d at les Rouxey. I will go there! If there is no lawsuit, I will
manage to make one, and _he_ shall come into our drawing-room!" she
cried, as she sprang out of bed and to the window to look at the
fascinating gleam which shone through Albert's nights. The clock struck
one; he was still asleep.

"I shall see him when he gets up; perhaps he will come to his window."

At this instant Mademoiselle de Watteville was witness to an incident
which promised to place in her power the means of knowing Albert's
secrets. By the light of the moon she saw a pair of arms stretched
out from the kiosk to help Jerome, Albert's servant, to get across
the coping of the wall and step into the little building. In Jerome's
accomplice Rosalie at once recognized Mariette the lady's-maid.

"Mariette and Jerome!" said she to herself. "Mariette, such an ugly
girl! Certainly they must be ashamed of themselves."

Though Mariette was horribly ugly and six-and-thirty, she had inherited
several plots of land. She had been seventeen years with Madame de
Watteville, who valued her highly for her bigotry, her honesty, and long
service, and she had no doubt saved money and invested her wages and
perquisites. Hence, earning about ten louis a year, she probably had by
this time, including compound interest and her little inheritance, not
less than ten thousand francs.

In Jerome's eyes ten thousand francs could alter the laws of optics; he
saw in Mariette a neat figure; he did not perceive the pits and seams
which virulent smallpox had left on her flat, parched face; to him the
crooked mouth was straight; and ever since Savaron, by taking him into
his service, had brought him so near to the Wattevilles' house, he had
laid siege systematically to the maid, who was as prim and sanctimonious
as her mistress, and who, like every ugly old maid, was far more
exacting than the handsomest.

If the night-scene in the kiosk is thus fully accounted for to all
perspicacious readers, it was not so to Rosalie, though she derived from
it the most dangerous lesson that can be given, that of a bad example.
A mother brings her daughter up strictly, keeps her under her wing for
seventeen years, and then, in one hour, a servant girl destroys the
long and painful work, sometimes by a word, often indeed by a gesture!
Rosalie got into bed again, not without considering how she might take
advantage of her discovery.

Next morning, as she went to Mass accompanied by Mariette-