all redoubled our activity.
If I confide to you these secrets of our system, it is that you must
know the physician, that is, the Visitor of the arrondissement to which
we are about to send you; from him, all original information about our
cases comes. This Visitor is named Berton, Doctor Berton; he lives in
the rue d'Enfer. And now here are the facts: Doctor Berton is attending
a lady whose disease puzzles and defies science. That, of course, is not
our concern, but that of the Faculty. Our business is to discover the
condition of the family of this patient; Doctor Berton suspects that
their poverty is frightful, and concealed with a pride and determination
which demand our utmost care. Until now, my son, I should have found
time for this case, but the work I am undertaking obliges me to find a
helper in my four arrondissements, and you shall be that helper. This
family lives in the rue Notre-Dame des Champs, in a house at the corner
of the boulevard du Mont-Parnasse. You will find a room to let in the
same house, where you can live for a time so as to discover the truth
about these persons. Be sordid for yourself, but as for the money you
may think needed for this case have no uneasiness. I will remit you
such sums as we may judge necessary after ourselves considering all the
circumstances. But remember that you must study the moral qualities of
these unfortunates: their hearts, the honorableness of their feelings;
those are our guarantees. Miserly we may be for ourselves, and generous
to those who suffer, but we must be prudent and even calculating, for we
are dealing with the money of the poor. So then, to-morrow morning you
can start; think over the power we put in your hands: the brothers are
with you in heart."

"Ah!" cried Godefroid, "you have given me such a pleasure in the
opportunity of doing good and making myself worthy to belong to you some
day, that I shall not sleep to-night."

"One more word, my child. I told you not to recognize me without the
signal; the same rule applies to the other gentlemen and to Madame, and
even to the people you see about this house. We are forced to keep up an
absolute incognito in all we do; this is so necessary to our enterprises
that we have made a rule about it. We seek to be ignored, lost in this
great Paris. Remember also, my dear Godefroid, the spirit of our order;
which is, never to appear as benefactors, to play an obscure part, that
of intermediaries. We always pre