or. The
impenetrable Brunet picked it up, and returned it to me.

"Brunet!" I ejaculated.

"Monsieur?" said he, interrogatively, raising his hand to his forehead
by force of habit, although his hat stood beside him on the floor.

There was not a shadow of meaning in his face--not a quiver to denote
that he knew anything of what had passed. To judge by the stolid
indifference of his manner, one might have supposed that the delivery of
caskets full of watches and valuables was an event of daily occurrence
in the house of Dr. Cheron. His coolness silenced me. I drew a long
breath; hastened to put my watch in my pocket, and lock up my money in
my room; and then went to the master of the hotel, and informed him of
the recovery of my property. He smiled and congratulated me; but he did
not seem to be in the least surprised. I fancied, some how, that matters
were not quite so mysterious to him as they had been to me.

I also fancied that I heard a suspicious roar of laughter as I passed
out into the street.

It was not long before I found such apartments as I required, Piloted by
Brunet through some broad thoroughfares and along part of the
Boulevards, I came upon a cluster of narrow streets branching off
through a massive stone gateway from the Rue du Faubourg Montmartre.
This little nook was called the Cite Bergere. The houses were white and
lofty. Some had courtyards, and all were decorated with pretty iron
balconies and delicately-tinted Venetian shutters. Most of them bore the
announcement--"_Apartements a louer_"--suspended above the door. Outside
one of these houses sat two men with a little table between them. They
were playing at dominoes, and wore the common blue blouse of the
mechanic class. A woman stood by, paring celery, with an infant playing
on the mat inside the door and a cat purring at her feet. It was a
pleasant group. The men looked honest, the woman good-tempered, and the
house exquisitely clean; so the diplomatic Brunet went forward to
negotiate, while I walked up and down outside. There were rooms to be
let on the second, third and fifth floors. The fifth was too high, and
the second too expensive; but the third seemed likely to suit me. The
_suite_ consisted of a bed-room, dressing-room, and tiny _salon_, and
was furnished with the elegant uncomfortableness characteristic of our
French neighbors. Here were floors shiny and carpetless; windows that
objected to open, and drawers that refused to shut