o, stay and help Raffe to put these papers in order. There are several
which it is quite unnecessary for Dubois to see."

And the duke offered his arm to Bathilde, went down, handed her into the
carriage, and after telling the coachman to stop at the corner of the
Rue Saint Honore and the Rue de Richelieu, placed himself by her side,
as thoughtless as though the fate from which he was about to save the
chevalier might not also await himself.

CHAPTER XLII.

THE CLOSET.

The carriage stopped at its destination, and Richelieu, getting out and
taking a key from his pocket, opened the door of a house at the corner
of the Rue de Richelieu.

"I must ask your pardon, mademoiselle," said the duke, offering his arm
to Bathilde, "for leading you by badly-lighted staircases and passages;
but I am anxious not to be recognized, should any one meet me here. We
have not far to go."

Bathilde had counted about twenty steps, when the duke stopped, drew a
second key from his pocket, and opened a door, then entered an
antechamber, and lighted a candle at a lamp on the staircase.

"Once again I must ask pardon, mademoiselle," said the duke, "but you
will soon understand why I chose to dispense with a servant here."

It mattered little to Bathilde whether the duke had a servant or not;
she entered the antechamber without replying, and the duke locked the
door behind her.

"Now follow me," said the duke; and he walked before the young girl,
lighting her with the candle which he held in his hand. They crossed a
dining-room and drawing-room, then entered a bedroom, where the duke
stopped.

"Mademoiselle," said Richelieu, placing the candle on the chimney-piece,
"I have your word that you will reveal nothing of what you are about to
see."

"I have given you my promise, and I now renew it; I should be ungrateful
indeed if I were to fail."

"Well, then, be the third in our secret, which is one of love; we put it
under the safeguard of love."

And the Duc de Richelieu, sliding away a panel in the woodwork,
discovered an opening in the wall, beyond which was the back of a
closet, and he knocked softly three times. Presently they heard a key
turn in the lock, then saw a light between the planks, then a low voice
asked, "Is it you?" On the duke's replying in the affirmative, three of
these planks were quietly detached, opening a means of communication
from one room to the other, and the duke and Bathilde found themselves
in