t few days?"

"Nobody but myself, except my master's family."

"Do you not see, my good fellow, that by saying that, you throw
suspicion on yourself?"

"Surely, sir," the valet exclaimed, "you do not believe..."

"I must not believe anything; my duty is merely to investigate and to
follow up any traces that I may discover," was the reply. "If you have
been the only person to go into the room within the last few days, I
must hold you responsible."

"My master knows me..."

The police director shrugged his shoulders: "Your master has vouched for
your honesty, but that is not enough for me. You are the only person on
whom, at present, any suspicion rests, and therefore I must--sorry as I
am to do so--have you arrested."

"If that is so," the man said, after some hesitation, "I prefer to speak
the truth, for my good name is more to me than my situation. Somebody
was in my master's apartments yesterday."

"And this somebody was...?"

"A lady."

"A lady of his acquaintance?"

The valet did not reply for some time.

"It must come out," he said at length. "My master keeps a woman--you
understand, sir, a pretty, fair woman; and he has furnished a house for
her and goes to see her, but secretly of course, for if my mistress were
to find it out, there would be a terrible scene. This person was with
him yesterday."

"Were they alone?"

"I showed her in, and she was in his bedroom with him; but I had to call
him out after a short time, as his confidential clerk wanted to speak to
him, and so she was in the room alone for about a quarter of an hour."

"What is her name?"

"Caecelia K----; she is a Hungarian." At the same time the valet gave him
her address.

Then the director of police sent for the banker, who, on being brought
face to face with his valet, was obliged to acknowledge the truth of the
facts which the latter had alleged, painful as it was for him to do so;
whereupon orders were given to take Caecelia K---- into custody.

In less than half an hour, however, the police officer who had been
dispatched for that purpose, returned and said that she had left her
apartments, and most likely the Capital also, the previous evening. The
unfortunate banker was almost in despair. Not only had he been robbed of
a hundred and fifty thousand florins, but at the same time he had lost
the beautiful woman, whom he loved with all the passion of which he was
capable. He could not grasp the idea that a woman whom he h