w, my dear Felix," resumed the commissary, "you will please get
yourself up as near as possible like a restaurant-waiter, and take
this letter to its address."

"At this hour!"

"Yes. The Baroness de Thaller is out to a ball. You will tell the
servants that you are bringing her an answer concerning an important
matter. They know nothing about it; but they will allow you to wait
for their mistress in the porter's lodge. As soon as she comes in,
you will hand her the letter, stating that two gentlemen who are
taking supper in your restaurant are waiting for the answer. It may
be that she will exclaim that you are a scoundrel, that she does not
know what it means: in that case, we shall have been anticipated, and
you must get away as fast as you can. But the chances are, that she
will give you two thousand francs; and then you must so manage, that
she will be seen plainly when she does it. Is it all understood?"

"Perfectly."

"Go ahead, then, and do not lose a minute. I shall wait."

Away from Mlle. Lucienne, Maxence had gradually been recalled to
the strangeness of the situation; and it was with a mingled feeling
of curiosity and surprise that he observed the commissary acting
and bustling about.

The good man had found again all the activity of his youth, together
with that fever of hope and that impatience of success, which
usually disappear with age.

He was going over the whole of the case again,--his first meeting
with Mlle. Lucienne, the various attempts upon her life; and he had
just taken out of the file the letter of information which had been
intrusted to him, in order to compare the writing with that of the
letter taken from his adversary by M. de Tregars, when the latter
came in all out of breath.

"Zelie has spoken!" he said.

And, at once addressing Maxence,

"You, my dear friend," he resumed, "you must run to the Hotel des
Folies."

"Is Lucienne worse?"

"No. Lucienne is getting on well enough. Zelie has spoken; but
there is no certainty, that, after due reflection, she will not
repent, and go and give the alarm. You will return, therefore,
and you will not lose sight of her until I call for her in the
morning. If she wishes to go out, you must prevent her."

The commissary had understood the importance of the precaution.

"You must prevent her," he added, "even by force; and I authorize
you, if need be, to call upon the agent whom I have placed on duty,
watching the Hotel d