ed to write to him.

Her letter was as follows:

"DREAD SIR: Tremulously and submissively I approach you. In the
name of an unhappy creature I appeal to your compassion. You will
be the judge of a lot of wretched men. Be merciful to them. By the
grace of heaven I implore you, condemn them not! In the name of
God, I implore you not to sign their death warrants. By the
terrors of eternity I implore you do not ruin these men, for they
are most innocent. N. N."

She durst not subscribe her own name.

And now she waited, she watched for the moment when Leonard quitted his
room and, slipping in, laid the petition on the couch where he would be
sure to find it. Nobody observed her.

The same day she encountered him, she had in fact sought for such an
encounter. It was in the great armoury. Leonard, as soon as he perceived
his wife, began humming some mad operatic tune, an opera bouffe air and
bawled through the door to the dog-keeper to unleash the hounds.

The pale lady nevertheless approached him, with tottering but determined
footsteps, and folding both her trembling hands as if in prayer, stood
mutely in front of the door through which Leonard would have to pass,
like some dumb spirit from another world. But Leonard merely shrugged
his shoulders and passed her by, whistling all the time.

Again, on the following day, the timid petition lay on Leonard's table,
written in the same tremulous characters. Henrietta had written it
again, and again had crept into his chamber and in whatever part of the
house the magnate might now be found, he everywhere encountered this
pale tremulous figure who pressing her hands together and without
uttering a word gazed at him beseechingly, imploringly--only they two
knew why.

On the third day Leonard again found the petition and again encountered
Henrietta.

This time he spoke to her.

"My dear Henrietta, have you read 'The Mysteries of Paris?'"

Henrietta, as usual, only stared at the speaker with frightened eyes and
said nothing.

"How did you like the description of Bicetre? A horrible place, eh? I
have noticed that you have been behaving in rather a peculiar way
lately. In fact, the whole district has been talking about it and saying
that you are a little crazy. I have been asked all sorts of questions
about it too.--Hitherto I have always told everybody that it is not
true.--But if once I should say that it _is_ true, then, you will be