time Brander would have
been delighted at the prospect, but it would have been a very different
thing after the failure of the bank. I don't think he would have made a
pleasant father-in-law under the present circumstances. He is an old
fox. I always thought so, and I think so more than ever now. It has been
a queer affair altogether. I wonder what Mary thinks of it all. I
suppose she will talk to me about it to-morrow afternoon. By the way, I
have to go this evening with Rene and the others to be sworn in or
attested, or whatever they call it, at the Mairie. Their report as to
the officers is satisfactory. I have heard that Longfranc was an
excellent officer before he came into some money, cut the army and took
up art. I have no doubt he will make a good major, and he understands
the men better than most army men would do. They say the Colonel is a
good man, too, and was very popular with his regiment before he retired
from the service."

CHAPTER VI.

On inquiry of the concierge at No. 15 Avenue de Passy, Cuthbert was
informed that Madame Michaud lived on the third floor. On ascending and
ringing the bell the door was opened by an elderly servant.

"I have called to see Mademoiselle Brander, is she at home?"

"She is, sir."

"Would you give her my card, if you please?"

"Mademoiselle is expecting you," the servant said, and led the way at
once into a sitting-room.

It was of the usual type of such room--of good size but bare, with
bee's-waxed flooring, plainly frescoed walls, and a ceiling colored gray
and bordered with painted arabesques. Two or three small rugs relieved
the bareness of the floor. An oval table on very thin legs stood in the
middle; the chairs and couch seemed to have been made to match it, and
had an eminently bare and uncomfortable appearance; a vase of flowers
stood on a spindle-legged little table in front of one of the windows
which opened down to the ground. Some colored prints in frames of
stained wood hung on the walls, and some skimpy curtains draped the
windows.

Mary Brander was seated with a writing-pad on her knee at the window
unoccupied by the vase and its support. She put the writing-pad and a
book, evidently a large diary, down on the floor.

"You are punctual to the minute, Mr. Hartington. I should never have
credited you with that virtue."

"Nor with any other virtue, I imagine, Miss Brander," he said, with a
smile.

"Oh, yes, I do. I credit you with numbers o