s when he heard the noise of bolts withdrawn, and doors
opened. It was the great entrance-gate of Miss Brandon's house, which
was thrown open by some of the servants. A low _coupe_ with a single
horse left the house, and drove rapidly towards the Champs Elysees.

But, at the moment when the _coupe_ turned, the light of the lamp fell
full upon the inside, and Daniel thought he recognized, nay, he did
recognize, Miss Brandon. He felt as if he had received a stunning blow
on the head.

"She has deceived me!" he exclaimed, grinding his teeth in his rage;
"she has treated me like an imbecile, like an idiot!"

Then, suddenly conceiving a strange plan, he added,--

"I must know where she is going at four o'clock in the morning. I will
follow her."

Unfortunately, Miss Brandon's coachman had, no doubt, received special
orders; for he drove down the avenue as fast as the horse could go,
and the animal was a famous trotter, carefully chosen by Sir Thorn, who
understood horse-flesh better than any one else in Paris. But Daniel
was agile; and the hope of being able to avenge himself at once gave him
unheard-of strength.

"If I could only catch a cab!" he thought.

But no carriage was to be seen. His elbows close to the body, managing
his breath, and steadily measuring his steps, he succeeded in not only
following the _coupe_, but in actually gaining ground. When Miss Brandon
reached Concord Square, he was only a few yards behind the carriage. But
there the coachman touched the horse, which suddenly increased its pace,
crossed the square, and trotted down Royal Street.

Daniel felt his breath giving out, and a shooting pain, first trifling,
but gradually increasing, in his side. He was on the point of giving
up the pursuit, when he saw a cab coming down towards him from the
Madeleine, the driver fast asleep on the box. He threw himself before
the horses, and cried out as well as he could,--

"Driver, a hundred francs for you, if you follow that _coupe_ down
there!"

But the driver, suddenly aroused by a man who stood in the middle of the
street, bareheaded, and in evening costume, and who offered him such
an enormous sum, thought it was a practical joke attempted by a drunken
man, and replied furiously,--

"Look out, rascal! Get out of the way, or I drive over you!"

And therewith he whipped his horses; and Daniel would have been driven
over, if he had not promptly jumped aside. But all this had taken
time; and, when