to the pistol, which gleamed in the sunlight that
entered through the casement. Then he added: "And you will have the idea
still less when you will have been able to prove 'de visu' what those
anonymous letters were worth. Twelve letters in fifteen days, and
cuttings from how many papers? And they claim that we invent heinousness
in our books! If you like, we will search together for the person who can
have elaborated that little piece of villany. It must be a Judas, a
Rodin, an Iago--or Iaga. But this is not the moment to waste in
hypotheses.

"Are you sure of your valet? You must send him a despatch, and in that
despatch the copy of another addressed to Madame Gorka, which your man
will send this very evening. You will announce your arrival for tomorrow,
making allusion to a letter written, so to speak, from Poland, and which
was lost. This evening from here you will take the train for Florence,
from which place you will set out again this very night. You will be in
Rome again to-morrow morning. You will have avoided, not only the
misfortune of having become a murderer, though you would not have
surprised any one, I am sure, but the much more grave misfortune of
awakening Madame Gorka's suspicions. Is it a promise?"

Dorsenne rose to prepare a pen and paper: "Come, write the despatch
immediately, and render thanks to your good genius which led you to a
friend whose business consists in imagining the means of solving
insoluble situations."

"You are quite right," Boleslas replied, after taking in his hand the pen
which he offered to the other, "it is fortunate." Then, casting aside the
pen as he had the revolver, "I can not. No, I can not, as long as I have
this doubt within me. Ah, it is too horrible! I can see them plainly. You
speak to me of my wife; but you forget that she loves me, and at the
first glance she would read me, as you did. You can not imagine what an
effort it has cost me for two years never to arouse suspicion. I was
happy, and it is easy to deceive when one has nothing to hide but
happiness. To-day we should not be together five minutes before she would
seek, and she would find. No, no; I can not. I need something more."

"Unfortunately," replied Julien, "I cannot give it to you. There is no
opium to lull asleep doubts such as those horrible anonymous letters have
awakened. What I know is this, that if you do not follow my advice Madame
Gorka will not have a suspicion, but certainty. It is now p