d,
for she was starting for Saint-Cloud in obedience to a Royal invitation.

"Between you and me, my dear, a few words are enough."

"Yes, Madame la Duchesse."

"Lucien de Rubempre is in custody, your husband is conducting the
inquiry; I will answer for the poor boy's innocence; see that he is
released within twenty-four hours.--This is not all. Some one will ask
to-morrow to see Lucien in private in his cell; your husband may be
present if he chooses, so long as he is not discovered. The King looks
for high courage in his magistrates in the difficult position in which
he will presently find himself; I will bring your husband forward, and
recommend him as a man devoted to the King even at the risk of his
head. Our friend Camusot will be made first a councillor, and then the
President of Court somewhere or other.--Good-bye.--I am under orders,
you will excuse me, I know?

"You will not only oblige the public prosecutor, who cannot give an
opinion in this affair; you will save the life of a dying woman, Madame
de Serizy. So you will not lack support.

"In short, you see, I put my trust in you, I need not say--you know----"

She laid a finger to her lips and disappeared.

"And I had not a chance of telling her that Madame d'Espard wants to see
Lucien on the scaffold!" thought the judge's wife as she returned to her
hackney cab.

She got home in such a state of anxiety that her husband, on seeing her,
asked:

"What is the matter, Amelie?"

"We stand between two fires."

She told her husband of her interview with the Duchess, speaking in his
ear for fear the maid should be listening at the door.

"Now, which of them has the most power?" she said in conclusion. "The
Marquise was very near getting you into trouble in the silly business of
the commission on her husband, and we owe everything to the Duchess.

"One made vague promises, while the other tells you you shall first be
Councillor and then President.--Heaven forbid I should advise you; I
will never meddle in matters of business; still, I am bound to repeat
exactly what is said at Court and what goes on----"

"But, Amelie, you do not know what the Prefet of police sent me this
morning, and by whom? By one of the most important agents of the
superior police, the Bibi-Lupin of politics, who told me that the
Government had a secret interest in this trial.--Now let us dine and go
to the Varietes. We will talk all this over to-night in my private room,
for I