LLECTIONS 239
XV. THE BOATS 262
XVI. THE HAPPINESS OF MEETINGS 273
XVII. DOCTOR GRIFFON 298
XVIII. THE PORTRAIT 305
XIX. THE AGENT OF SAFETY 315
XX. THE CHOUETTE 321

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE
THE ABDUCTION _Frontispiece_
THE BRIGAND DASHED AT HIS BROTHER 87
HE EXHIBITED SUCH FEROCIOUS JOY 168
WAS ABOUT TO EMBRACE HIS FATHER 199

THE MYSTERIES OF PARIS.

CHAPTER I.

RIGOLETTE'S FIRST SORROW.

Rigolette's apartment was still in all its extreme nicety; the large
silver watch placed over the mantelpiece, in a small boxwood stand,
denoted the hour of four. The severe cold weather having ceased, the
thrifty little needlewoman had not lighted her stove.

From the window, a corner of blue sky was scarcely perceptible over the
masses of irregularly built roofs, garrets, and tall chimneys, which
bounded the horizon on the other side of the street. Suddenly a sunbeam,
which, as it were, wandered for a moment between two high gables, came
for an instant to purple with its bright rays the windows of the young
girl's chamber.

Rigolette was at work, seated by her window; and the soft shadow of her
charming profile stood out from the transparent light of the glass as a
cameo of rosy whiteness on a silver ground. Brilliant hues played on her
jet black hair, twisted in a knot at the back of her head, and shaded
with a warm amber colour the ivory of her industrious little fingers,
which plied the needle with incomparable activity. The long folds of her
brown gown, confined at the waist by the bands of her green apron, half
concealed her straw-seated chair, and her pretty feet rested on the edge
of a stool before her.

Like a rich lord, who sometimes amuses himself in hiding the walls of a
cottage beneath splendid hangings, the setting sun for a moment lighted
up this little chamber with a thousand dazzling fires, throwing his
golden tints on the curtains of gray and green stuff, and making the
walnut-tree furniture glisten with brightness, and the dry-rubbed floor
look like heated copper