the handsomest
men of his day in Paris,--a Lovelace, capable of seducing Grandison.
My information stops short there. He has been a simple workman; and the
Companions of the Order of the Devorants did, at one time, elect him as
their chief, under the title of Ferragus XXIII. The police ought to know
that, if the police were instituted to know anything. The man has moved
from the rue des Vieux-Augustins, and now roosts rue Joquelet, where
Madame Jules Desmarets goes frequently to see him; sometimes her
husband, on his way to the Bourse, drives her as far as the rue
Vivienne, or she drives her husband to the Bourse. Monsieur le vidame
knows about these things too well to want me to tell him if it is the
husband who takes the wife, or the wife who takes the husband; but
Madame Jules is so pretty, I'd bet on her. All that I have told you is
positive. Bourignard often plays at number 129. Saving your presence,
monsieur, he's a rogue who loves women, and he has his little ways
like a man of condition. As for the rest, he wins sometimes, disguises
himself like an actor, paints his face to look like anything he chooses,
and lives, I may say, the most original life in the world. I don't doubt
he has a good many lodgings, for most of the time he manages to evade
what Monsieur le vidame calls 'parliamentary investigations.' If
monsieur wishes, he could be disposed of honorably, seeing what his
habits are. It is always easy to get rid of a man who loves women.
However, this capitalist talks about moving again. Have Monsieur le
vidame and Monsieur le baron any other commands to give me?"

"Justin, I am satisfied with you; don't go any farther in the matter
without my orders, but keep a close watch here, so that Monsieur le
baron may have nothing to fear."

"My dear boy," continued the vidame, when they were alone, "go back to
your old life, and forget Madame Jules."

"No, no," said Auguste; "I will never yield to Gratien Bourignard. I
will have him bound hand and foot, and Madame Jules also."

That evening the Baron Auguste de Maulincour, recently promoted to
higher rank in the company of the Body-Guard of the king, went to a
ball given by Madame la Duchesse de Berry at the Elysee-Bourbon. There,
certainly, no danger could lurk for him; and yet, before he left the
palace, he had an affair of honor on his hands,--an affair it was
impossible to settle except by a duel.

His adversary, the Marquis de Ronquerolles, considered that