d Fortnoye accept it?" I
asked, turning over the clammy and malodorous epistle. At this inquiry
the crack of the door widened and Charles appeared, on fire with
enthusiasm, and so possessed with self-importance that he forgot the
betrayal of his indiscretion.

"I can reply to that question," said Charles. "When M. Fortnoye
received the paper from the duelist he read it over and said, 'You
have meant to impose on me, monsieur, with an incomplete confession.
But, in return for your imperfect restoration of Mademoiselle Joliet's
portrait, you have unconsciously set down such a masterpiece of
yourself that I am certain your aunt will see you as she never did
before.'"

Charles, having thus added himself to our cabal without rebuke, took
a lively interest in what followed. The proud father continued: "My
son-in-law, after some business preliminaries, wrote me a handsome
letter demanding what he had already effectively possessed himself of.
I wrote to Francine, already returned to her duties, to be a good girl
and make her husband obey her in all things."

"That may have been," said I, "what made Francine take to laughing
all day and all night, as I heard she did some little time after my
departure from her house. The next news of her," I pursued, "was
that she had been spirited away by some sly old kidnapper. I almost
suspected Kranich."

"The old kidnapper," said Joliet, laughing heartily at the compliment,
"is the man now talking to you. I wanted to take Francine to her
godmother. I turned the key in the door at Carlsruhe, set the
geographers all upon their travels to explore new worlds, and we have
been living ever since quite close to Madame Kranich, who treats me
like an emperor."

It was easy now to understand why the young Kranich, as soon as he
could identify me as a protector of Francine, had been thrown off his
guard and tempted to attack me with his clumsy abuse. It was not very
mysterious, even, why he had wished all handsome girls to be drowned
in the Rhine. For him a pretty damsel was simply a rival in trade.

[Illustration: READING THE CONTRACT.]

Had I stopped at Wildbad with the party of orpheonists, I should have
encountered rather sooner the fatal beauties of Mary Ashburleigh. It
was to meet her that Fortnoye had paused at that resort, considering
her introduction to Frau Kranich almost indispensable to the success
of his scheme. She had no hesitation in following the protecting angel
of her lost