impropriety, I
hastened down the stairs and happily succeeded in reaching the pavement
before her skirts whisked round the corner. I was therefore but a few
paces behind her, which distance I took good care to preserve.

III. MADAME.

My motive in following this young girl was not so much to restore
her property, as to see where her engagement was taking her. I felt
confident that none of the three persons who had shown interest in the
box was the prime mover in an affair so important; and it was necessary
above all things to find out who the prime mover was. So I followed the
girl.

She led me into a doubtful quarter of the town. As the crowd between us
diminished and we reached a point where we were the only pedestrians on
the block we were then traversing, I grew anxious lest she should turn
and see me before arriving at her destination. But she evidently was
without suspicion, for she passed without any hesitation up a certain
stoop in the middle of this long block and entered an open door on which
a brass plate was to be seen, inscribed with this one word in large
black letters:

"MADAME."

This was odd; and as I had no inclination to encounter any "madame"
without some hint as to her character and business, I looked about me
for some one able and willing to give me the necessary information.
An upholsterer's shop in an opposite basement seemed to offer me the
opportunity I wanted. Crossing the street, I saluted the honest-looking
man I met in the doorway, and pointing out madame's house, asked what
was done over there.

He answered with a smile.

"Go and see," he said; "the door's open. Oh, they don't charge
anything," he made haste to protest, misunderstanding, no doubt, my air
of hesitation. "I was in there once myself. They all sit round and she
talks; that is, if she feels like it. It is all nonsense, you know, sir;
no good in it."

"But is there any harm?" I asked. "Is the place reputable and safe?"

"Oh, safe enough; I never heard of anything going wrong there. Why,
ladies go there; real ladies; veiled, of course. I have seen two
carriages at a time standing in front of that door. Fools, to be sure,
sir; but honest enough, I suppose."

I needed no further encouragement. Recross-ing the street, I entered
the house which stood so invitingly open, and found myself almost
immediately in a large hall, from which I was ushered by a silent
negress into a long room with so dim and mysterious an i