Vendale his
choice of who the third person should be. Confiding in past experience,
his choice fell unhesitatingly upon the excellent woman who mended
Obenreizer's stockings. On hearing of the responsibility entrusted to
her, Madame Dor's intellectual nature burst suddenly into a new stage of
development. She waited till Obenreizer's eye was off her--and then she
looked at Vendale, and dimly winked.

The time passed--the happy evenings with Marguerite came and went. It
was the tenth morning since Vendale had written to the Swiss firm, when
the answer appeared, on his desk, with the other letters of the day:

"Dear Sirs. We beg to offer our excuses for the little mistake which
has happened. At the same time, we regret to add that the statement
of our error, with which you have favoured us, has led to a very
unexpected discovery. The affair is a most serious one for you and
for us. The particulars are as follows:

"Having no more champagne of the vintage last sent to you, we made
arrangements to credit your firm to the value of six cases, as
suggested by yourself. On taking this step, certain forms observed in
our mode of doing business necessitated a reference to our bankers'
book, as well as to our ledger. The result is a moral certainty that
no such remittance as you mention can have reached our house, and a
literal certainty that no such remittance has been paid to our account
at the bank.

"It is needless, at this stage of the proceedings, to trouble you with
details. The money has unquestionably been stolen in the course of
its transit from you to us. Certain peculiarities which we observe,
relating to the manner in which the fraud has been perpetrated, lead
us to conclude that the thief may have calculated on being able to pay
the missing sum to our bankers, before an inevitable discovery
followed the annual striking of our balance. This would not have
happened, in the usual course, for another three months. During that
period, but for your letter, we might have remained perfectly
unconscious of the robbery that has been committed.

"We mention this last circumstance, as it may help to show you that we
have to do, in this case, with no ordinary thief. Thus far we have
not even a suspicion of who that thief is. But we believe you will
assist us in making some advance towards discovery, by examining the
receipt (f