He took the money and promptly became very civil, even obsequious.  He not only accompanied me to the door, but all the way down the stairs, and assured me all the time that he would do his best to give me entire satisfaction.

I left my address with him, and sure enough, he turned up at the office the next morning at seven o’clock precisely.

Theodore had had my orders to direct him in his work, and I was left free to enact the second scene of the moving drama in which I was determined to play the hero and to ring down the curtain to the sound of the wedding bells.

3.

I took on the work of odd-job man at 65 Rue des Pyramides.  Yes, I!  Even I, who had sat in the private room of an emperor discussing the destinies of Europe.

But with a beautiful bride and one hundred thousand francs as my goal I would have worked in a coal mine or on the galleys for such a guerdon.

The task, I must tell you, was terribly irksome to a man of my sensibilities, endowed with an active mind and a vivid imagination.  The dreary monotony of fetching water and fuel from below and polishing the boots of that arch-scoundrel Farewell would have made a less stout spirit quail.  I had, of course, seen through the scoundrel’s game at once.  He had rendered Estelle quite helpless by keeping all her papers of identification and by withholding from her all the letters which, no doubt, the English lawyers wrote to her from time to time.  Thus she was entirely in his power.  But, thank heaven! only momentarily, for I, Hector Ratichon, argus-eyed, was on the watch.  Now and then the monotony of my existence and the hardship of my task were relieved by a brief glimpse of Estelle or a smile of understanding from her lips; now and then she would contrive to murmur as she brushed past me while I was polishing the scoundrel’s study floor, “Any luck yet?” And this quiet understanding between us gave me courage to go on with my task.

After three days I had conclusively made up my mind that Mr. Farewell kept his valuable papers in the drawer of the bureau in the study.  After that I always kept a lump of wax ready for use in my pocket.  On the fifth day I was very nearly caught trying to take an impression of the lock of the bureau drawer.  On the seventh I succeeded, and took the impression over to a locksmith I knew of, and gave him an order to have a key made to fit it immediately.  On the ninth day I had the key.

Then commenced a series of disappointments and of unprofitable days which would have daunted one less bold and less determined.  I don’t think that Farewell ever suspected me, but it is a fact that never once did he leave me alone in his study whilst I was at work there polishing the oak floor.  And in the meanwhile I could see how he was pursuing my beautiful Estelle with his unwelcome attentions.  At times I feared that he meant to abduct her; his was a powerful personality and she seemed like a little