for masses for the
repose of his erring nephew's soul.

The same evening M. Derues who, according to his own account, had left
Paris with the young de Lamotte in order to take the boy to his mother
in Versailles, returned home to the Rue Beaubourg. As usual, Bertin
dropped in to dinner. He found his host full of merriment, singing in
the lightness of his heart. Indeed, he had reason to be pleased, for
at last, he told his wife and his friend, Buisson-Souef was his. He had
seen Mme. de Lamotte at Versailles and paid her the full purchase-money
in good, sounding gold. And, best joke of all, Mme. de Lamotte had no
sooner settled the business than she had gone off with a former lover,
her son and her money, and would in all probability never be heard of
again. The gay gentleman laughingly reminded his hearers that such an
escapade on the part of Mme. de Lamotte was hardly to be wondered at,
when they recollected that her son had been born out of wedlock.

To all appearances Mme. de Lamotte had undoubtedly concluded the sale of
Buisson-Souef to Derues and received the price of it before disappearing
with her lover. Derues had in his possession a deed of sale signed
by Mme. de Lamotte and acknowledging the payment to her by Derues of
100,000 livres, which he had borrowed for that purpose from an advocate
of the name of Duclos. As a fact the loan from Duclos to Derues was
fictitious. A legal document proving the loan had been drawn up, but the
cash which the notary had demanded to see before executing the document
had been borrowed for a few hours. Duclos, a provincial advocate,
had acted in good faith, in having been represented to him that such
fictitious transactions were frequently used in Paris for the purpose
of getting over some temporary financial difficulty. On the 15th of
February the deed of the sale of Buisson-Souef had been brought by a
woman to the office of a scrivener employed by Derues; it was already
signed, but the woman asked that certain blanks should be filled in and
that the document should be dated. She was told that the date should
be that of the day on which the parties had signed it. She gave it as
February 12. A few days later Derues called at the office and was told
of the lady's visit. "Ah!" he said, "it was Mme. de Lamotte herself, the
lady who sold me the estate."

In the meantime Derues, through his bustling and ubiquitous friend
Bertin, took good care that the story of Mme. de Lamotte's sale