r heavy penalties, for the safety of the property, he
could leave the house without fear of robbery.

The idea of his grandfather being dragged to prison for debt drove the
poor lad, if not exactly crazy, at any rate as crazy as youth becomes
under one of those dangerous and fatal excitements in which all powers
ferment at once, and lead as often to evil actions as to heroic deeds.
When he reached the rue Basse-Saint-Pierre, the porter told him that he
did not know what had become of the father of the lady who had arrived
that afternoon; the orders of Monsieur Halpersohn were to admit no one
to see her for the next eight days, under pain of putting her life in
danger.

This answer brought Auguste's exasperation to a crisis. He returned to
the boulevard du Mont-Parnasse, turning over in his mind the wildest
and most extravagant plans of action. He reached home at half-past eight
o'clock, half famished, and so exhausted with hunger and distress that
he listened to Madame Vauthier when she asked him to share her supper,
which happened to be a mutton stew with potatoes. The poor lad fell half
dead upon a chair in that atrocious woman's room.

Persuaded by the wheedling and honeyed words of the old vulture, he
replied to a few questions about Godefroid which she adroitly put to
him, letting her discover that it was really her other lodger who was
to pay his grandfather's debts the next day, and also that it was to him
they owed the improvement in their condition during the past week. The
widow listened to these confidences with a dubious air, plying Auguste
with several glasses of wine meantime.

About ten o'clock a cab stopped before the house, and Madame Vauthier
looking out exclaimed:--

"Oh! it is Monsieur Godefroid."

Auguste at once took the key of his apartment and went up to meet the
protector of his family; but he found Godefroid's face and manner so
changed that he hesitated to address him until, generous lad that he
was, the thought of his grandfather's danger came over him and gave him
courage.

XVIII. WHO MONSIEUR BERNARD WAS

The cause of this change and of the sternness in Godefroid's face was
an event which had just taken place in the rue Chanoinesse. When the
initiate arrived there he found Madame de la Chanterie and her friends
assembled in the salon awaiting dinner; and he instantly took Monsieur
Joseph apart to give him the four volumes on "The Spirit of Modern
Laws." Monsieur Joseph took