ns as a
lover. A clever pretty woman makes an atmosphere about her in which the
nerves relax and the feelings soften.

"You are ignorant of what is happening," said des Lupeaulx, harshly, for
he still thought it best to make a show of harshness. "Read that."

He gave the two newspapers to the graceful woman, having drawn a line in
red ink round each of the famous articles.

"Good heavens!" she exclaimed, "but this is dreadful! Who is this
Baudoyer?"

"A donkey," answered des Lupeaulx; "but, as you see, he uses means,--he
gives monstrances; he succeeds, thanks to some clever hand that pulls
the wires."

The thought of her debts crossed Madame Rabourdin's mind and blurred
her sight, as if two lightning flashes had blinded her eyes at the same
moment; her ears hummed under the pressure of the blood that began to
beat in her arteries; she remained for a moment quite bewildered, gazing
at a window which she did not see.

"But are you faithful to us?" she said at last, with a winning glance at
des Lupeaulx, as if to attach him to her.

"That is as it may be," he replied, answering her glance with an
interrogative look which made the poor woman blush.

"If you demand caution-money you may lose all," she said, laughing; "I
thought you more magnanimous than you are. And you, you thought me less
a person than I am,--a sort of school-girl."

"You have misunderstood me," he said, with a covert smile; "I meant that
I could not assist a man who plays against me just as l'Etourdi played
against Mascarille."

"What can you mean?"

"This will prove to you whether I am magnanimous or not."

He gave Madame Rabourdin the memorandum stolen by Dutocq, pointing out
to her the passage in which her husband had so ably analyzed him.

"Read that."

Celestine recognized the handwriting, read the paper, and turned pale
under the blow.

"All the ministries, the whole service is treated in the same way," said
des Lupeaulx.

"Happily," she said, "you alone possess this document. I cannot explain
it, even to myself."

"The man who stole it is not such a fool as to let me have it without
keeping a copy for himself; he is too great a liar to admit it, and too
clever in his business to give it up. I did not even ask him for it."

"Who is he?"

"Your chief clerk."

"Dutocq! People are always punished through their kindnesses! But," she
added, "he is only a dog who wants a bone."

"Do you know what the other side offer me, poor