e found to
assert that, owing either to fortunate speculations or lucky hits upon
the Stock Exchange, undertaken in partnership with the above mentioned
Charles Robert, the worthy notary could now well afford to pay back the
original loan with high interest; but the rigidly austere and
self-denying life of this worthy man gives a flat denial to all such
gossiping reports, and, spite of the incredulity with which he is
occasionally listened to, he persists in styling himself a man
struggling for a maintenance. There can be no manner of doubt but that
Madame Seraphin, this worthy gentleman's housekeeper, could, if she
pleased, throw an entire light upon every circumstance connected with
La Goualeuse."

"Bravo, my dear baron!" exclaimed Murphy; "nothing can be better. These
declarations of Tournemine carry with them an appearance of truth, and
it seems more than probable that we may, through Jacques Ferrand, obtain
the right clue to discovering the parents of this unfortunate girl. Now
tell me, have you been equally successful in the information collected
touching the son of the Schoolmaster?"

"Perhaps, as regards him, I am not furnished with such minute
particulars; but, upon the whole, I think the result of our inquiries
very satisfactory."

"Upon my word, your M. Badinot is a downright treasure!"

"You see, Bras Rouge is the hinge upon which everything turns. M.
Badinot, who has several acquaintances in the police, pointed him out to
us as the go-between of several notorious felons, and knew the man
directly he was set to discover what had become of the ill-fated son of
Madame Georges Duresnel, the unfortunate wife of this atrocious
Schoolmaster."

"And it was in going to search for Bras Rouge, in his den in the Cite
(Rue aux Feves, No. 13), that my lord fell in with the Chourineur and La
Goualeuse. His royal highness hoped, too, that the opportunity now
before him, of visiting these abodes of vice and wretchedness, might
afford him the means of rescuing some unfortunate being from the depths
of guilt and misery. His benevolent anticipations were gratified, but at
what risk it is painful even to remember."

"Whatever dangers attended the scheme, you, at least, my dear Murphy,
bravely bore your share in them."

"Was not I, for that very purpose, appointed charcoal-man in waiting
upon his royal highness?" replied the squire, smilingly.

"Say, rather, his intrepid body-guard, my worthy friend. But to touch
upon