t that the
marchioness' house was the rendezvous at the gates of Paris, where we
assembled our bearers of intelligence. Under cover of chit-chat and
vocal-waltzes, we heard reports and issued orders. It was necessary to
link you to us and we employed our foremost captivator, the dandy of two
countries, the international Lothario, the Viscount-baron Gratian von
Linden-hohen-Linden-_cum_ de Terremonde. Luckily, too, he had been at
the same period as myself, smitten with your vernal charms, and he
entered upon his amorous mission with gusto. You believed him very
wealthy, but let me tell you that the cash he really had under hand was
our petty expense fund. Judge by that what a capital we control!"
exclaimed Von Sendlingen proudly. "Our poor Gratian the double dealer,
seemed not to be loved by the gods any more truly than by his goddess
here present, for she let him, unassisted, be thrust down, on falling
through a broken bridge, into the mire of a rivulet visible from your
window. There he breathed his last. Fit death for a traitor! For our
corporation, the untimely, unmanageable passion of this athletic fop
might have had grave consequences, and for you. We did not find the
money on his person only a pocketbook stuffed with rubbish, as if he
were the victim of some gross deception. But, have no fear, Madame, we
are not going to claim the sum from you, we prefer to let you regard it
as a payment on account. We intend you no mischief, and we intended you
none, then; we might have stopped your flight--that is, I might have
done so, but I only threw myself across your path after you ran on, to
stay your husband from pursuing you."

"You were there?" she stammered, more and more frightened at the
vastness of the serpent which involved her with its coils, and which was
so careless about the loss of its golden scales.

"Enough! all is well that ends well! You will serve us?"

"But I have repented!"

"Nonsense! you returned home because your husband was suddenly enriched
above your dreams. Your repentance was simply a prompting of moral
hygiene for you to take rest before a new and less unlucky flight. You
had the instinctive warning that to the greatly successful inventor, the
modern king or knowing man--for civilization has come round the circle
to the point where savagery commenced and the wise man rules--to the
wizard, power, riches, beauty, all gravitate. Your husband would be
courted; duchesses would sue him to place t