“She did not talk much, though she began by saying:  ’Pay up at once, old man ...  You don’t look like a fellow who would bilk a girl, but it puts me into better trim when I have been paid.’

“I gave her two napoleons, and she eyed me with gratitude and respect at the same time, but also with that uneasy look of a girl who asks herself:  ‘What does this tool expect for it?’

“The whole affair began to amuse me, and I must confess that I was rather taken with her, for she had a beautiful figure and complexion, and I was hoping that the Commissary would not come directly, when there was a loud rapping at the door.

“She sat up with a start, and grew so pale that one would have said she was about to faint.

“‘What a set of pigs, to come and interrupt people like this!’ she muttered between her teeth; while I affected the most complete calm.

“‘Somebody who has made a mistake in the room, my dear,’ I said.

“But this noise increased, and suddenly I heard a man’s voice saying clearly and authoritatively: 

“‘Open the door, in the name of the law!’

“On hearing that, one would have thought that she had received a shock from an electric battery, by the nimble manner in which she jumped out of bed; and quickly putting on her stays and her dress anyhow, she endeavored to discover a way out in every corner of the room, like a wild beast, trying to escape from its cage.  I thought that she was going to throw herself out of the window, so I seized hold of her to prevent her.

“The unfortunate creature acted like a madwoman, and when she felt my arm round her waist, she cried in a hoarse voice: 

“’I see it ...  You have sold me ...  You thought that I should expose myself....  Oh! you filthy brutes—­you filthy brutes!’

“And suddenly, passing from abuse to entreaties, pale and with chattering teeth, she threw herself at my feet, and said, in a low voice: 

“’Listen to me, my dear:  you don’t look a bad sort of fellow, and you would not like them to lock me up.  I have a kid and the old woman to keep.  Hide me behind the bed, do, and please don’t give me up....  I will make it up to you, and you shall have no cause for grumbling....’

“At that moment however, the lock which they had unscrewed fell onto the floor with a metallic sound, and Madame de Lauriere and the Police Commissary, wearing his tricolored scarf, appeared in the door, while behind them the heads of the uncle and of the lawyer could be seen indistinctly in the background.

“The girl had uttered a cry of terror and going up to the Commissary she said, panting: 

“’I swear to you that I am not guilty, that I was not ...  I will tell you everything if you will promise me not to tell them that I spilt, for they would pay me out....’

“The Commissary, who was surprised, but who guessed that there was something which was not quite clear behind all this, forgot to draw up his report, and so the lawyer went up to him and said: