and wanted nothing.  He returned several times, always pampering me with some attention or other.  But the best of all was when he came to tell me that my angel had returned.  What a man he is! he has surely dropped right down from the skies!  One evening when I was sick he gave me my medicine himself, and would have sat up with me all night if I had been willing to let him.  You must tell me who he is, for it puzzles me greatly.  He has the head of some grand lion; he is as generous as he is handsome, but very sad.  He must have some great sorrow on his heart.  The misfortune, so far as I am concerned, is that he cannot spoil me much longer—­it is almost over now.  He expects to leave here in two days; and he has announced to me that he will come to make his adieus, to-morrow afternoon.

“You will come soon, won’t you, ma chere demoiselle?  I burn with impatience to embrace you, since you permit me to embrace you.  You are my angel and my sunshine, and I am your very humble and devoted servant,

“LOUISE GALET.”

This letter of Mlle. Louise Galet continued nothing definite, beyond, perhaps, the passage relative to the early vegetables, and the supposed scenes with her chambriere.  Whatever may have been the good demoiselle’s past record, she certainly was not void of principles, and she prided herself on her truthfulness; only she did not always see the necessity of telling everything she knew; in her narratives she frequently omitted certain details.  She had written at the instigation of Samuel Brohl, who had not explained to her his motives.  To be sure, she had partially divined these, being shrewd and sly.  He had commended himself to her discretion, for which he had paid liberally.  Mlle. Galet had at first refused the round sum he had offered her; she had ended by accepting it with tender gratitude.  These little pampering attentions make good friends.

An audacious idea suddenly came to Mlle. Moriaz; there was no time to recoil from it.  She ordered up her coupe.  M. Moriaz had just gone out to make a call in the neighbourhood.  She determined to profit by his absence, and besought Mlle. Moiseney to make ready in haste to accompany her to Paris, where she had to confer with her dressmaker.  Ten minutes later she stepped into her carriage, having ordered her coachman to drive like the wind.

Her dressmaker did not detain her long; from the Rue de la Paix she ordered to be driven to No. 27 Rue Mouffetard.  She never was in the habit of permitting Mlle. Moiseney, who was very short of breath, to climb with her to the fifth story, where Mlle. Galet lodged; upon this occasion she indicated to her an express order to remain peaceably below in the coupe to await her return.