y his aunt?"

"Madame Kranich, whom I have known in your parlor, is really
Francine's godmother. Did you never know of all her secret kindness?
That rigid lady would commit a perjury to deny one of her own good
actions. Young Kranich has written her a letter confessing his lies.
Don't you know? The very same day when you were determined to fight
him in a duel--"

"Certainly, certainly," I said, a little confused. "We will change the
subject and leave my ferocity alone. Let us understand one another.
In regard to Fortnoye's marriage, was there not some talk of a Madame
Ashburleigh?"

"I believe you. Madame Ashburleigh is the very key of the manoeuvre.
Madame Ashburleigh--don't you perceive?--lost a child."

"For that matter, she has lost four. I know the lady confidentially,
and she told me their histories and present address. Lucia lies in
Glasgow, Hannibal at Nice, and Waterloo sleeps somewhere hereabout, as
well as another nameless little dear."

"She is a good woman. She has collected all her proofs, and has come
hither with them voluntarily--has perhaps already arrived. Brussels,
where two of her marmots rest, is one of her most frequent stations.
That censorious Madame Kranich made a scene, but she had to yield to
conviction."

"A censorious Madame Kranich! Is the young duelist married?"

"What? No, no! It is Francine's guardian I speak of. Of late years she
has become a sort of Puritan abbess, seeking the Protestant society
which abounds in Belgium, and lamenting her husband, whom they say she
used to drug with opium."

"Then is she not Kranich's aunt?"

"Oh yes, an aunt by marriage; but he is not her nephew: I will die
before I call him so."

"Listen," said I, "Father Joliet. You are as full of information as an
oracle, but you are not coherent. This month past I have been hunting
down a chimaera, a hydra with a dozen heads: each head shows me by
turn the portrait of Fortnoye, or Francine, or yourself, or Kranich,
or Mrs. Ashburleigh. Ever since Noisy I have been meandering through
the folds of a mystery. My head is turning with it. If you want to
save me from distraction, sit down in this chair and answer me a long
catechism, without saying a word but in reply to my questions."

[Illustration: FRAU KRANICH.]

"I am sure I talk as plain as a professor. Look! You frightened me at
first with your doubts and your impossibilities. You have only to make
Kranich's aunt agree with Francine's guardian, an