is M. Verminet?" asked Gaston authoritatively.

"Engaged," replied one of the clerks, without pausing to empty his mouth
before he replied.

"Don't you talk to me like that. What do I care whether he is engaged or
not? Tell him that Gaston de Gandelu desires to see him at once."

The clerk was evidently impressed by his visitor's manner, and, taking
the card which was handed to him, made his exit through a door at the
other end of the room.

Gaston was delighted at this first victory, and glanced at Andre with a
triumphant smile.

The clerk came back almost at once. "M. Verminet," cried he, "has a
client with him just now. He begs that you will excuse him for a few
minutes, when he will see you;" and evidently anxious to be civil to the
gorgeously attired youths before him, he added, "My master is just now
engaged with M. de Croisenois."

"Aha," cried Gaston; "I will lay you ten to one that the dear Marquis
will be delighted to see me."

Andre started on hearing this name, and his cheek crimsoned. The man
whom he most hated in this world; the wretch who, by his possession of
some compromising secret, was forcing Sabine into a detested marriage;
the villain whom he, M. de Breulh, and Madame de Bois Arden had sworn to
overreach, was within a few paces of him, and that now he should see him
face to face. Their eyes would meet, and he would hear the tones of the
scoundrel's voice. His rage and agitation were so intense that it was
with the utmost difficulty that he concealed it. Luckily for him, Gaston
was not paying the slightest attention to his companion; for having, at
the clerk's invitation, taken a chair, he assumed an imposing attitude,
which struck the shabby young man behind the railing with the deepest
admiration.

"I suppose," said he, in a loud voice, "that you know my dear friend,
the Marquis?"

Andre made some reply, which Gaston interpreted as a negative.

"Really," said he, "you know _no_ one, as I told you before. Where have
you lived? But you must have heard of him? Henri de Croisenois is one of
my most intimate friends. He owes me over fifty louis that I won of him
one night at baccarat."

Andre was now certain that he had estimated Verminet's character
correctly, and the relations of the Marquis de Croisenois with this very
equivocal personage assumed a meaning of great significance to him. He
felt now that he had gained a clue, a beacon blazed out before him,
and he saw his way more clear