f I have killed that poor Lafare I
shall never forgive myself."

After this outburst, which comforted him a little, the poor fellow began
to walk backward and forward between the door and the window in a
manner that showed that he still wanted more deceptions of the same sort
in order to arrive at the perfection of moral philosophy which the
faithless beauty preached to him. Then, after two or three turns, he saw
the other letter, which he had entirely forgotten, lying on the floor.
He passed it once or twice, looking at it with a supreme indifference.
At last, seeming to think that it would make some diversion on the
first, he picked it up disdainfully, opened it slowly, looked at the
writing, which was unknown to him, searched for the signature, but there
was none; and then, led on by the mysterious air of it, he read as
follows:

"CHEVALIER--If you have in your mind a quarter of the
romance, or in your heart half the courage, that your
friends give you credit for, some one is ready to offer
you an enterprise worthy of you, and the result of
which will be at the same time to avenge you on the man
you hate most in the world, and to conduct you to a
goal more brilliant than you can have hoped for in your
wildest dreams. The good genius who will lead you
thither by an enchanted road, and in whom you must
trust entirely, will expect you this evening at ten
o'clock at the opera ball. If you come there unmasked,
he will come to you; if you come masked, you will know
him by the violet ribbon which he will wear on his left
shoulder. The watch-word is 'open sesame;' speak
boldly, and a cavern will open to you as wonderful as
that of Ali Baba."

"Bravo!" said D'Harmental; "if the genius in the violet ribbons keeps
only half his promise, by my honor he has found his man!"

CHAPTER III.

THE CHEVALIER.

The Chevalier Raoul d'Harmental, with whom, before going further, it is
necessary that our readers make a better acquaintance, was the last of
one of the best families of Nivernais. Although that family had never
played an important part in history, yet it did not want a certain
notoriety, which it had acquired partly alone and partly by its
alliances. Thus the father of the chevalier, the Sire Gaston
d'Harmental, had come to Paris in 1682, and had proved his genealogical
tree from the year 1399, an heraldic operation which would have