d to admit that it is possible."

"M. Pipelet!" called out the up-stairs voice again. "Pray come as
quickly as you can; I am holding your wife in my arms!"

"Holloa!" said Pipelet, springing up abruptly. "Somebody got my wife in
his arms!"

"I really cannot manage to unlace Madame Pipelet's stays by myself!"
screamed out the voice, in tones louder than before.

These words perfectly electrified Alfred, and the blush of offended
modesty empurpled his melancholy features.

"Sir-r-r!" cried he in a stentorian voice, as he rushed frantically from
his lodge. "Sir-r-r! I adjure you, in the name of Honour, to leave my
wife and her stays alone! I come! I come!"

And so saying, Alfred dashed into the dark labyrinth called a staircase,
forgetting, in his excitement, to close the door of the lodge after him.

Scarcely had he quitted it than an individual entered quickly, snatched
from the table the cobbler's hammer, sprung on the bed, and, by means of
four small tacks, previously inserted into each corner of a thick
cardboard he carried with him, nailed the cardboard to the back of the
dark recess in which stood Pipelet's bed; then disappeared as quickly as
he had come. So expeditiously was the operation performed, that the
porter, having almost immediately recollected his omission respecting
the closing the lodge door, hastily descended, and both shut and locked
it; then putting the key in his pocket, returned with all speed to
succour his wife above-stairs, without the slightest suspicion crossing
his mind that any foot had trod there since his own. Having taken this
precautionary measure, Alfred again darted off to the assistance of
Anastasie, exclaiming, with all the power of his lungs:

"Sir-r-r! I come! Behold me! I place my wife beneath the safeguard of
your delicacy!"

But a fresh surprise awaited the worthy porter, and had well-nigh caused
him to fall from the height he had ascended to the sill of his own
lodge,--the voice of her he expected to find fainting in the arms of
some unknown individual was now heard, not from the upper part of the
house, but at the entrance! In well-known accents, but sharper and
shriller than usual, he heard Anastasie exclaim:

"Why, Alfred! What do you mean by leaving the lodge? Where have you got
to, you old gossip?"

At this appeal, M. Pipelet managed to descend as far as the first
landing, where he remained petrified with astonishment, gazing downwards
with fixed stare, open m