I will go madame,' I said, looking at her fixedly,
'when I know all that you know about this knot I hold, and not before.
If you are unwilling to tell me, I must wait for M. de Bruhl, and ask
him.'

She cried out 'Insolent!' and looked at me as if in her rage and dismay
she would gladly have killed me; being, I could see, a passionate woman.
But I held my ground, and after a moment she spoke. 'What do you want to
know?' she said, frowning darkly.

'This knot--how did it come to lie in the street below your window? I
want to know that first.'

'I dropped it,' she answered sullenly.

'Why?' I said.

'Because--' And then she stopped and looked at me, and then again looked
down, her face crimson. 'Because, if you must know,' she continued
hurriedly, tracing a pattern on the table with her finger, 'I saw it
bore the words "A MOI." I have been married only two months, and I
thought my husband might find it--and bring it to me. It was a silly
fancy.'

'But where did you get it?' I asked, and I stared at her in growing
wonder and perplexity. For the more questions I put, the further, it
seemed to me, I strayed from my object.

'I picked it up in the Ruelle d'Arcy,' she answered, tapping her foot
on the floor resentfully. 'It was the silly thing put it into my head
to--to do what I did. And now, have you any more questions, sir?'

'One only,' I said, seeing it all clearly enough. 'Will you tell me,
please, exactly where you found it?'

'I have told you. In the Ruelle d'Arcy, ten paces from the Rue de
Valois. Now, sir, will you go?'

'One word, madame. Did--'

But she cried, 'Go, sir, go! go!' so violently, that after making one
more attempt to express my thanks, I thought it better to obey her. I
had learned all she knew; I had solved the puzzle. But, solving it,
I found myself no nearer to the end I had in view, no nearer to
mademoiselle. I closed the door with a silent bow, and began to descend
the stairs, my mind full of anxious doubts and calculations. The velvet
knot was the only clue I possessed, but was I right; in placing any
dependence on it? I knew now that, wherever it had originally lain, it
had been removed once. If once, why not twice? why not three times?

CHAPTER IX. THE HOUSE IN THE RUELLE D'ARCY.

I had not gone down half a dozen steps before I heard a man enter the
staircase from the street, and begin to ascend. It struck me at once
that this might be M. de Bruhl; and I realised that I had