he face, as it were,
of public morality and curiosity, charmed him by its audacity, and above
all he was carried away by the bold and uncommon character of the girl,
who, not content with a prosaic intrigue, had trampled underfoot all
social prejudices and proprieties, and plunged at once into unmeasured
and unrestrained dissipation; the singular mingling in her nature of
the vices of both sexes; the unbridled licentiousness of the courtesan
coupled with the devotion of a man for horses, wine, and fencing;
in short, her eccentric character, as it would now be called, kept
a passion alive which would else have quickly died away in his blase
heart. Nothing would induce him to follow Jeannin's advice to leave
Paris for at least a few weeks, although he shared Jeannin's fear that
the statement they had been forced to give the stranger would bring them
into trouble. The treasurer, who had no love affair on hand, went off;
but the commander bravely held his ground, and at the end of five or six
days, during which no one disturbed him, began to think the only result
of the incident would be the anxiety it had caused him.

Every evening as soon as it was dark he betook himself to the doctor's,
wrapped in his cloak, armed to the teeth, and his hat pulled down over
his eyes. For two days and nights, Charlotte, whom to avoid confusion we
shall continue to call the Chevalier de Moranges, hovered between life
and death. Her youth and the strength of her constitution enabled her at
last to overcome the fever, in spite of the want of skill of the surgeon
Perregaud.

Although de Jars was the only person who visited the chevalier, he was
not the only one who was anxious about the patient's health. Maitre
Quennebert, or men engaged by him to watch, for he did not want to
attract attention, were always prowling about the neighbourhood, so that
he was kept well informed of everything that went on: The instructions
he gave to these agents were, that if a funeral should leave the house,
they were to find out the name of the deceased, and then to let him know
without delay. But all these precautions seemed quite useless: he always
received the same answer to all his questions, "We know nothing." So at
last he determined to address himself directly to the man who could give
him information on which he could rely.

One night the commander left the surgeon's feeling more cheerful than
usual, for the chevalier had passed a good day, and there w