irst floor, where she lived, Madame Denis
particularly recommended him to the care of the porter and his wife.
This young man, though in appearance he could certainly compete with the
proudest seigneurs of the court, seemed to her far from having the bold
and free manners which the young men of the time affected. 'Tis true
that the Abbe Brigaud, in the name of his pupil's family, had paid her a
quarter in advance.

A minute after, the abbe went down to Madame Denis's room and completed
her good opinion of his young protege by telling her that he received
absolutely nobody but himself and an old friend of his father's. The
latter, in spite of brusk manners, which he had acquired in the field,
was a highly respectable gentleman.

D'Harmental used this precaution for fear the apparition of the captain
might frighten Madame Denis if she happened to meet him. When he was
alone, the chevalier, who had already taken the inventory of his own
room, resolved to take that of the neighborhood. He was soon able to
convince himself of the truth of what Madame Denis had said about the
quietness of the street, for it was not more than ten or twelve feet
wide; but this was to him a recommendation, for he calculated that if
pursued he might, by means of a plank passed from one window to that
opposite, escape to the other side of the street. It was, therefore,
important to establish amicable relations with his opposite neighbors.

Unfortunately, they did not seem much disposed to sociability; for not
only were the windows hermetically sealed, as the time of year demanded,
but the curtains behind them were so closely drawn, that there was not
the smallest opening through which he could look. More favored than that
of Madame Denis, the house opposite had a fifth story, or rather a
terrace. An attic room just above the window so carefully closed, opened
on this terrace. It was probably the residence of a gardener, for he had
succeeded, by means of patience and labor, in transforming this terrace
into a garden, containing, in some twelve feet square, a fountain, a
grotto, and an arbor.

It is true that the fountain only played by means of a superior
reservoir, which was fed in winter by the rain, and in summer by what he
himself poured into it. It is true that the grotto, ornamented with
shell work, and surrounded by a wooden fortress, appeared fit only to
shelter an individual of the canine race. It is true that the arbor,
entirely strip