ormed
in itself a handsome room. This space, containing a splendid but gloomy
bed, on an estrade, and hung with rich faded brocade, was divided from
the general extent of the apartment by a low railing of black oak,
elaborately carved, opening in the centre, and with a flat wide bar
along the top, covered with crimson velvet. The curtains were contrived
to hang from the ceiling, and, when let down inside the screen of
railing, they matched the draperies which closed before the great stone
balcony at the opposite end of the room. Since the _avocat's_ daughter
had occupied this palatial chamber, the curtains of the alcove had never
been drawn, and she had substituted for them a high folding screen of
black-and-gold Japanese pattern, also a relic of the grand old times,
which stood about six feet on the outside of the rails that shut in her
bed. The floor was of shining oak, testifying to the conscientious and
successful labors of successive generations of _frotteurs_; and on the
spot where the railing of the alcove opened by a pretty quaint device
sundering the intertwined arms of a pair of very chubby cherubs, a
square space in the floor was also richly carved.

The seekers soon reached the end of their search. A little effort
removed the square of carved oak, and underneath they found a casket,
evidently of old workmanship, richly wrought in silver, much tarnished
but quite intact. It was agreed that this precious deposit should be
replaced, and the carved square laid down over it, until the signal for
his departure should reach Paul. The little baggage which under any
circumstances he could have ventured to allow himself in the dangerous
journey he was to undertake, must be reduced, so as to admit of his
carrying the casket without exciting suspicion.

The finding of the hidden treasure was not the first joint discovery
made by the daughter of the _avocat_ and the son of the _ci-devant_. The
cogitations of Prosper Alix were very wise, very reasonable; but they
were a little tardy. Before he had admitted the possibility of mischief,
the mischief was done. Each had found out that the love of the other was
indispensable to the happiness of life; and they had exchanged
confidences, assurances, protestations, and promises, as freely, as
fervently, and as hopefully, as if no such thing as a Republic, one and
indivisible, with a keen scent and an unappeasable thirst for the blood
of aristocrats, existed. They forgot all abou