f Andre, and mind and be there before eight a.m."

The Count made a rush at him on hearing this last insult, but he was
too late, for Tantaine slammed the door, and was in the hall before the
infuriated master of the house could open it. Tantaine had resumed
all his airs of humility, and took off his hat to the footmen as he
descended the steps. "Yes," muttered he, as he walked along, "the idea
was a happy one. Andre knows that he is watched, and will be careful;
and now that M. de Mussidan is aware that his sweet, pure daughter
has had a lover, he will be only too happy to accept the Marquis de
Croisenois as his son-in-law." Tantaine believed that Sabine was more
culpable than she really had been, for the idea of pure and honorable
love had never entered his brain.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE TEMPTER.

By this time Tantaine was in the Champs Elysees, and stared anxiously
around. "If my Toto makes no mistake," muttered he, "surely my order was
plain enough."

The old man got very cross as he at last perceived the missing lad
conversing with the proprietor of a pie-stall, having evidently been
doing a little jawing with him.

"Toto," he called, "Toto, come here."

Toto Chupin heard him, for he looked round, but he did not move, for he
was certainly much interested in the conversation he was carrying on.
Tantaine shouted again, and this time more angrily than before, and
Toto, reluctantly leaving his companion, came slowly up to his patron.

"You have been a nice time getting here," said the lad sulkily. "I was
just going to cut it. Ain't you well that you make such a row? If you
ain't, I'd better go for a doctor.

"I am in a tremendous hurry, Toto."

"Yes, and so is the postman when he is behind time. I'm busy too."

"What, with the man you have just left?"

"Yes; he is a sharper chap than I am. How much do you earn every day,
Daddy Tantaine? Well, that chap makes his thirty or forty francs every
night, and does precious little for it. I should like a business like
that, and I think that I shall secure one soon."

"Have patience. I thought that you were going into business with those
two young men you were drinking beer with at the Grand Turk?"

Toto uttered a shrill cry of anger at these words. "Business with them?"
shrieked he; "they are regular clever night thieves."

"Have they done you any harm, my poor lad?"

"Yes; they have utterly ruined me. Luckily, I saw Mascarin yesterday,
and he set me up in