e Pope,
of some virgin and martyr, and I am going mad from embarrassment and
anxiety.

"I will go to Rome, if needful, but I cannot call on the Pope
unexpectedly, and tell him my stupid adventure; and, besides, I doubt
whether they let private individuals have relics. Could not you give me
an introduction to some cardinal, or only to some French prelate, who
possesses some remains of a female saint? Or perhaps you may have the
precious object she wants in your collection?

"Help me out of my difficulty, my dear Abbe, and I promise you that I
will be converted ten years sooner than I otherwise should be!

"Madame d'Arville, who takes the matter seriously, said to me the other
day:

"'Poor Gilberte will never marry.'

"My dear old schoolfellow, will you allow your cousin to die the victim
of a stupid piece of business on my part? Pray prevent her from being the
eleventh thousand and one virgin.

"Pardon me, I am unworthy, but I embrace you, and love you with all my
heart.

"Your old friend,

"Henri Fontal."

THE MAN WITH THE BLUE EYES

Monsieur Pierre Agenor de Vargnes, the Examining Magistrate, was the
exact opposite of a practical joker. He was dignity, staidness,
correctness personified. As a sedate man, he was quite incapable of being
guilty, even in his dreams, of anything resembling a practical joke,
however remotely. I know nobody to whom he could be compared, unless it
be the present president of the French Republic. I think it is useless to
carry the analogy any further, and having said thus much, it will be
easily understood that a cold shiver passed through me when Monsieur
Pierre Agenor de Vargnes did me the honor of sending a lady to wait on
me.

At about eight o'clock, one morning last winter, as he was leaving the
house to go to the _Palais de Justice_, his footman handed him a card,
on which was printed:

DOCTOR JAMES FERDINAND,
_Member of the Academy of Medicine,
Port-au-Prince,
Chevalier of the Legion of Honor._

At the bottom of the card, there was written in pencil:

_From Lady Frogere_

Monsieur de Vargnes knew the lady very well, who was a very agreeable
Creole from Haiti, and whom he had met in many drawing-rooms, and, on the
other hand, though the doctor's name did not awaken any recollections in
him, his quality and titles alone required that he should grant him an
interview, however short it might be. Therefore, although he was in a
hurry to get out, Mo