ave the power to divorce your wives.
Louise Duval may have married an Englishman, separated from him, and he
wants to know where he can find, in order to criminate and divorce her,
or it may be to insist on her return to him."

"Bosh! that is not likely."

"Perhaps, then, some English friend she may have known has left her
a bequest, which would of course lapse to some one else if she be not
living."

"By gad!" cried Graham, "I think you hit the right nail on the head:
c'est cela. But what then?"

"Well, if I thought any substantial benefit to Louise Duval might result
from the success of your inquiry, I would really see if it were in my
power to help you. But I must have time to consider."

"How long?"

"I can't exactly say; perhaps three or four days."

"Bon! I will wait. Here comes M. Georges. I leave you to dominos and
him. Good-night."

Late that night M. Lebeau was seated alone in a chamber connected with
the cabinet in which he received visitors. A ledger was open before him,
which he scanned with careful eyes, no longer screened by spectacles.
The survey seemed to satisfy him. He murmured, "It suffices, the time
has come," closed the book, returned it to his bureau, which he locked
up, and then wrote in cipher the letter here reduced into English:--

"DEAR AND NOBLE FRIEND,--Events march; the Empire is everywhere
undermined. Our treasury has thriven in my hands; the sums
subscribed and received by me through you have become more than
quadrupled by advantageous speculations, in which M. Georges has
been a most trustworthy agent. A portion of them I have continued
to employ in the mode suggested,--namely, in bringing together men
discreetly chosen as being in their various ways representatives and
ringleaders of the motley varieties that, when united at the right
moment, form a Parisian mob. But from that right moment we are as
yet distant. Before we can call passion into action, we must
prepare opinion for change. I propose now to devote no
inconsiderable portion of our fund towards the inauguration of a
journal which shall gradually give voice to our designs. Trust me
to insure its success, and obtain the aid of writers who will have
no notion of the uses to which they ultimately contribute. Now that
the time has come to establish for ourselves an organ in the press,
addressing higher orders of intelligence than those which are needed
to destroy a