on. The lovely
Leah did at times frown on Fernand; but she invariably smiled on me.
She would fall into my arms far more readily than into his, and papa
Goldberg would be equally forced to give his consent to her marriage
with me as with that self-seeking carpet-knight whom he abhorred.

Needless to say, I kept my own counsel, and did not speak of my
project even to Sarah. To all appearances I was to be the mere tool in
this affair, the unfortunate cat employed to snatch the roast
chestnuts out of the fire for the gratification of a mealy-mouthed
monkey.

3.

The appointed day and hour were at hand. Fernand Rochez had engaged a
barouche which was to take him and his lovely victim to a little house
at Auteuil, which he had rented for the purpose. There the lovers were
to lie perdu until such time as papa Goldberg had relented and the
marriage could be duly solemnized in the synagogue of the Rue des
Halles. Sarah had offered in the meanwhile to do all that in her power
lay to soften the old man's heart and to bring about the happy
conclusion of the romantic adventure.

For the latter we had chosen the night of May 23rd. It was a moonless
night, and the Passage Corneille, from whence I was to operate, was
most usefully dark. Sarah Goldberg had, according to convention, left
the postern gate on the latch, and at ten o'clock precisely I made my
way up the cul-de-sac and cautiously turned the handle of the door. I
confess that my heart beat somewhat uncomfortably in my bosom.

I had left Rochez and his barouche in the Rue des Pipots, about a
hundred metres from the angle of the Passage Corneille, and it was
along those hundred metres of a not altogether unfrequented street
that he expected me presently to carry a possibly screaming and
struggling burden in the very teeth of a gendarmerie always on the
look-out for exciting captures.

No, Sir; that was not to be! And it was with a resolute if beating
heart that I presently felt the postern gate yielding to the pressure
of my hand. The neighbouring church clock of St. Sulpice had just
finished striking ten. I pushed open the gate and tip-toed across the
threshold.

In the garden the boughs of a dilapidated old ash tree were soughing
in the wind above my head, whilst from the top of the boundary wall
the yarring and yowling of beasts of the feline species grated
unpleasantly on my ear. I could not see my hand before my eyes, and
had just stretched it out in order t