u that the musician
still retains his rooms in the house, but that he resides there no
longer, for he has made a lucky hit, and last month he married
the daughter of a wealthy banker living close by. The young lady,
Mademoiselle Rigal, saw him, and fell in love with him."

A clever man like Catenac should have foreseen what was coming, but
he had not, and at this conclusion he uttered a loud exclamation of
surprise.

"Yes, just so," said Mascarin, with an air of bland triumph. "The Duke
de Champdoce will then drag you off to our mutual friend Martin Rigal,
and there you will find our young _protege_, the happy husband of the
beautiful Flavia."

Mascarin drew himself up, and adjusted his glasses firmly on his nose.

"Now, my dear Catenac, show the liberality and amiability of your
disposition by congratulating our friend Paul as Gontran, Marquis de
Champdoce."

Hortebise, of course, knew what was coming; he knew the lines of the
plot of the play as if he had been a joint author of it, and was as much
excited as if he were assisting at a first rehearsal.

"Bravo!" he exclaimed, clapping his hands together. "Bravo, my dear
Mascarin, you have excelled yourself to-day!"

Worried and perplexed as Paul had been, as Mascarin concluded he sank
back in his chair, sick and giddy with emotion.

"Yes," said Mascarin in a clear and ringing voice, "I accept your praise
without any affectation of false modesty. We have no reason to fear the
intervention of that grain of sand which sometimes stops the working of
the machine. Perpignan, poor fool though he is, will be our best friend,
and will do our work quite unconsciously. Can the Duke retain any atom
of suspicion after these minute investigations? Impossible. But to
remove the slightest element of doubt, I have another and an additional
plan. I will make him retrace the path upon which he has started. He
shall take Paul to all these various places, and at all of them the
statements will be even more fully confirmed. Paul, the son-in-law
of Martin Rigal, the husband of Flavia, will be recognized in the Rue
Montmartre, the Rue Jacob, and the Rue de la Harpe. He will be joyfully
welcomed in the Rue d'Arras; Fritz will embrace his ungrateful pupil;
Vigoureux will remind him of his skillful feats on the trapeze; the
Lorgelin family will press the lad whom they gave shelter to, to their
hearts, and this will happen, Catenac, because I will it, and because
all the people from the