ght when I said that, if you would come here to-night, you
would finish the day as you had begun it,--by performing a good action?"

"And pray, madame, do not omit to add,--an action after my own heart,
where all is pleasure and unmixed enjoyment in its performance. And now,
adieu!" said Rodolph, rising as the clock struck half-past eleven.

"Adieu, my lord, and pray do not forget to send me news ere long of
those poor people in the Rue du Temple."

"I will see them to-morrow, for, unfortunately, I knew not of that
little limping rascal having stolen your purse; and I fear that the
unhappy creatures are in the most deplorable want. Have the kindness to
bear in mind that, in the course of four days, I shall come to explain
to you the nature of the part you will be required to undertake. One
thing I must prepare you for; and that is, the probability of its being
requisite for you to assume a disguise on the occasion."

"A disguise? Oh, how charming! What sort of one, my lord?"

"I cannot tell you at present. I will leave the choice to you."

* * * * *

"All that is requisite," said the prince, on his return home, "to save
this excellent woman from the perils of another attachment, is to fill
her mind with generous thoughts; and, since an invincible repugnance
separates her from her husband, to employ her love for the romantic in
such charitable actions as shall require being enshrouded in mystery."

CHAPTER XII.

MISERY.

The reader has probably not forgotten that the garret in the Rue du
Temple was occupied by an unfortunate family, the father of whom was a
working lapidary, named Morel. We shall now endeavour to describe the
wretched abode of Morel and his children.

It was six o'clock in the morning; a deep silence dwelt around. The
streets were still deserted, for the snow fell fast, and the cold,
biting wind froze as it blew. A miserable candle, stuck upon a small
block of wood, and supported by two slips of the same material, scarcely
penetrated with its yellow, flickering light the misty darkness of the
garret,--a narrow, low-built place, two-thirds of which was formed by
the sloping roof, which communicated by a sharp angle with the wretched
flooring, and freely exposed the moss-covered tiles of the outer roof.
Walls covered with plaster, blackened by time, and split into countless
crevices, displayed the rotten, worm-eaten laths, which formed the frail
division f