It was then so great a joy to Trelane to be able to think of Madeleine with neither mistrust nor suspicion in his heart, that he could even look with something almost of gratitude in his feeling, upon this wretched sinner who had been the means of dispelling his doubts.

Trelane was presently aroused from these thoughts by the voice of Dr. Leboeuf. The worthy physician had been sitting on the bed watching the sick man, and while he did so, finding time occasionally to rejoice within himself at the thought that his young favourite was now cleared in the Englishman's eyes, and that the secret which he had so longed for permission to reveal, had come out in a manner beyond his (the doctor's) control. It was in a very low voice that he now said to Trelane:

"I believe that this miserable man is even nearer

to his end than I thought."

"Can he take no nourishment?" asked Trelane. "None whatever. He is supported entirely on brandy and other stimulants."

Again there was a silence. At last the Italian half-opened his languid eyes, and seemed to wish to speak. The doctor leant over him eagerly, for his voice was hardly audible.

"There is a cemetery," he gasped-" he knows where," indicating Trelane-" to which she sometimes goes; let me lie there--you will!" he added, with a momentary violence.

The doctor promised, and after a while the man spoke again :

"Let her know. Perhaps, she will visit my grave also; at least, it will clear me in her eyes. I only wanted to listen to her voice. I begged of her, that I might-hear her-speak."

These words were uttered with long intervals between them, and latterly as if spoken in a doze. Indeed, the dying man sank, almost before he had ceased to speak, into a kind of undeveloped slumber, such as that which had descended upon him before. The doctor whispered to Trelane,

"He must not be left now. Can you go to my house, and, if Morlot has returned, as I think he must by this time, send him to me directly. If not perhaps you can find your old friend and nurse, Monsieur Charvet, and send him, and you will return yourself, won't you? for we must organize a system of night watching."

Trelane assured his old friend that all his directions should be obeyed, and opening the door as softly as possible, prepared to leave the room; but even the slight noise made in turning the key in the lock disturbed the light sleep of the Italian.

"Is he going away?" he said, suddenly starting up from the pillow.

"I shall be back very soon," the Englishman answered, pausing on the threshold.

The sick man whispered something to the doctor.

"He asks me," said Leboeuf, "if, as he is so near the grave, you would bid him 'good-by' before you go?"

Trelane closed the door, and returning to the bedside, took the emaciated and clammy hand which lay outside the bed.

"Do you forgive me?" whispered the man. "I do, from the very bottom of my heart." The Italian faintly pressed the Englishman's hand. "May God deal mercifully with you!" said Trelane, and with that he hurried from the room.

Trelane paid but small attention to the questions of the neighbours who clustered about him as he left the house, and sped away upon his mission.

145

CHAPTER IX.

DECLARATION OF WAR.

ON reaching Doctor Leboeuf's house, Trelane found that Monsieur Morlot had not arrived, nor had any fresh tidings of him been received by his better half, who made this announcement to our Englishman with rather a grim face, plainly expressing that she should hold him responsible for any disaster which might happen to her Phoenix of husbands.

Trelane did not lose much time in conversation with this good lady, but set off once more in the direction of that old house in the Rue Pompadour, with which he had so many and such strange associations.

As he turned in at the porte-cochere, he heard some one holding forth on the subject of furniture and apartments—about moving the former and leaving the latter and it seemed to him that the voice which he heard was by no means unfamiliar to him. He turned into the porter's lodge from which the sound of this voice came, and found himself face to face with Monsieur le Capitaine d'Elmar.

VOL. II.

30

"Parbleu, monsieur le major, you come just in time, if you should happen to want apartments at Versailles. Here are some to let, which I can recommend."

"Do you mean those of Madame d'Elmar and

"Never mind whose they are; they belong to madame nobody just now, for they are to let."

Trelane smothered the anger which the impertinence of this reply aroused within him, or rather he put his wrath away for a time; there was a score of some length establishing itself between these gentlemen, which would have, at some time or other, to be settled.

"Where are these apartments situated?" asked our Englishman, in a tone of some restraint.

66

They are on the first floor. Perhaps you would like to see them?" This was a part of d'Elmar's plan of pretending to ignore Trelane's previous intercourse with the former inhabitants of these rooms. Trelane, however, accepted his proposal. He was not desirous that Monsieur Charvet, who was present, should hear all that passed between him and the captain.

"I should like to see them," was his answer.

"Monsieur Charvet, I think you did not close the doors when we were upstairs just now?" asked Alexis.

"On the contrary," replied the porter, "they are wide open, and monsieur can ascend on the instant."