door of his room.

"Well, my dear Camusot, how is that case going on that I spoke of this
morning?"

"Badly, Monsieur le Comte; read and judge for yourself."

He held out the minutes of the two examinations to Monsieur de
Granville, who took up his eyeglass and went to the window to read them.
He had soon run through them.

"You have done your duty," said the Count in an agitated voice. "It is
all over. The law must take its course. You have shown so much skill,
that you need never fear being deprived of your appointment as examining
judge---"

If Monsieur de Granville had said to Camusot, "You will remain an
examining judge to your dying day," he could not have been more explicit
than in making this polite speech. Camusot was cold in the very marrow.

"Madame la Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, to whom I owe much, had desired
me..."

"Oh yes, the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse is Madame de Serizy's friend,"
said Granville, interrupting him. "To be sure.--You have allowed nothing
to influence you, I perceive. And you did well, sir; you will be a great
magistrate."

At this instant the Comte Octave de Bauvan opened the door without
knocking, and said to the Comte de Granville:

"I have brought you a fair lady, my dear fellow, who did not know
which way to turn; she was on the point of losing herself in our
labyrinth----"

And Comte Octave led in by the hand the Comtesse de Serizy, who had been
wandering about the place for the last quarter of an hour.

"What, you here, madame!" exclaimed the public prosecutor, pushing
forward his own armchair, "and at this moment! This, madame, is Monsieur
Camusot," he added, introducing the judge.--"Bauvan," said he to the
distinguished ministerial orator of the Restoration, "wait for me in the
president's chambers; he is still there, and I will join you."

Comte Octave de Bauvan understood that not merely was he in the way, but
that Monsieur de Granville wanted an excuse for leaving his room.

Madame de Serizy had not made the mistake of coming to the Palais
de Justice in her handsome carriage with a blue hammer-cloth and
coats-of-arms, her coachman in gold lace, and two footmen in breeches
and silk stockings. Just as they were starting Asie impressed on the two
great ladies the need for taking the hackney coach in which she and the
Duchess had arrived, and she had likewise insisted on Lucien's mistress
adopting the costume which is to women what a gray cloak was of yore to
men. T