pen the door!"

"Yes, when you're alone. I don't like you to be bringing home fellows
at night to drink with you."

Then I took myself off, stumbling down the stairs, as the other man,
of whom I had been the accomplice had done. And, as I resumed my
journey toward Paris, I realized that I had just witnessed in that
wretched abode a scene of the eternal drama which is being acted every
day, under every form, and among every class.

THE AVENGER

When M. Antoine Leuillet married the Widow Mathilde Souris, he had
been in love with her for nearly ten years.

M. Souris had been his friend, his old college chum. Leuillet was very
fond of him, but found him rather a muff. He often used to say: "That
poor Souris will never set the Seine on fire."

When Souris married Mdlle. Mathilde Duval, Leuillet was surprised and
somewhat vexed, for he had a slight weakness for her. She was the
daughter of a neighbor of his, a retired haberdasher with a good bit
of money. She was pretty, well-mannered, and intelligent. She accepted
Souris on account of his money.

Then Leuillet cherished hopes of another sort. He began paying
attentions to his friend's wife. He was a handsome man, not at all
stupid, and also well off. He was confident that he would succeed; he
failed. Then he fell really in love with her, and he was the sort of
lover who is rendered timid, prudent, and embarrassed by intimacy with
the husband. Mme. Souris fancied that he no longer meant anything
serious by his attentions to her, and she became simply his friend.
This state of affairs lasted nine years.

Now, one morning, Leuillet received a startling communication from the
poor woman. Souris had died suddenly of aneurism of the heart.

He got a terrible shock, for they were of the same age; but the very
next moment, a sensation of profound joy, of infinite relief of
deliverance, penetrated his body and soul. Mme. Souris was free.

He had the tact, however, to make such a display of grief as the
occasion required; he waited for the proper time to elapse, and
attended to all the conventional usages. At the end of fifteen months
he married the widow.

His conduct was regarded as not only natural but generous. He had
acted like a good friend and an honest man. In short he was happy,
quite happy.

They lived on terms of the closest confidence, having from the first
understood and appreciated each other. One kept nothing secret from
the other, and they told