e than a coincidence, and that Lucien and
Louise, loving with all their hearts, had been separated by a double
treason. Pique, very likely, had brought about this ill-starred match
with Chatelet. And a reaction set in against the prefect.

Before the Countess rose to go at one o'clock in the morning, she
turned to Lucien and said in a low voice, "Do me the pleasure of coming
punctually to-morrow evening." Then, with the friendliest little nod,
she went, saying a few words to Chatelet, who was looking for his hat.

"If Mme. du Chatelet has given me a correct idea of the state of
affairs, count on me, my dear Lucien," said the prefect, preparing to
hurry after his wife. She was going away without him, after the Paris
fashion. "Your brother-in-law may consider that his troubles are at an
end," he added as he went.

"M. le Comte surely owes me so much," smiled Lucien.

Cointet and Petit-Claud heard these farewell speeches.

"Well, well, we are done for now," Cointet muttered in his confederate's
ear. Petit-Claud, thunderstruck by Lucien's success, amazed by his
brilliant wit and varying charm, was gazing at Francoise de la Haye;
the girl's whole face was full of admiration for Lucien. "Be like your
friend," she seemed to say to her betrothed. A gleam of joy flitted over
Petit-Claud's countenance.

"We still have a whole day before the prefect's dinner; I will answer
for everything."

An hour later, as Petit-Claud and Lucien walked home together,
Lucien talked of his success. "Well, my dear fellow, I came, I saw, I
conquered! Sechard will be very happy in a few hours' time."

"Just what I wanted to know," thought Petit-Claud. Aloud he said--"I
thought you were simply a poet, Lucien, but you are a Lauzun too, that
is to say--twice a poet," and they shook hands--for the last time, as it
proved.

"Good news, dear Eve," said Lucien, waking his sister, "David will have
no debts in less than a month!"

"How is that?"

"Well, my Louise is still hidden by Mme. du Chatelet's petticoat.
She loves me more than ever; she will send a favorable report of our
discovery to the Minister of the Interior through her husband. So we
have only to endure our troubles for one month, while I avenge myself on
the prefect and complete the happiness of his married life."

Eve listened, and thought that she must be dreaming.

"I saw the little gray drawing-room where I trembled like a child two
years ago; it seemed as if scales fell from