er! No doubt he can't
pay his rent! A thief, my dears, a beggarly thief, who set fire to his
own cellar, and who accused me of trying to steal from him, while it was
he who cheated me, the villain, out of a piece of twenty-four sous.
It's lucky I turned up here! Well, well, we shall have some fun! Here's
another little business on your hands, and you will have to say where
that wine has got to, my dear gossip Derues."

"Derues!" cried twenty voices all at once.

"What! Derues who is in Prison?"

"Why, that's Monsieur de Lamotte's man."

"The man who killed Madame de Lamotte?"

"The man who made away with her son?"

"A scoundrel, my dears, who accused me of stealing, an absolute
monster!"

"It is just a little unfortunate," said widow Masson, "that it isn't
the man. My tenant calls himself Ducoudray. There's his name on the
register."

"Confound it, that doesn't look like it at all," said the hawker: "now
that's a bore! Oh yes, I have a grudge against that thief, who accused
me of stealing. I told him I should sell his history some day. When that
happens, I'll treat you all round."

As a foretaste of the fulfilment of this promise, the company disposed
of a second bottle of liqueur, and, becoming excited, they chattered
at random for some time, but at length slowly dispersed, and the
street relapsed into the silence of night. But, a few hours later,
the inhabitants were surprised to see the two ends occupied by unknown
people, while other sinister-looking persons patrolled it all night, as
if keeping guard. The next morning a carriage escorted by police stopped
at the widow Masson's door. An officer of police got out and entered a
neighbouring house, whence he emerged a quarter of an hour later with
Monsieur de Lamotte leaning on his arm. The officer demanded the key of
the cellar which last December had been hired from the widow Masson by a
person named Ducoudray, and went down to it with Monsieur de Lamotte and
one of his subordinates.

The carriage standing at the door, the presence of the commissioner
Mutel, the chatter of the previous evening, had naturally roused
everybody's imagination. But this excitement had to be kept for home
use: the whole street was under arrest, and its inhabitants were
forbidden to leave their houses. The windows, crammed with anxious
faces, questioning each other, in the expectation of something
wonderful, were a curious sight; and the ignorance in which they
remained, these