hen
she threw the papers on the table.

The papers seemed to puzzle M. Verduret very much, as he gazed at them
through the window.

"I am not blind," he said, "and I certainly am not mistaken; those
papers, red, green, and yellow, are pawnbroker's tickets!"

Madeleine turned over the papers as if looking for some particular ones.
She selected three, which she put in her pocket, disdainfully pushing
the others aside.

She was evidently preparing to take her departure, for she said a few
words to Raoul, who took up the lamp as if to escort her downstairs.

There was nothing more for M. Verduret to see. He carefully descended
the ladder, muttering to himself. "Pawnbroker's tickets! What infamous
mystery lies at the bottom of all this?"

The first thing he did was to remove the ladder.

Raoul might take it into his head to look around the garden, when he
came to the door with Madeleine, and if he did so the ladder could
scarcely fail to attract his attention.

M. Verduret and Prosper hastily laid it on the ground, regardless of
the shrubs and vines they destroyed in doing so, and then concealed
themselves among the trees, whence they could watch at once the front
door and the outer gate.

Madeleine and Raoul appeared in the doorway. Raoul set the lamp on the
bottom step, and offered his hand to the girl; but she refused it with
haughty contempt, which somewhat soothed Prosper's lacerated heart.

This scornful behavior did not, however, seem to surprise or hurt
Raoul. He simply answered by an ironical gesture which implied, "As you
please!"

He followed her to the gate, which he opened and closed after her; then
he hurried back to the house, while Madeleine's carriage drove rapidly
away.

"Now, monsieur," said Prosper, "you must tell me what you saw. You
promised me the truth no matter how bitter it might be. Speak; I can
bear it, be it what it may!"

"You will only have joy to bear, my friend. Within a month you will
bitterly regret your suspicions of to-night. You will blush to think
that you ever imagined Mlle. Madeleine to be intimate with a man like
Lagors."

"But, monsieur, appearances----"

"It is precisely against appearances that we must be on our guard.
Always distrust them. A suspicion, false or just, is always based on
something. But we must not stay here forever; and, as Raoul has fastened
the gate, we shall have to climb back again."

"But there is the ladder."

"Let it stay where it is;