.'"

"Well, and what became of the woman?" asked the two Parisians.

"She was sentenced and executed at Tours," replied the lawyer; "but her
repentance and piety had attracted interest in spite of her monstrous
crime."

"And do you suppose, said Bianchon, "that we know all the tragedies that
are played out behind the curtain of private life that the public never
lifts?--It seems to me that human justice is ill adapted to judge of
crimes as between husband and wife. It has every right to intervene as
the police; but in equity it knows nothing of the heart of the matter."

"The victim has in many cases been for so long the tormentor," said
Madame de la Baudraye guilelessly, "that the crime would sometimes seem
almost excusable if the accused could tell all."

This reply, led up to by Bianchon and by the story which Clagny had
told, left the two Parisians excessively puzzled as to Dinah's position.

At bedtime council was held, one of those discussions which take place
in the passages of old country-houses where the bachelors linger, candle
in hand, for mysterious conversations.

Monsieur Gravier was now informed of the object in view during this
entertaining evening which had brought Madame de la Baudraye's innocence
to light.

"But, after all," said Lousteau, "our hostess' serenity may indicate
deep depravity instead of the most child-like innocence. The Public
Prosecutor looks to me quite capable of suggesting that little La
Baudraye should be put in pickle----"

"He is not to return till to-morrow; who knows what may happen in the
course of the night?" said Gatien.

"We will know!" cried Monsieur Gravier.

In the life of a country house a number of practical jokes are
considered admissible, some of them odiously treacherous. Monsieur
Gravier, who had seen so much of the world, proposed setting seals on
the door of Madame de la Baudraye and of the Public Prosecutor. The
ducks that denounced the poet Ibycus are as nothing in comparison with
the single hair that these country spies fasten across the opening of a
door by means of two little flattened pills of wax, fixed so high up, or
so low down, that the trick is never suspected. If the gallant comes out
of his own door and opens the other, the broken hair tells the tale.

When everybody was supposed to be asleep, the doctor, the journalist,
the receiver of taxes, and Gatien came barefoot, like robbers, and
silently fastened up the two doors, agreeing to co