the voluminous manuscript to his room and
returned for dinner; then, after sharing in the conversation for part of
the evening, he went back to his room, intending to begin the reading of
the book that night.

Godefroid was much astonished when Manon came to him soon after Monsieur
Joseph's retirement and asked if he would at once go up and speak to
that gentleman. He went up, conducted by Manon, and was unable to pay
any heed to the apartment (which he had never before entered) so amazed
was he by the agitated look and manner of a man who was usually calm and
placid.

"Do you know," asked Monsieur Joseph, once more a judge, "who the author
of this work is?"

"He is Monsieur Bernard," said Godefroid; "I know him only under that
name. I did not open the package."

"True," said Monsieur Joseph, as if to himself, "I broke the seals
myself. You have not tried to find out anything about his antecedents?"

"No, I only know that he made a love-match with the daughter of General
Tarlowski; that the daughter is named after the mother, Vanda; the
grandson is called Auguste; and I have seen a portrait of Monsieur
Bernard in the red robes of a president of the Royal Courts."

"Here, read that," said Monsieur Joseph, pointing to the titlepage of
the manuscript, written probably in Auguste's handwriting:--

ON THE

SPIRIT OF MODERN LAWS

By M. Bernard-Jean-Baptiste Macloud, Baron Bourlac.

Formerly attorney-general to the Royal Court of Rouen. Grand officer of
the Legion of honor.

"Ha! the slayer of Madame's daughter! of the Chevalier du Vissard! the
man who condemned her to twenty years' imprisonment!" said Godefroid,
in a feeble voice. His legs gave way under him, and he dropped into a
chair. "What a beginning!" he muttered.

"This matter, my dear Godefroid," resumed Monsieur Joseph, "concerns us
all. You have done your part; leave the rest to us. I beg you to have
no more to do with it; go and fetch the things you have left behind you.
Don't say a word of all this. Practise absolute discretion. Tell the
Baron de Bourlac to address himself to me. By that time we shall have
decided how to act under the circumstances."

Godefroid left him, took a cab, and went back as fast as he could to
the boulevard du Mont-Parnasse, filled with horror as he remembered that
indictment signed with Bourlac's name, the bloody drama ending on the
scaffold, and Madame de la Chanterie's imprisonment at Bicetre. He
understood now the