etta; he carried him off to his carriage, pushed him
in, jumped in after him, and called out to the servant,--"Circus Street!
Miss Brandon! Drive fast!"

VIII.

The servants knew very well what the count meant when he said, "Drive
fast!" The coachman, on such occasions, made his horses literally go as
fast as they could; and, but for his great skill, the foot-passengers
would have been in considerable danger. Nevertheless, on this evening
Count Ville-Handry twice lowered the window to call out,--

"Don't drive at a walk!"

The fact is, that, in spite of his efforts to assume the air of a grave
statesman, he was as impatient, and as vain of his love, as a young
collegian hurrying to his first rendezvous with his beloved. During
dinner he had been sullen and silent; now he became talkative, and
chatted away, without troubling himself about the silence of his
companion.

To be sure, Daniel did not even listen. Half-buried in the corner of the
well-padded carriage, he tried his best to control his emotions; for he
was excited, more excited than ever in his life, by the thought that he
was to see, face to face, this formidable adventuress, Miss Brandon. And
like the wrestler, who, before making a decisive assault, gathers up all
his strength, he summoned to his aid his composure and his energy.
It took them not more than ten minutes to drive the whole distance to
Circus Street.

"Here we are!" cried the count.

And, without waiting for the steps to be let down, he jumped on the
sidewalk, and, running ahead of his servants, knocked at the door of
Miss Brandon's house. It was by no means one of those modern structures
which attract the eye of the passer-by by a ridiculous and conspicuous
splendor. Looking at it from the street, you would have taken it for the
modest house of a retired grocer, who was living in it upon his savings
at the rate of two or three thousand a year. It is true, that from
the street, you could see neither the garden, nor the stables and the
carriage-houses.

In the meantime a servant had appeared, who took the count's and
Daniel's coats, and showed them up stairs. When they reached the upper
landing, the count stopped, as if his breath had been giving out of a
sudden.

"There," he stammered, "there!"

"Where? What?" Daniel did not know what he meant. The count only wished
to say that "there" was the place where he had held Miss Brandon in
his arms the day she had fainted. But Daniel