demoiselle is not, perhaps, acquainted with the
circumstances--his long illness; and does not come even to see his dead
body after he is dead. There is a wife for you--a wife of the English
fashion!"

Fanny gasped.

"After he is dead! Is Lord Harry dead? When did he die?"

"But, assuredly, Mademoiselle has not heard? The English milord died on
Thursday morning, a week and more ago, of consumption, and was buried
in the cemetery of Auteuil last Saturday. Mademoiselle appears
astonished."

"En effet, Monsieur, I am astonished."

"Already the tombstone is erected to the memory of the unhappy young
man, who is said to belong to a most distinguished family of Ireland.
Mademoiselle can see it with her own eyes in the cemetery."

"One word more, Monsieur. If Monsieur would have the kindness to tell
her who was the nurse of milord in his last seizure?"

"But certainly. All the world knows the widow La Chaise. It was the
widow La Chaise who was called in by the doctor. Ah! there is a
man--what a man! What a miracle of science! What devotion to his
friend! What admirable sentiments! Truly, the English are great in
sentiments when their insular coldness allows them to speak. This widow
can be found--easily found."

He gave Fanny, in fact, the nurse's address. Armed with this, and
having got out of the landlord the cardinal fact of Lord Harry's
alleged death, the lady's-maid went in search of this respectable
widow.

She found her, in her own apartments, a respectable woman indeed,
perfectly ready to tell everything that she knew, and evidently quite
unsuspicious of anything wrong. She was invited to take charge of a
sick man on the morning of Thursday: she was told that he was a young
Irish lord, dangerously ill of a pulmonary disorder; the doctor, in
fact, informed her that his life hung by a thread, and might drop at
any moment, though on the other hand he had known such cases linger on
for many months. She arrived as she had been ordered, at midday: she
was taken into the sick-room by the doctor, who showed her the patient
placidly sleeping on a sofa: the bed had been slept in, and was not yet
made. After explaining the medicines which she was to administer, and
the times when they were to be given, and telling her something about
his diet, the doctor left her alone with the patient.

"He was still sleeping profoundly," said the nurse.

"You are sure that he was sleeping, and not dead?" asked Fanny,
sharply.

"