome
him. "You speak like the good mother that you are," he exclaimed at
last, "and I'm prouder of you than if you were the handsomest and
richest lady in Paris, for you're certainly the most honest and
virtuous; and I should be a thorough scoundrel if I caused you a
moment's sorrow. And if ever I set my foot in such a mess again, I hope
some one will cut it off. But for this once----"

"For this once, you may go, Toto; I give my consent."

He went off with a lighter heart; and on reaching the Rue d'Anjou he
immediately began his investigations. They were not successful at first.
At every house where he made inquiries nobody had any knowledge of the
Viscount de Coralth. He had visited half the buildings in the street,
when he reached one of the handsomest houses, in front of which stood
a cart laden with plants and flowers. An old man, who seemed to be the
concierge, and a valet in a red waistcoat, were removing the plants from
the vehicle and arranging them in a line under the porte cochere. As
soon as the cart was emptied, it drove away, whereupon Chupin stepped
forward, and addressing the concierge, asked: "Does the Viscount de
Coralth live here?"

"Yes. What do you want with him?"

Having foreseen this question, Chupin had prepared