rson was lonely and unhappy in the now calm and peaceful
Louvre.

This was our friend Count Annibal de Coconnas.

It was certainly something to know that La Mole was alive; it was much
to be the favorite of Madame de Nevers, the most charming and the most
whimsical of women. But all the pleasure of a meeting granted him by the
beautiful duchess, all the consolation offered by Marguerite as to the
fate of their common friend, did not compensate in the eyes of the
Piedmontese for one hour spent with La Mole at their friend La Huriere's
before a bottle of light wine, or for one of those midnight rambles
through that part of Paris in which an honest man ran the risk of
receiving rents in his flesh, his purse, or his clothes.

To the shame of humanity it must be said that Madame de Nevers bore with
impatience her rivalry with La Mole.

It was not that she hated the Provincial; on the contrary, carried away
by the irresistible instinct which, in spite of herself, makes every
woman a coquette with another woman's lover, especially when that woman
is her friend, she had not spared La Mole the flashes of her emerald
eyes, and Coconnas might have envied the frank handclasps and the
amiable acts done by the duchess in favor of his friend during those
days in which the star of the Piedmontese seemed growing dim in the sky
of his beautiful mistress; but Coconnas, who would have strangled
fifteen persons for a single glance from his lady, was so little jealous
of La Mole that he had often after some indiscretions of the duchess
whispered certain offers which had made the man from the Provinces
blush.

At this stage of affairs it happened that Henriette, who by the absence
of La Mole was deprived of all the enjoyment she had had from the
company of Coconnas, that is, his never-ending flow of spirits and fun,
came to Marguerite one day to beg her to do her this three-fold favor
without which the heart and the mind of Coconnas seemed to be slipping
away day by day.

Marguerite, always sympathetic and, besides, influenced by the prayers
of La Mole and the wishes of her own heart, arranged a meeting with
Henriette for the next day in the house with the double entrance, in
order to discuss these matters thoroughly and uninterruptedly.

Coconnas received with rather bad grace the note from Henriette, asking
him to be in the Rue Tizon at half-past nine.

Nevertheless he went to the place appointed, where he found Henriette,
who was