t appeared that the gentlemen who showed themselves there--old
men mostly, amply decorated with foreign orders, and young men in
extravagantly fashionable costumes--were not free from suspicion; but
they all belonged to Paris high-life, to that society, which, under a
dazzlingly brilliant outside, conceals hideous crimes, and allows now
and then traces of real misery to be seen through the rents in the
splendid livery worn by its members.

Some of these men stood, by the name they bore or the position they
filled, high above the rest of the company; they were easily recognized
by their haughty manner, and the intense deference with which their
slightest remarks were received. And to this crowd Count Ville-Handry
displayed his good-fortune. He assumed all the airs of the master of the
house; as if he had been in his own house, gave orders to the servants,
and then, with mock modesty, went from group to group, eagerly picking
up all the compliments he could gather on Miss Brandon's beauty, and his
own good luck.

Gracefully reclining in an easy-chair near the fireplace, Miss Sarah
looked a young queen surrounded by her court. But in spite of the
multitude of her admirers, and the number of compliments she received at
every moment, she never for a moment lost sight of Daniel, watching him
all the time stealthily, to read his thoughts in his features.

Once she even shocked the crowd of her worshippers by suddenly leaving
her place in order to ask him why he held himself so aloof, and whether
he felt indisposed. Then, seeing that he was a perfect stranger here,
she was good enough to point out to him some of the most remarkable men
in the crowd. In doing this, she was so anxious to make him aware of her
distinguished friends, that Daniel began to think she must have divined
his intentions, and thus indirectly defied him, as if she had said in so
many words,--

"You see what friends I have, and how they would defend me if you should
dare to attack me."

Nevertheless, he was not discouraged, being fully aware of all the
difficulties of his undertaking, and having long since counted up all
the obstacles in his way. While the conversation was going on around
him, he arranged in his head a plan, which, he hoped, would enable him
to find out the antecedents of this dangerous adventuress.

These thoughts preoccupied him to such a degree, that he did not become
aware how the rooms became gradually empty. It was so, neverthele