ge, who roars like a lioness at the very name of
Sallenauve, has taken it into her head that beneath his incomprehensible
success there is some foul intrigue or mystery. It is certain that the
appearance and disappearance of this mysterious father have given rise
to very singular conjectures; and probably if the thumb-screws were put
upon the organist, who was, they say, entrusted with the education
of the interesting bastard, we might get the secret of his birth and
possibly other unexpected revelations. Now I have thought of a man on
whom you have, I believe, great influence, who might in this hunt for
facts assist us immensely. Don't you remember the robbery of those
jewels from Jenny Cardine, about which she was so unhappy one night at
Very's? You asked the waiter for pens and paper, and on a simple
note which you sent at three o'clock in the morning to a Monsieur
Saint-Esteve the police went to work, and before the evening of the next
day the thieves were captured and the jewels restored."

"Yes," said the colonel, "I remember all that; my interference was
lucky. But I must tell you that had I paused to reflect I should not
have treated Monsieur de Saint-Esteve so cavalierly. He is a man to be
approached with greater ceremony."

"_Ah ca_! but isn't he a former galley-slave, whose pardon you helped to
obtain, and who feels for you the veneration they say Fieschi felt for
one of his protectors?"

"Yes, that is true. Monsieur de Saint-Esteve, like his predecessor,
Bibi-Lupin, has had _misfortunes_; but he is to-day the head of the
detective police, the important functions of which office he fulfils
with rare capacity. If the matter concerned anything that comes within
his department, I should not hesitate to give you a letter to him; but
the affair you speak of is delicate; and in any case I must first sound
him and see if he is willing to talk with you."

"I thought you managed him despotically. Let us say no more about it, if
you think it so very difficult."

"The greatest difficulty is that I never see him; and I naturally cannot
write to him for such an object. I should have to watch for an occasion,
a chance meeting. But why don't you speak of this to Rastignac? He could
give him an order to act at once."

"Don't you understand that Rastignac will receive me very ill indeed? I
had assured him, by letter, of success, and now I am forced to report
in person our defeat. Besides, on every account, I would rathe