ld not talk so, if you knew Sarah Brandon's antecedents as
well as I do. Ask my sister about her and Maxime de Brevan, and she will
tell you why I look upon that apparently trifling circumstance as so
very important."

Mrs. Bertolle made a sign that she assented; and he, sure, henceforth,
that his sagacity had not been at fault, continued,--

"Pardon me, M. Champcey, if I insist, and especially if I do so in Miss
Henrietta's presence; but our interest, I might almost say our safety,
requires it. Maxime de Brevan is caught, to be sure; but he is only a
vulgar criminal; and we have, as yet, neither Thomas Elgin, nor Mrs.
Brian, who are far more formidable, nor, above all, Sarah Brandon, who
is a thousand times more wicked, and more guilty, than all the rest. You
will tell me that we have ninety-nine chances out of a hundred on
our side; maybe! Only a single, slight mistake may lead us altogether
astray; and then there is an end to all our hopes, and these rascals
triumph after all!"

He was but too right. Daniel felt it; and hence he said, without
hesitating any longer, but looking stealthily at Henrietta's face,--

"Since that is so, I will not conceal from you that the Countess Sarah
has written me a dozen letters of at least extraordinary nature."

"You have kept them, I hope?"

"Yes; they are all in one of my trunks."

Papa Ravinet was evidently much embarrassed; but at last he said,--

"Ah! if I might dare? But no; it would be asking too much, perhaps, to
beg you to let me see them?"

He did not know how ready Daniel was to grant the request. Ready as he
was, to tell Henrietta everything, he could not but wish that she should
read these letters, as she would see from them, that, if the countess
had written to him, he had never returned an answer.

"You can never ask too much, M. Ravinet," he replied. "Lefloch, my
servant, must have come up by this time with the trunks; and, if you
give me time to go down to my room, you shall have the letters at once."

He was on the point of leaving the room, when the old dealer held him
back, and said,--

"Sir, you forget the man who has been following you all the way from
Marseilles. Wait till my sister has made sure that there is nobody
watching you."

Mrs. Bertolle at once went out; but she noticed nothing suspicious, and
found all the passages silent and deserted. The spy had probably gone to
make his report to his employers. Daniel went down promptly; and, when