d opening out
towards the ceiling. A few pen-and-ink and pencil sketches and
studies, apparently the cast-off of many studios, were tacked up here
and there. The high mantel bore an accumulation of odds and ends
peculiar to young women of low means and cheap friendships. That was
all. But a French girl can get the best results from a room, as she
can from a hat, with the least money.

Mlle. Fouchette had reached all of this private magnificence through a
singular concatenation of circumstances.

_First_, Inspector Loup.

That distinguished penologist had laid his hands upon Mlle. Fouchette
in no uncertain way.

An order of arrest was at this very moment lying in a certain
pigeon-hole at the Prefecture. She had seen it. The name of "Mlle.
Fouchette" appeared in the body thereof in big, fat, round letters,
and a complete description, age, height, color of hair and eyes, and
other particulars appeared across the back of this terrible paper,
which was duly signed and ready for service.

A tap of the bell,--a push of an electric button,--and Mlle. Fouchette
would be in prison.

There were five distinct counts against her, set forth in ponderous
and damning legal phraseology and briefed alphabetically with a
precision that carried conviction:

"A.--Vagrant--no home--supposed to have come from Nantes.

"B.--Consort of thieves--confession of life convict called 'le
Cochon,' drawer 379, R.M.L. 29.

"C.--Go-between of robbers of the wood of Vincennes and receivers of
stolen goods. Confession of M. Podvin, wine merchant, now serving
term of twenty-one years for highway robbery, drawer 1210, R.M.L. 70.

"D.--Fugitive from State institution, where sent by lawful authority.
See Le Bon Pasteur, Nancy. R.I. 2734.

"E.--Lost or destroyed public document addressed to the Prefecture and
confided to her care under her false representation of being an
authorized agent of that department of the government."

The service of this dreadful order of arrest, behind which crouched
these crimes ready to rise and spring upon her, was suspended by
Inspector Loup. For which tenderness and mercy Fouchette was merely to
report to the Secret Service bureau in accordance with a preconcerted
arrangement.

_Second_, Madeleine.

Mlle. Fouchette had scarcely ceased to bless Inspector Loup for his
forbearance and kind consideration and was crossing the Pont au Change
towards the right bank when she encountered a familiar face. She was
somew