oaning and
lamenting for his clients and especially for a poor widow whose
fortune he was to save the very next day by effecting a compromise. An
appointment had been made with certain business men and he was quite
incapable of keeping it. After having slept for a quarter of an hour,
he begged his wife in a feeble voice to write to one of his intimate
friends, asking him to take his (Lebrun's) place next day at the
conference. He dictated a long letter and followed with his eye the
space taken up on the paper by his phrases. When he came to begin the
second page of the last sheet, the advocate set out to describe to
his confrere the joy which his client would feel on the signing of the
compromise, and the fatal page began with these words:

"My good friend, go for Heaven's sake to Madame Vernon's at once;
you are expected with impatience there; she lives at No. 7 Rue de
Sentier. Pardon my brevity; but I count on your admirable good
sense to guess what I am unable to explain.

"Tout a vous."

"Give me the letter," said the lawyer, "that I may see whether it is
correct before signing it."

The unfortunate wife, who had been taken off her guard by this letter,
which bristled with the most barbarous terms of legal science, gave up
the letter. As soon as Lebrun got possession of the wily script he began
to complain, to twist himself about, as if in pain, and to demand one
little attention after another of his wife. Madame left the room for two
minutes during which the advocate leaped from his bed, folded a piece of
paper in the form of a letter and hid the missive written by his wife.
When Anna returned, the clever husband seized the blank paper, made her
address it to the friend of his, to whom the letter which he had taken
out was written, and the poor creature handed the blank letter to his
servant. Lebrun seemed to grow gradually calmer; he slept or pretended
to do so, and the next morning he still affected to feel strange pains.
Two days afterwards he tore off the first leaf of the letter and put
an "e" to the word _tout_ in the phrase "tout a vous."[*] He folded
mysteriously the paper which contained the innocent forgery, sealed it,
left his bedroom and called the maid, saying to her:

[*] Thus giving a feminine ending to the signature, and lending the
impression that the note emanated from the wife personally--J.W.M.

"Madame begs that you will tak