“But what is that to me?” he repeated.  “Can I love her, I?”

Then he began again to revolve in his mind what might have happened after his flight from the house.

How had Miss Brandon explained his escape?  How had she accounted for her own excitement?

And, drawn by an invincible power, Daniel had risen to return to the house; and there, half-hid under the shadow of the opposite side, in a deep doorway, he watched anxiously the windows, as if they could have told him any thing of what was going on inside.  The reception-room was still brilliantly lighted, and people came and went, casting their shadows upon the white curtains.  A man came and leaned his face against the window, then suddenly he drew back; and Daniel distinctly recognized Count Ville-Handry.

What did that mean?  Did it not imply that Miss Brandon had been taken suddenly ill, and that people were anxious about her?  These were Daniel’s thoughts when he heard the noise of bolts withdrawn, and doors opened.  It was the great entrance-gate of Miss Brandon’s house, which was thrown open by some of the servants.  A low coupe with a single horse left the house, and drove rapidly towards the Champs Elysees.

But, at the moment when the coupe turned, the light of the lamp fell full upon the inside, and Daniel thought he recognized, nay, he did recognize, Miss Brandon.  He felt as if he had received a stunning blow on the head.

“She has deceived me!” he exclaimed, grinding his teeth in his rage; “she has treated me like an imbecile, like an idiot!”

Then, suddenly conceiving a strange plan, he added,—­

“I must know where she is going at four o’clock in the morning.  I will follow her.”

Unfortunately, Miss Brandon’s coachman had, no doubt, received special orders; for he drove down the avenue as fast as the horse could go, and the animal was a famous trotter, carefully chosen by Sir Thorn, who understood horse-flesh better than any one else in Paris.  But Daniel was agile; and the hope of being able to avenge himself at once gave him unheard-of strength.

“If I could only catch a cab!” he thought.

But no carriage was to be seen.  His elbows close to the body, managing his breath, and steadily measuring his steps, he succeeded in not only following the coupe, but in actually gaining ground.  When Miss Brandon reached Concord Square, he was only a few yards behind the carriage.  But there the coachman touched the horse, which suddenly increased its pace, crossed the square, and trotted down Royal Street.

Daniel felt his breath giving out, and a shooting pain, first trifling, but gradually increasing, in his side.  He was on the point of giving up the pursuit, when he saw a cab coming down towards him from the Madeleine, the driver fast asleep on the box.  He threw himself before the horses, and cried out as well as he could,—­