am almost sure
that I saw no notes in Van Klopen's hands."

Andre's face grew radiant.

"Good, very good; he was told to pay himself, and yet he never looked
to see if the money was there, but gave a receipt at once. Of course, as
Van Klopen kept the pocketbook, the Marquis could have had nothing in it
besides the exact sum that was required."

"It does seem odd," muttered De Breulh.

"But," said Andre, "your bill was not exactly twenty thousand francs,
was it?"

"No," answered the Viscountess. "I ought to have had change to the
amount of a hundred or a hundred and twenty francs, but I suppose he was
too much excited to give it me."

"But for all that he could remember that he had writing materials with
him, and give you a receipt?"

The Viscountess was utterly bewildered.

"And," continued Andre, "how is it that Van Klopen knew De Croisenois'
name? And now, lastly, where is the receipt?"

Madame de Bois Arden turned very pale and trembled violently.

"Ah," said she, "I felt sure that something was going to happen, and it
was on this very point that I wanted your advice. Well, I have not got
the receipt. M. de Croisenois crumpled it up in his hand and threw it
on the table. After a while, however, he took it up and put it in his
pocket."

"It is all perfectly clear," said Andre in jubilant tones; "M. de
Croisenois had need of your aid, he saw that he could not easily obtain
it, and so sought to bind you by the means of a loan made to you at a
time of great need."

"You are right," said De Breulh.

The Viscountess' giddy mode of action had brought her into many scrapes,
but never into so terrible a one as this.

"Great heavens!" cried she, "what do you think that M. de Croisenois
will do with this receipt?"

"He will do nothing," answered M. de Breulh, "if you do everything to
advance his suit; but pause for an instant, and he will show the hand of
steel which has up to now been covered by the velvet glove."

"I am not alarmed at a new slander?" returned the Viscountess.

"And why not?" answered De Breulh. "You know very well that in these
days of lavish expenditure and unbridled luxury there are many women
in society who are so basely vile that they ruin their lovers with
as little compunction as their frailer sisters. To-morrow even De
Croisenois may say at the club, 'On my word that little Bois Arden costs
me a tremendous lot,' and hands about this receipt for twenty thousand
francs. What do you