atives, of whom several lived
in Paris, rushed to his rooms; and their first act was to dismiss Sarah,
after having searched her trunks, and after giving her to understand
that she ought to be very grateful if she was allowed to take away all
she said she owed to the munificence of her late patron.

"Still the inheritance was by no means what the heirs had expected.
Knowing that the deceased had had ample means, and how simply he had
always lived, they expected to find in his bureau considerable savings.
There was nothing. A single bond for less than two thousand dollars, and
a small sum in cash, were all that was found.

"Ah! I have long endeavored to find out what had become of the various
bonds and the ready money of the old artist; for everybody who had known
him agreed that there must be some. Do you know what I discovered by
dint of indefatigable investigations? I procured leave to examine the
books of the savings-bank in which he invested his earnings for the year
of his death; and I found there, that on the 17th of April, that is,
five days before the poor German's fall, a certain Ernestine Bergot had
deposited a sum of fifteen hundred francs."

"Ah, you see!" exclaimed Daniel. "Weary of the simple life with the old
man, she murdered him in order to get hold of his money."

But the old gentleman continued, as if he had heard nothing,--

"What Sarah did during the three first months of her freedom, I cannot
tell. If she went and rented furnished lodgings, she did it under a
false name. A clerk in the mayor's office, who is a great lover of
curiosities, and for whom I have procured many a good bargain, had
all the lists of lodging-houses for the four months from April to July
carefully examined; but no Ernestine Bergot could be found.

"I am quite sure, however, that she thought of the stage. One of
the former secretaries of the Lyric Theatre told me he recollected
distinctly a certain Ernestine, beautiful beyond description, who, came
several times, and requested a trial. She was, however, refused, simply
because her pretensions were almost ridiculous. And this was quite
natural; for her head was still full of all the ambitious dreams of the
old artist.

"The first positive trace I find of Sarah in that year appears towards
the end of summer. She was then living in a fashionable street with
a young painter full of talent, and very rich, called Planix. Did she
really love him? The friends of the unfortunate