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肩書を与える:  城s in the 空気／公表する
Author: Baroness Orczy
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城s In The 空気／公表する
存在 the Adventures of M. 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon

by
Baroness Orczy

CONTENTS

Foreword
一時期／支部 1. - A Roland For His Oliver
一時期／支部 2. - A Fool’s 楽園
一時期／支部 3. - On The Brink
一時期／支部 4. - Carissimo
一時期／支部 5. - The Toys
一時期／支部 6. - Honour の中で —
一時期／支部 7. - An Over-極度の慎重さを要する Heart

Foreword

In 現在のing this engaging rogue to my readers, I feel that I 借りがある them, if not an 陳謝, at least an explanation for this 試みる／企てる at enlisting sympathy in favour of a man who has little to recommend him save his own unconscious humour. In very truth my good friend Ratichon is an unblushing liar, どろぼう, a forger—anything you will; his vanity is past belief, his scruples are 非，不，無-existent. How he escaped a 罪人／有罪を宣告する 解決／入植地 it is difficult to imagine, and hard to realize that he died—推定では some years after the event 記録，記録的な／記録するd in the last 一時期／支部 of his autobiography—a 尊敬（する）・点d member of the community, honoured by that same society which should have raised a 刑罰の 手渡す against him. Yet this I believe to be the 事例／患者. At any 率, in spite of の近くに 研究 in the police 記録，記録的な／記録するs of the period, I can find no について言及する of 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon. “Heureux le peuple qui n’a pas d’histoire” 適用するs, therefore, to him, and we must take it that 運命／宿命 and his own sorely troubled country dealt lightly with him.

Which brings me 支援する to my 試みる／企てる at an explanation. If 運命／宿命 dealt kindly, why not we? Since time immemorial there have been worse scoundrels unhung than 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon, and he has the saving grace— which few 所有する—of unruffled geniality. Buffeted by 運命／宿命, いつかs 餓死するing, always thirsty, he never complains; and there is all through his autobiography what we might call an “Ah, 井戸／弁護士席!” 態度 about his 見通し on life. Because of this, and because his very fatuity makes us smile, I feel that he deserves forgiveness and even a 確かな 量 of 承認.

The fragmentary 公式文書，認めるs, which I have only very わずかに 修正するd, （機の）カム into my 手渡すs by a happy chance one dull 戦後の November morning in Paris, when rain, sleet and the north 勝利，勝つd drove me for 避難所 under the arcades of the Odéon, and a kindly vendor of miscellaneous printed 事柄 and mouldy MSS. 許すd me to rummage amongst a 負担 of old papers which he was about to consign to the rubbish heap. I imagine that the 公式文書，認めるs were 始める，決める 負かす／撃墜する by the actual person to whom the genial 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon recounted the most 目だつ events of his chequered career, and as I turned over the torn and musty pages, which hung together by 捨てるs of mouldy thread, I could not help feeling the humour—aye! and the pathos—of that drabby 味方する of old Paris which was 存在 明らかにする／漏らすd to me through the medium of this rogue’s adventures. And even as, 持つ／拘留するing the fragments in my 手渡す, I walked home that morning through the rain something of that same quaint personality seemed once more to haunt the dank and dreary streets of the once dazzling Ville Lumière. I seemed to see the shabby 瓶／封じ込める-green coat, the nankeen pantaloons, the 負かす／撃墜する-at-heel shoes of this “confidant of Kings”; I could hear his unctuous, self-満足させるd laugh, and sensed his furtive footstep whene’er a gendarme （機の）カム into 見解（をとる）. I saw his ruddy, shiny 直面する beaming at me through the sleet and the rain as, like a veritable squire of dames, he minced his steps upon the boulevard, or, like a 無謀な smuggler, affronted the 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な dangers of mountain fastnesses upon the Juras; and I was やめる glad to think that a life so 十分な of unconscious humour had not been 削減（する） short upon the gallows. And I thought kindly of him, for he had made me smile.

There is nothing 罰金 about him, nothing romantic; nothing in his 活動／戦闘s to 原因（となる） a 選び出す／独身 thrill to the 神経s of the most unsophisticated reader. Therefore, I わびる in that I have not held him up to a just obloquy because of his 罪，犯罪s, and I ask indulgence for his turpitudes because of the laughter which they 刺激する.

Emmuska Orczy
        Paris, 1921

一時期／支部 1
A Roland For His Oliver

1

My 指名する is Ratichon—圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon, at your service, and I make so bold as to say that not even my worst enemy would think of 最小限に減らすing the value of my services to the 明言する／公表する. For twenty years now have I placed my 力／強力にするs at the 処分 of my country: I have served the 共和国, and was confidential スパイ／執行官 to 国民 Robespierre; I have served the Empire, and was secret factotum to our 広大な／多数の／重要な Napoléon; I have served King Louis—with a 簡潔な／要約する interval of one hundred days— for the past two years, and I can only repeat that no one, in the whole of フラン, has been so useful or so 熱心な in 跡をつけるing 犯罪のs, nosing out 共謀s, or 公然と非難するing 反逆者s as I have been.

And yet you see me a poor man to this day: there has been a 断固としてやる malignant 運命／宿命 which has worked against me all these years, and would—but for a happy circumstance of which I hope anon to tell you—have left me just as I was, in the 事柄 of fortune, when I first （機の）カム to Paris and 始める，決める up in 商売／仕事 as a volunteer police スパイ／執行官 at No. 96 Rue Daunou.

My apartment in those days consisted of an antechamber, an outer office where, if need be, a dozen （弁護士の）依頼人s might sit, waiting their turn to place their troubles, difficulties, 苦悩s before the acutest brain in フラン, and an inner room wherein that same 激烈な／緊急の brain—地雷, my dear Sir—was wont to ponder and 計画／陰謀. That apartment was not luxuriously furnished—furniture 存在 very dear in those days—but there were a couple of 議長，司会を務めるs and a （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する in the outer office, and a cupboard wherein I kept the frugal repast which served me during the course of a long and laborious day. In the inner office there were more 議長，司会を務めるs and another （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, littered with papers: letters and packets all tied up with pink tape (which cost three sous the metre), and bundles of letters from hundreds of （弁護士の）依頼人s, from the highest and the lowest in the land, you understand, people who wrote to me and confided in me to-day as kings and emperors had done in the past. In the antechamber there was a 議長，司会を務める-bedstead for Theodore to sleep on when I 要求するd him to remain in town, and a 議長，司会を務める on which he could sit.

And, of course, there was Theodore!

Ah! my dear Sir, of him I can hardly speak without feeling choked with the magnitude of my emotion. A noble indignation makes me dumb. Theodore, sir, has ever been the cruel thorn that times out of number hath 負傷させるd my over-極度の慎重さを要する heart. Think of it! I had 選ぶd him out of the gutter! No! no! I do not mean this figuratively! I mean that, 現実に and in the flesh, I took him up by the collar of his tattered coat and dragged him out of the gutter in the Rue Blanche, where he was grubbing for trifles out of the わずかな／ほっそりした and mud. He was frozen, Sir, and 餓死するd—yes, 餓死するd! In the intervals of 選ぶing filth up out of the mud he held out a 手渡す blue with 冷淡な to the passers-by and occasionally 選ぶd up a sou. When I 設立する him in that pitiable 条件 he had 正確に／まさに twenty centimes between him and 絶対の 餓死.

And I, Sir 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon, the confidant of two kings, three autocrats and an emperor, took that man to my bosom—fed him, 着せる／賦与するd him, housed him, gave him the 地位，任命する of 長官 in my intricate, delicate, immensely important 商売／仕事—and I did this, Sir, at a salary which, in comparison with his twenty centimes, must have seemed a princely one to him.

His 義務s were light. He was under no 義務 to serve me or to be at his 地位，任命する before seven o’clock in the morning, and all that he had to do then was to sweep out the three rooms, fetch water from the 井戸／弁護士席 in the 中庭 below, light the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 in the アイロンをかける stove which stood in my inner office, 爆撃する the haricots for his own mess of pottage, and put them to boil. During the day his 義務s were はしけ still. He had to run errands for me, open the door to 見込みのある （弁護士の）依頼人s, show them into the outer office, explain to them that his master was engaged on 事件／事情／状勢s relating to the kingdom of フラン, and 一般に 証明する himself efficient, useful and loyal—all of which 質s he 保証するd me, my dear Sir, he 所有するd to the fullest degree. And I believed him, Sir; I 養育するd the scorpion in my over-極度の慎重さを要する bosom! I 約束d him ten per cent. on all the 利益（をあげる）s of my 商売／仕事, and all the 残余s from my own humble repasts—bread, the 肌s of luscious sausages, the bones from savoury cutlets, the gravy from the tasty carrots and onions. You would have thought that his 感謝 would become boundless, that he would almost worship the benefactor who had 注ぐd at his feet the 十分な cornucopia of 慰安 and 高級な. Not so! That man, Sir, was a snake in the grass—a serpent—a crocodile! Even now that I have 完全に 厳しいd my connexion with that ingrate, I seem to feel the 負傷させるs, like dagger-thrusts, which he dealt me with so callous a 手渡す. But I have done with him—done, I tell you! How could I do さもなければ than to send him 支援する to the gutter from whence I should never have dragged him? My goodness, he repaid with an ingratitude so 黒人／ボイコット that you, Sir, when you hear the 十分な story of his treachery, will exclaim aghast.

Ah, you shall 裁判官! His perfidy 開始するd いっそう少なく than a week after I had given him my third best pantaloons and three sous to get his hair 削減（する）, thus making a man of him. And yet, you would scarcely believe it, in the 事柄 of the secret 文書s he behaved toward me like a veritable Judas!

Listen, my dear Sir.

I told you, I believe, that I had my office in the Rue Daunou. You understand that I had to receive my （弁護士の）依頼人s—many of whom were of exalted 階級—-in a 流行の／上流の ４半期/4分の1 of Paris. But I 現実に 宿泊するd in Passy—存在 fond of country 追跡s and （麻薬）常用者d to fresh 空気／公表する—in a humble hostelry under the 調印する of the “Grey Cat”; and here, too, Theodore had a bed. He would walk to the office a couple of hours before I myself started on the way, and I was wont to arrive as soon after ten o’clock of a morning as I could do conveniently.

On this memorable occasion of which I am about to tell you—it was during the autumn of 1815—I had come to the office 異常に 早期に, and had just hung my hat and coat in the outer room, and taken my seat at my desk in the inner office, there to collect my thoughts in 準備 for the 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な events which the day might bring 前へ／外へ, when, suddenly, an ill-dressed, dour-looking individual entered the room without so much as 説, “By your leave,” and after having 押し進めるd Theodore—who stood by like a lout—most 無作法に to one 味方する. Before I had time to 回復する from my surprise at this unseemly 侵入占拠, the uncouth individual thrust Theodore 概略で out of the room, slammed the door in his 直面する, and having 満足させるd himself that he was alone with me and that the door was too solid to 許す of successful eavesdropping, he dragged the best 議長，司会を務める 今後—the one, sir, which I reserve for lady 訪問者s.

He threw his 脚 across it, and, sitting astride, he leaned his 肘s over the 支援する and glowered at me as if he meant to 脅す me.

“My 指名する is Charles Saurez,” he said 突然の, “and I want your 援助 in a 事柄 which 要求するs discretion, ingenuity and alertness. Can I have it?”

I was about to make a dignified reply when he literally threw the next words at me: “指名する your price, and I will 支払う／賃金 it!” he said.

What could I do, save to raise my shoulders in 記念品 that the 事柄 of money was one of 最高の 無関心／冷淡 to me, and my eyebrows in a manner of 疑問 that M. Charles Saurez had the means wherewith to 返す my 価値のある services? By way of a rejoinder he took out from the inner pocket of his coat a greasy letter-事例／患者, and with his exceedingly grimy fingers 抽出するd therefrom some twenty banknotes, which a 迅速な ちらりと見ること on my part 明らかにする／漏らすd as 代表するing a couple of hundred フランs.

“I will give you this as a 保持するing 料金,” he said, “if you will 請け負う the work I want you to do; and I will 二塁打 the 量 when you have carried the work out 首尾よく.”

Four hundred フランs! It was not lavish, it was perhaps not altogether the price I would have 指名するd, but it was very good, these hard times. You understand? We were all very poor in フラン in that year 1815 of which I speak.

I am always やめる straightforward when I am 取引，協定ing with a （弁護士の）依頼人 who means 商売／仕事. I 押し進めるd aside the litter of papers in 前線 of me, leaned my 肘s upon my desk, 残り／休憩（する）d my chin in my 手渡すs, and said 簡潔に:

“M. Charles Saurez, I listen!”

He drew his 議長，司会を務める a little closer and dropped his 発言する／表明する almost to a whisper.

“You know the Chancellerie of the 省 of Foreign 事件／事情／状勢s?” he asked.

“Perfectly,” I replied.

“You know M. de Marsan’s 私的な office? He is 長，指導者 長官 to M. de Talleyrand.”

“No,” I said, “but I can find out.”

“It is on the first 床に打ち倒す, すぐに 直面するing the service staircase, and at the end of the long passage which leads to the main staircase.”

“平易な to find, then,” I 発言／述べるd.

“やめる. At this hour and until twelve o’clock, M. de Marsan will be 占領するd in copying a 文書 which I 願望（する） to 所有する. At eleven o’clock 正確に there will be a noisy 騒動 in the 回廊（地帯） which leads to the main staircase. M. de Marsan, in all probability, will come out of his room to see what the 騒動 is about. Will you 請け負う to be ready at that 正確な moment to make a dash from the service staircase into the room to 掴む the 文書, which no 疑問 will be lying on the 最高の，を越す of the desk, and bring it to an 演説（する）／住所 which I am about to give you?”

“It is risky,” I mused.

“Very,” he retorted drily, “or I’d do it myself, and not 支払う／賃金 you four hundred フランs for your trouble.”

“Trouble!” I exclaimed, with withering sarcasm.

“Trouble, you call it? If I am caught, it means penal servitude—New Caledonia, perhaps—”

“正確に／まさに,” he said, with the same irritating calmness; “and if you 後継する it means four hundred フランs. Take it or leave it, as you please, but be quick about it. I have no time to waste; it is past nine o’clock already, and if you won’t do the work, someone else will.”

For a few seconds longer I hesitated. 計画／陰謀s, both 変化させるd and wild, 急ぐd through my active brain: 辞退する to take this 危険, and 公然と非難する the 陰謀（を企てる） to the police; 辞退する it, and run to 警告する M. de Marsan; 辞退する it, and— I had little time for reflection. My uncouth （弁護士の）依頼人 was standing, as it were, with a ピストル to my throat—with a ピストル and four hundred フランs! The police might perhaps give me half a louis for my 苦痛s, or they might かもしれない remember an unpleasant little 出来事/事件 in connexion with the 偽造 of some 財務省 社債s which they have never 後継するd in bringing home to me—one never knows! M. de Marsan might throw me a フラン, and think himself generous at that!

All things considered, then, when M. Charles Saurez suddenly said, “井戸／弁護士席?” with 示すd impatience, I replied, “Agreed,” and within five minutes I had two hundred フランs in my pocket, with the prospect of two hundred more during the next four and twenty hours. I was to have a 解放する／自由な 手渡す in 行為／行うing my own 株 of the 商売／仕事, and M. Charles Saurez was to call for the 文書 at my lodgings at Passy on the に引き続いて morning at nine o’clock.

2

I flatter myself that I 行為／行うd the 商売／仕事 with remarkable 技術. At 正確に ten minutes to eleven I rang at the Chancellerie of the 省 for Foreign 事件／事情／状勢s. I was dressed as a respectable commissionnaire, and I carried a letter and a small 小包 演説（する）／住所d to M. de Marsan. “First 床に打ち倒す,” said the concierge curtly, as soon as he had ちらりと見ることd at the superscription on the letter. “Door 直面するs 最高の，を越す of the service stairs.”

I 機動力のある and took my stand some ten steps below the 上陸, keeping the door of M. de Marsan’s room 井戸／弁護士席 in sight. Just as the bells of Notre Dame にわか景気d the hour I heard what sounded like a furious altercation somewhere in the 回廊（地帯） just above me. There was much shouting, then one or two cries of “殺人!” followed by others of “What is it?” and “What in the 指名する of — is all this infernal 列／漕ぐ／騒動 about?” Doors were opened and banged, there was a general running and 急ぐing along that 回廊（地帯）, and the next minute the door in 前線 of me was opened also, and a young man （機の）カム out, pen in 手渡す, and shouting just like everybody else:

“What the — is all this infernal 列／漕ぐ／騒動 about?”

“殺人, help!” （機の）カム from the distant end of the 回廊（地帯）, and M. de Marsan—undoubtedly it was he—did what any other young man under the like circumstances would have done: he ran to see what was happening and to lend a 手渡す in it, if need be. I saw his わずかな／ほっそりした 人物／姿／数字 disappearing 負かす／撃墜する the 回廊（地帯） at the very moment that I slipped into his room. One ちらりと見ること upon the desk 十分であるd: there lay the large 公式の／役人-looking 文書, with the 王室の 署名 affixed thereto, and の近くに beside it the copy which M. de Marsan had only half finished—the 署名／調印する on it was still wet. Hesitation, Sir, would have been 致命的な. I did not hesitate; not one instant. Three seconds had scarcely elapsed before I 選ぶd up the 文書, together with M. de Marsan’s half-finished copy of the same, and a few loose sheets of Chancellerie paper which I thought might be useful. Then I slipped the lot inside my blouse. The 偽の letter and 小包 I left behind me, and within two minutes of my 入ること／参加（者） into the room I was descending the service staircase やめる unconcernedly, and had gone past the concierge’s 宿泊する without 存在 challenged. How thankful I was to breathe once more the pure 空気／公表する of heaven. I had spent an exceedingly agitated five minutes, and even now my 苦悩 was not altogether at 残り／休憩（する）. I dared not walk too 急速な／放蕩な lest I attracted attention, and yet I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to put the river, the Pont Neuf, and a half dozen streets between me and the Chancellerie of the 省 of Foreign 事件／事情／状勢s. No one who has not gone through such an exciting adventure as I have just 記録，記録的な／記録するd can conceive what were my feelings of 救済 and of satisfaction when I at last 設立する myself 静かに 開始するing the stairs which led to my office on the 最高の，を越す 床に打ち倒す of No. 96 Rue Daunou.

3

Now, I had not said anything to Theodore about this 事件／事情／状勢. It was certainly arranged between us when he entered my service as confidential clerk and doorkeeper that in lieu of 給料, which I could not afford to 支払う／賃金 him, he would 株 my meals with me and have a bed at my expense in the same house at Passy where I 宿泊するd; moreover, I would always give him a fair 百分率 on the 利益（をあげる）s which I derived from my 商売／仕事. The 協定 ふさわしい him very 井戸／弁護士席. I told you that I 選ぶd him out of the gutter, and I heard subsequently that he had gone through many an unpleasant 小競り合い with the police in his day, and if I did not 雇う him no one else would.

After all, he did earn a more or いっそう少なく honest living by serving me. But in this instance, since I had not even asked for his 援助, I felt that, considering the 危険s of New Caledonia and a 罪人／有罪を宣告する ship which I had taken, a paltry four hundred フランs could not by any stretch of the imagination 階級 as a “利益（をあげる）” in a 商売／仕事—and Theodore was not really する権利を与えるd to a 百分率, was he?

So when I returned I crossed the 賭け金-議会 and walked past him with my accustomed dignity; nor did he 申し込む／申し出 any comment on my get-up. I often 影響する／感情d a disguise in those days, even when I was not engaged in 商売／仕事, and the dress and get-up of a respectable commissionnaire was a favourite one with me. As soon as I had changed I sent him out to make 購入（する）s for our 昼食—five sous’ 価値（がある） of stale bread, and ten sous’ 価値（がある） of 肝臓 sausage, of which he was inordinately fond. He would take the 適切な時期 on the way of getting moderately drunk on as many glasses of absinthe as he could afford. I saw him go out of the outer door, and then I 始める，決める to work to 診察する the precious 文書.

井戸／弁護士席, one ちらりと見ること was 十分な for me to realize its incalculable value! Nothing more or いっそう少なく than a 条約 of 同盟 between King Louis XVIII of フラン and the King of Prussia in connexion with 確かな 計画／陰謀s of 海軍の construction. I did not understand the whole 外交の verbiage, but it was pretty （疑いを）晴らす to my unsophisticated mind that this 条約 had been entered into in secret by the two 君主s, and that it was ーするつもりであるd to prejudice the 利益／興味s both of Denmark and of Russia in the Baltic Sea.

I also realized that both the 政府s of Denmark and Russia would no 疑問 支払う／賃金 a very かなりの sum for the merest ちらりと見ること at this 文書, and that my （弁護士の）依頼人 of this morning was certainly a secret service スパイ／執行官—さもなければ a 秘かに調査する—of one of those two countries, who did not choose to take the very 厳しい 危険s which I had taken this morning, but who would, on the other 手渡す, 得る the 十分な reward of the daring クーデター, whilst I was to be content with four hundred フランs!

Now, I am a man of 審議 同様に as of 活動／戦闘, and at this juncture—feeling that Theodore was still 安全に out of the way—I thought the whole 事柄 over 静かに, and then took what 警戒s I thought fit for the その上のing of my own 利益／興味s.

To begin with, I 始める，決める to work to make a copy of the 条約 on my own account. I have brought the 熟考する／考慮する of calligraphy to a magnificent degree of perfection, and the 令状ing on the 文書 was 平易な enough to imitate, as was also the 署名 of our gracious King Louis and of M. de Talleyrand, who had countersigned it.

If you remember, I had 選ぶd up two or three loose sheets of paper off M. de Marsan’s desk; these bore the 武器 of the Chancellerie of Foreign 事件／事情／状勢s stamped upon them, and were in every way 同一の with that on which the 初めの 文書 had been 草案d. When I had finished my work I flattered myself that not the greatest calligraphic 専門家 could have （悪事，秘密などを）発見するd the slightest difference between the 初めの and the copy which I had made.

The work took me a long time. When at last I 倍のd up the papers and slipped them once more inside my blouse it was の近くに upon two. I wondered why Theodore had not returned with our 昼食, but on going to the little anteroom which divides my office from the outer door, 広大な／多数の／重要な was my astonishment to see him lolling there on the rickety 議長，司会を務める which he affectioned, and half asleep. I had some difficulty in rousing him. 明らかに he had got rather drunk while he was out, and had then returned and slept some of his booze off, without thinking that I might be hungry and needing my 昼食.

“Why didn’t you let me know you had come 支援する?” I asked curtly, for indeed I was very cross with him.

“I thought you were busy,” he replied, with what I thought looked like a leer.

I have never really cared for Theodore, you understand.

However, I partook of our modest 昼食 with him in perfect 友好 and brotherly love, but my mind was busy all the time. I began to wonder if Theodore 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd something; if so, I knew that I could not 信用 him. He would try and ferret things out, and then 需要・要求する a 株 in my hard-earned emoluments to which he was really not する権利を与えるd. I did not feel 安全な with that bulky packet of papers on me, and I felt that Theodore’s bleary 注目する，もくろむs were perpetually 直す／買収する，八百長をするd upon the bulge in the left-手渡す 味方する of my coat. At one moment he looked so strange that I thought he meant to knock me 負かす／撃墜する.

So my mind was quickly made up.

After 昼食 I would go 負かす／撃墜する to my lodgings at Passy, and I knew of a snug little hiding-place in my room there where the precious 文書s would be やめる 安全な until such time as I was to 手渡す them—or one of them—to M. Charles Saurez.

This 計画（する） I put into 死刑執行, and with remarkable ingenuity too.

While Theodore was busy （疑いを）晴らすing up the 破片 of our 昼食, I not only gave him the slip, but as I went out I took the 警戒 of locking the outer door after me, and taking the 重要な away in my pocket. I thus made sure that Theodore could not follow me. I then walked to Passy—a 事柄 of two kilometres—and by four o’clock I had the satisfaction of stowing the papers 安全に away under one of the tiles in the 床に打ち倒すing of my room, and then pulling the （土地などの）細長い一片 of carpet in 前線 of my bed snugly over the hiding-place.

Theodore’s attic, where he slept, was at the 最高の，を越す of the house, whilst my room was on the ground 床に打ち倒す, and so I felt that I could now go 支援する やめる comfortably to my office in the hope that more remunerative work and more lavish （弁護士の）依頼人s would come my way before nightfall.

4

It was a little after five o’clock when I once more turned the 重要な in the outer door of my rooms in the Rue Daunou.

Theodore did not seem in the least to resent having been locked in for two hours. I think he must have been asleep most of the time. Certainly I heard a good 取引，協定 of shuffling when first I reached the 上陸 outside the door; but when I 現実に walked into the apartment with an 空気／公表する of 静かな unconcern Theodore was sprawling on the 議長，司会を務める-bedstead, with 注目する，もくろむs の近くにd, a nose the colour of beetroot, and emitting sounds through his thin, 割れ目d lips which I could not, Sir, 述べる graphically in your presence.

I took no notice of him, however, even though, as I walked past him, I saw that he opened one bleary 注目する，もくろむ and watched my every movement. I went straight into my 私的な room and shut the door after me. And here, I 保証する you, my dear Sir, I literally fell into my favourite 議長，司会を務める, 打ち勝つ with emotion and excitement. Think what I had gone through! The events of the last few hours would have turned any brain いっそう少なく keen, いっそう少なく daring than that of 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon. And here was I, alone at last, 直面する to 直面する with the 未来. What a 未来, my dear Sir! 運命／宿命 was smiling on me at last. At last I was 運命にあるd to 得る a rich reward for all the 技術, the energy, the devotion, which up to this hour I had placed at the service of my country and my King—or my Emperor, as the 事例／患者 might be—without thought of my own advantage. Here was I now in 所有／入手 of a 文書—two 文書s—each one of which was 価値（がある） at least a thousand フランs to persons whom I could easily approach. One thousand フランs! Was I dreaming? Five thousand would certainly be paid by the 政府 whose スパイ／執行官 M. Charles Saurez admittedly was for one ちらりと見ること at that secret 条約 which would be so prejudicial to their political 利益／興味s; whilst M. de Marsan himself would 喜んで 支払う／賃金 another five thousand for the satisfaction of placing the precious 文書 損なわれていない before his powerful and irascible uncle.

Ten thousand フランs! How few were 所有するd of such a sum in these days! How much could be done with it! I would not give up 商売／仕事 altogether, of course, but with my new 資本／首都 I would 延長する it and, there was a 確かな little house, の近くに to Chantilly, a house with a few acres of kitchen garden and some fruit trees, the 所有／入手 of which would （判決などを）下す me happier than any king. . . . I would marry! Oh, yes! I would certainly marry—設立する a family. I was still young, my dear Sir, and passably good looking. In fact there was a 確かな young 未亡人, comely and amiable, who lived not far from Passy, who had on more than one occasion given me to understand that I was more than passably good looking. I had always been susceptible where the fair sex was 関心d, and now . . . oh, now! I could 選ぶ and choose! The comely 未亡人 had a small fortune of her own, and there were others! . . .

Thus I dreamed on for the better part of an hour, until, soon after six o’clock, there was a knock at the outer door and I heard Theodore’s shuffling footsteps crossing the small anteroom. There was some muttered conversation, and presently my door was opened and Theodore’s ugly 直面する was thrust into the room.

“A lady to see you,” he said curtly.

Then, he dropped his 発言する／表明する, smacked his lips, and winked with one 注目する，もくろむ. “Very pretty,” he whispered, “but has a young man with her whom she calls Arthur. Shall I send them in?”

I then and there made up my mind that I would get rid of Theodore now that I could afford to get a proper servant. My 商売／仕事 would in 未来 be 大いに 延長するd; it would become very important, and I was beginning to detest Theodore. But I said “Show the lady in!” with becoming dignity, and a few moments later a beautiful woman entered my room.

I was ばく然と conscious that a creature of my own sex walked in behind her, but of him I took no notice. I rose to 迎える／歓迎する the lady and 招待するd her to sit 負かす／撃墜する, but I had the annoyance of seeing the personage whom deliberately she called “Arthur” coming familiarly 今後 and leaning over the 支援する of her 議長，司会を務める.

I hated him. He was short and stout and florid, with an impertinent-looking moustache, and hair that was very smooth and oily save for two tight curls, which looked like the horns of a young goat, on each 味方する of the centre parting. I hated him cordially, and had to 支配（する）／統制する my feelings not to show him the contempt which I felt for his fatuousness and his 空気／公表する of self-complacency. Fortunately the beautiful 存在 was the first to 演説（する）／住所 me, and thus I was able to ignore the very presence of the detestable man.

“You are M. Ratichon, I believe,” she said in a 発言する／表明する that was dulcet and adorably tremulous, like the 発言する／表明する of some 甘い, shy young thing in the presence of genius and 力／強力にする.

“圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon,” I replied calmly. “完全に at your service, Mademoiselle.” Then I 追加するd, with gentle, encouraging kindliness, “Mademoiselle...?”

“My 指名する is Geoffroy,” she replied, “Madeleine Geoffroy.”

She raised her 注目する，もくろむs—such 注目する，もくろむs, my dear Sir!—of a tender, luscious grey, fringed with 攻撃するs and dewy with 涙／ほころびs. I met her ちらりと見ること. Something in my own 注目する，もくろむs must have spoken with mute eloquence of my 苦しめる, for she went on quickly and with a 甘い smile. “And this,” she said, pointing to her companion, “is my brother, Arthur Geoffroy.”

An exclamation of joyful surprise broke from my lips, and I beamed and smiled on M. Arthur, begged him to be seated, which he 辞退するd, and finally I myself sat 負かす／撃墜する behind my desk. I now looked with unmixed benevolence on both my （弁護士の）依頼人s, and then perceived that the lady’s exquisite 直面する bore unmistakable 調印するs of 最近の 悲しみ.

“And now, Mademoiselle,” I said, as soon as I had taken up a position indicative of attention and of 激励, “will you deign to tell me how I can have the honour to serve you?”

“Monsieur,” she began in a 発言する／表明する that trembled with emotion, “I have come to you in the 中央 of the greatest 苦しめる that any human 存在 has ever been called upon to 耐える. It was by the merest 事故 that I heard of you. I have been to the police; they cannot—will not—行為／法令／行動する without I furnish them with 確かな （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） which it is not in my 力／強力にする to give them. Then when I was half distraught with despair, a kindly スパイ／執行官 there spoke to me of you. He said that you were 大（公）使館員d to the police as a voluntary スパイ／執行官, and that they いつかs put work in your way which did not happen to be within their own 範囲. He also said that いつかs you were successful.”

“Nearly always, Mademoiselle,” I broke in 堅固に and with much dignity. “Once more I beg of you to tell me in what way I may have the honour to serve you.”

“It is not for herself, Monsieur,” here interposed M. Arthur, whilst a blush suffused Mlle. Geoffroy’s lovely 直面する, “that my sister 願望（する）s to 協議する you, but for her fiancé M. de Marsan, who is very ill indeed, hovering, in fact, between life and death. He could not come in person. The 事柄 is one that 需要・要求するs the most 深遠な secrecy.”

“You may rely on my discretion, Monsieur,” I murmured, without showing, I flatter myself, the slightest trace of that astonishment which, at について言及する of M. de Marsan’s 指名する, had nearly （判決などを）下すd me speechless.

“M. de Marsan （機の）カム to see me in 最大の 苦しめる, Monsieur,” 再開するd the lovely creature. “He had no one in whom he could—or rather dared—confide. He is in the Chancellerie for Foreign 事件／事情／状勢s. His uncle M. de Talleyrand thinks a 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定 of him and often ゆだねるs him with very delicate work. This morning he gave M. de Marsan a 価値のある paper to copy—a paper, Monsieur, the importance of which it were impossible to 過大評価する. The very safety of this country, the honour of our King, are 伴う／関わるd in it. I cannot tell you its exact contents, and it is because I would not tell more about it to the police that they would not help me in any way, and referred me to you. How could they, said the 長，指導者 Commissary to me, run after a 文書 the contents of which they did not even know? But you will be 満足させるd with what I have told you, will you not, my dear M. Ratichon?” she continued, with a pathetic quiver in her 発言する／表明する and a look of 控訴，上告 in her 注目する，もくろむs which St. Anthony himself could not have resisted, “and help me to 回復する 所有／入手 of that paper, the final loss of which would cost M. de Marsan his life.”

To say that my feeling of elation of a while ago had turned to one of 最高の beatitude would be to put it very mildly indeed. To think that here was this lovely 存在 in 涙／ほころびs before me, and that it lay in my 力／強力にする to 乾燥した，日照りの those 涙／ほころびs with a word and to bring a smile 一連の会議、交渉／完成する those perfect lips, literally made my mouth water in 予期—for I am sure that you will have guessed, just as I did in a moment, that the 価値のある 文書 of which this adorable 存在 was speaking, was snugly hidden away under the 床に打ち倒すing of my room in Passy. I hated that unknown de Marsan. I hated this Arthur who leaned so familiarly over her 議長，司会を務める, but I had the 力／強力にする to （判決などを）下す her a service beside which their lesser （人命などを）奪う，主張するs on her regard would pale.

However, I am not the man to 行為／法令／行動する on impulse, even at a moment like this. I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to think the whole 事柄 over first, and . . . 井戸／弁護士席 . . . I had made up my mind to 需要・要求する five thousand フランs when I 手渡すd the 文書 over to my first （弁護士の）依頼人 to-morrow morning. At any 率, for the moment I 行為／法令／行動するd—if I may say so—with 広大な／多数の／重要な circumspection and dignity.

“I must 推定する, Mademoiselle,” I said in my most 商売／仕事-like manner, “that the 文書 you speak of has been stolen.”

“Stolen, Monsieur,” she assented whilst the 涙／ほころびs once more gathered in her 注目する，もくろむs, “and M. de Marsan now lies at death’s door with a terrible attack of brain fever, brought on by shock when he discovered the loss.”

“How and when was it stolen?” I asked.

“Some time during the morning,” she replied. “M. de Talleyrand gave the 文書 to M. de Marsan at nine o’clock, telling him that he 手配中の，お尋ね者 the copy by midday. M. de Marsan 始める，決める to work at once, 労働d uninterruptedly until about eleven o’clock, when a loud altercation, followed by cries of ‘殺人!’ and of ‘Help!’ and 訴訟／進行 from the 回廊（地帯） outside his door, 原因（となる）d him to run out of the room ーするために see what was happening. The altercation turned out to be between two men who had 押し進めるd their way into the building by the main staircase, and who became very abusive to the gendarme who ordered them out. The men were not 傷つける; にもかかわらず they 叫び声をあげるd as if they were 存在 殺人d. They took to their heels quickly enough, and I don’t know what has become of them, but . . .”

“But,” I 結論するd blandly, “whilst M. de Marsan was out of the room the precious 文書 was stolen.”

“It was, Monsieur,” exclaimed Mlle. Geoffroy piteously. “You will find it for us . . . will you not?”

Then she 追加するd more calmly: “My brother and I are 申し込む／申し出ing ten thousand フランs reward for the 回復 of the 文書.”

I did not 落ちる off my 議長，司会を務める, but I の近くにd my 注目する，もくろむs. The 見通し which the lovely lady’s words had conjured up dazzled me.

“Mademoiselle,” I said with solemn dignity, “I 誓約（する） you my word of honour that I will find the 文書 for you and lay it at your feet or die in your service. Give me twenty hours, during which I will move heaven and earth to discover the どろぼう. I will go at once to the Chancellerie and collect what 証拠 I can. I have worked under M. de Robespierre, Mademoiselle, under the 広大な／多数の／重要な Napoléon, and under the illustrious Fouché! I have never been known to fail, once I have 始める，決める my mind upon a 仕事.”

“In that 事例／患者 you will earn your ten thousand フランs, my friend,” said the 嫌悪すべき Arthur drily, “and my sister and M. de Marsan will still be your debtors. Are there any questions you would like to ask before we go?”

“非，不，無,” I said loftily, choosing to ignore his sneering manner. “If Mademoiselle deigns to 現在の herself here to-morrow at two o’clock I will have news to communicate to her.”

You will 収容する／認める that I carried off the 状況／情勢 in a becoming manner. Both Mademoiselle and Arthur Geoffroy gave me a few more 詳細（に述べる）s in connexion with the 事件／事情／状勢. To these 詳細（に述べる）s I listened with 井戸／弁護士席 ふりをするd 利益／興味. Of course, they did not know that there were no 詳細（に述べる）s in connexion with this 事件／事情／状勢 that I did not know already. My heart was 現実に dancing within my bosom. The 未来 was so 入り口ing that the 現在の appeared like a dream; the lovely 存在 before me seemed like an angel, an 特使 from above come to tell me of the happiness which was in 蓄える／店 for me. The house 近づく Chantilly—the little 未亡人—the kitchen garden—the 魔法 words went on 大打撃を与えるing in my brain. I longed now to be rid of my 訪問者s, to be alone once more, so as to think out the epilogue of this glorious adventure. Ten thousand フランs was the reward 申し込む／申し出d me by this adorable creature! 井戸／弁護士席, then, why should not M. Charles Saurez, on his 味方する, 支払う／賃金 me another ten thousand for the same 文書, which was 絶対 undistinguishable from the first?

Ten thousand, instead of two hundred which he had the audacity to 申し込む／申し出 me!

Seven o’clock had struck before I finally 屈服するd my （弁護士の）依頼人s out of the room. Theodore had gone. The lazy lout would never stay as much as five minutes after his 任命するd time, so I had to show the adorable creature and her fat brother out of the 前提s myself. But I did not mind that. I flatter myself that I can always carry off an ぎこちない 状況／情勢 in a dignified manner. A 簡潔な／要約する allusion to the inefficiency of 現在の-day servants, a jocose comment on my own 簡単 of habits, and the 行為 was done. M. Arthur Geoffroy and Mademoiselle Madeleine his sister were half-way 負かす／撃墜する the stairs. A ４半期/4分の1 of an hour later I was once more out in the streets of Paris. It was a beautiful, balmy night. I had two hundred フランs in my pocket and there was a magnificent prospect of twenty thousand フランs before me! I could afford some slight extravagance. I had dinner at one of the 流行の／上流の restaurants on the quay, and I remained some time out on the terrace sipping my coffee and liqueur, dreaming dreams such as I had never dreamed before. At ten o’clock I was once more on my way to Passy.

5

When I turned the corner of the street and （機の）カム is sight of the squalid house where I 宿泊するd, I felt like a 存在 from another world. Twenty thousand フランs—a fortune!—was waiting for me inside those dingy 塀で囲むs. Yes, twenty thousand, for by now I had fully made up my mind. I had two 文書s 隠すd beneath the 床に打ち倒す of my bedroom—one so like the other that 非，不，無 could tell them apart. One of these I would 回復する to the lovely 存在 who had 申し込む／申し出d me ten thousand フランs for it, and the other I would sell to my first and uncouth （弁護士の）依頼人 for another ten thousand フランs!

Four hundred! Bah! Ten thousand shall you 支払う／賃金 for the 条約, my friend of the Danish or ロシアの Secret Service! Ten thousand!—it is 価値（がある） that to you!

In that happy でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる of mind I reached the 前線 door of my dingy abode. Imagine my surprise on 存在 直面するd with two スパイ／執行官s of police, each with 直す／買収する，八百長をするd bayonet, who 辞退するd to let me pass.

“But I 宿泊する here,” I said.

“Your 指名する?” queried one of the men. “圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon,” I replied. その結果 they gave me leave to enter.

It was very mysterious. My heart （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 furiously. 恐れる for the safety of my precious papers held me in a death-like 支配する. I ran straight to my room, locked the door after me, and pulled the curtains together in 前線 of the window. Then, with 手渡すs that trembled as if with ague, I pulled aside the （土地などの）細長い一片 of carpet which 隠すd the hiding-place of what meant a fortune to me.

I nearly fainted with joy; the papers were there—やめる 安全に. I took them out and 取って代わるd them inside my coat.

Then I ran up to see if Theodore was in. I 設立する him in bed. He told me that he had left the office whilst my 訪問者s were still with me, as he felt terribly sick. He had been 大いに upset when, about an hour ago, the maid-of-all-work had 知らせるd him that the police were in the house, that they would 許す no one—except the persons 宿泊するing in the house—to enter it, and no one, once in, would be 許すd to leave. How long these orders would 持つ／拘留する good Theodore did not know.

I left him moaning and groaning and 宣言するing that he felt very ill, and I went in 追求（する），探索（する） of （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）. The corporal in 命令（する） of the gendarmes was exceedingly curt with me at first, but after a time he unbent and condescended to tell me that my landlord had been 公然と非難するd for permitting a Bonapartiste club to 持つ／拘留する its sittings in his house. So far so good. Such denunciations were very たびたび（訪れる） these days, and often ended unpleasantly for those 関心d, but the 事件／事情／状勢 had 明白に nothing to do with me. I felt that I could breathe again. But there was still the 事柄 of the consigne. If no one, save the persons who 宿泊するd in the house, would be 許すd to enter it, how would M. Charles Saurez contrive to call for the stolen 文書 and, incidentally, to 手渡す me over the ten thousand フランs I was hoping for? And if no one, once inside the house, would be 許すd to leave it, how could I 会合，会う Mlle. Geoffroy to-morrow at two o’clock in my office and receive ten thousand フランs from her in 交流 for the precious paper?

Moreover the longer the police stayed in this house and poked their noses about in 事件／事情／状勢s that 関心d hardworking 国民s like myself—why—the greater the 危険 would be of the 事柄 of the stolen 文書 coming to light.

It was 前向きに／確かに maddening.

I never undressed that night, but just lay 負かす／撃墜する on my bed, thinking. The house was very still at times, but at others I could hear the tramp of the police スパイ／執行官s up and 負かす／撃墜する the stairs and also outside my window. The latter gave on a small, dilapidated 支援する garden which had a 木造の 盗品故買者 at the end of it. Beyond it were some market gardens belonging to a M. Lorraine. It did not take me very long to realize that that way lay my fortune of twenty thousand フランs. But for the moment I remained very still. My 計画（する） was already made. At about midnight I went to the window and opened it 慎重に. I had heard no noise from that direction for some time, and I bent my ear to listen.

Not a sound! Either the 歩哨 was asleep, or he had gone on his 一連の会議、交渉／完成する, and for a few moments the way was 解放する／自由な. Without a moment’s hesitation I swung my 脚 over the sill.

Still no sound. My heart （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 so 急速な／放蕩な that I could almost hear it. The night was very dark. A thin もや-like 霧雨 was 落ちるing; in fact the 天候 条件s were 絶対 perfect for my 目的. With 最大の wariness I 許すd myself to 減少（する） from the window-ledge on to the soft ground below.

If I was caught by the 歩哨 I had my answer ready: I was going to 会合，会う my sweetheart at the end of the garden. It is an excuse which always 会合，会うs with the sympathy of every true-hearted Frenchman. The 歩哨 would, of course, order me 支援する to my room, but I 疑問 if he would ill-use me; the denunciation was against the landlord, not against me.

Still not a sound. I could have danced with joy. Five minutes more and I would be across the garden and over that 木造の 盗品故買者, and once more on my way to fortune. My 落ちる from the window had been light, as my room was on the ground 床に打ち倒す; but I had fallen on my 膝s, and now, as I 選ぶd myself up, I looked up, and it seemed to me as if I saw Theodore’s ugly 直面する at his attic window. Certainly there was a light there, and I may have been mistaken as to Theodore’s 直面する 存在 明白な. The very next second the light was 消滅させるd and I was left in 疑問.

But I did not pause to think. In a moment I was across the garden, my 手渡すs gripped the 最高の，を越す of the 木造の 盗品故買者, I hoisted myself up—with some difficulty, I 自白する—but at last I 後継するd. I threw my 脚 over and gently dropped 負かす／撃墜する on the other 味方する.

Then suddenly two rough 武器 encircled my waist, and before I could 試みる／企てる to 解放する／自由な myself a cloth was thrown over my 長，率いる, and I was 解除するd up and carried away, half 窒息させるd and like an insentient bundle.

When the cloth was 除去するd from my 直面する I was half sitting, half lying, in an arm-議長，司会を務める in a strange room which was lighted by an oil lamp that hung from the 天井 above. In 前線 of me stood M. Arthur Geoffroy and that beast Theodore.

M. Arthur Geoffroy was coolly 倍のing up the two 価値のある papers for the 所有／入手 of which I had 危険d a 罪人／有罪を宣告する ship and New Caledonia, and which would have meant affluence for me for many days to come.

It was Theodore who had 除去するd the cloth from my 直面する. As soon as I had 回復するd my breath I made a 急ぐ for him, for I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to strangle him. But M. Arthur Geoffroy was too quick and too strong for me. He 押し進めるd me 支援する into the 議長，司会を務める.

“平易な, 平易な, M. Ratichon,” he said pleasantly; “do not vent your wrath upon this good fellow. Believe me, though his 活動／戦闘s may have 奪うd you of a few thousand フランs, they have also saved you from 継続している and biting 悔恨. This 文書, which you stole from M. de Marsan and so ingeniously duplicated, 伴う／関わるd the honour of our King and our country, 同様に as the life of an innocent man. My sister’s fiancé would never have 生き残るd the loss of the 文書 which had been ゆだねるd to his honour.”

“I would have returned it to Mademoiselle to-morrow,” I murmured.

“Only one copy of it, I think,” he retorted; “the other you would have sold to whichever 秘かに調査する of the Danish or ロシアの 政府s happened to have 雇うd you in this discreditable 商売／仕事.”

“How did you know?” I said involuntarily.

“Through a very simple 過程 of 推論する／理由ing, my good M. Ratichon,” he replied blandly. “You are a very clever man, no 疑問, but the cleverest of us is at times apt to make a mistake. You made two, and I 利益（をあげる）d by them. Firstly, after my sister and I left you this afternoon, you never made the slightest pretence of making 調査s or collecting （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） about the mysterious 窃盗 of the 文書. I kept an 注目する，もくろむ on you throughout the evening. You left your office and strolled for a while on the quays; you had an excellent dinner at the Restaurant des Anglais; then you settled 負かす／撃墜する to your coffee and liqueur. 井戸／弁護士席, my good M. Ratichon, 明白に you would have been more active in the 事柄 if you had not known 正確に／まさに where and when and how to lay your 手渡すs upon the 文書, for the 回復 of which my sister had 申し込む／申し出d you ten thousand フランs.”

I groaned. I had not been やめる so circumspect as I せねばならない have been, but who would have thought—

“I have had something to do with police work in my day,” continued M. Geoffroy blandly, “though not of late years; but my knowledge of their methods is not altogether rusty and my 力／強力にするs of 観察 are not yet dulled. During my sister’s visit to you this afternoon I noticed the blouse and cap of a commissionnaire lying in a bundle in a corner of your room. Now, though M. de Marsan has been in a 燃やすing fever since he discovered his loss, he kept just 十分な presence of mind at the moment to say nothing about that loss to any of the Chancellerie 公式の／役人s, but to go straight home to his apartments in the Rue 王室の and to send for my sister and for me. When we （機の）カム to him he was already partly delirious, but he pointed to a 小包 and a letter which he had brought away from his office. The 小包 証明するd to be an empty box and the letter a blank sheet of paper; but the most casual 調査 of the concierge at the Chancellerie elicited the fact that a commissionaire had brought these things in the course of the morning. That was your second mistake, my good M. Ratichon; not a very 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な one, perhaps, but I have been in the police, and somehow, the moment I caught sight of that blouse and cap in your office, I could not help connecting it with the commissionnaire who had brought a 偽の 小包 and letter to my 未来 brother-in-法律 a few minutes before that mysterious and unexplained altercation took place in the 回廊（地帯）.”

Again I groaned. I felt as a child in the 手渡すs of that horrid creature who seemed to be dissecting all the thoughts which had run 暴動 through my mind these past twenty hours.

“It was all very simple, my good M. Ratichon,” now 結論するd my tormentor still やめる amiably. “Another time you will have to be more careful, will you not? You will also have to bestow more 信用／信任 upon your partner or servant. 直接／まっすぐに I had seen that commissionnaire’s blouse and cap, I 始める，決める to work to make friends with M. Theodore. When my sister and I left your office in the Rue Daunou, we 設立する him waiting for us at the 底（に届く） of the stairs. Five フランs 緩和するd his tongue: he 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd that you were up to some game in which you did not mean him to have a 株; he also told us that you had spent two hours in laborious 令状ing, and that you and he both 宿泊するd at a dilapidated little inn, called the ‘Grey Cat,’ in Passy. I think he was rather disappointed that we did not にわか雨 more questions, and therefore more emoluments, upon him. 井戸／弁護士席, after I had 公然と非難するd this house to the police as a Bonapartiste club, and saw it put under the usual consigne, I 賄賂d the corporal of the gendarmerie in 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 of it to let me have Theodore’s company for the little 職業 I had in 手渡す, and also to （疑いを）晴らす the 支援する garden of 歩哨s so as to give you a chance and the 願望（する） to escape. All the 残り／休憩（する） you know. Money will do many things, my good M. Ratichon, and you see how simple it all was. It would have been still more simple if the stolen 文書 had not been such an important one that the very 存在 of it must be kept a secret even from the police. So I could not have you 影をつくる／尾行するd and 逮捕（する）d as a どろぼう in the usual manner! However, I have the 文書 and its ingenious copy, which is all that 事柄s. Would to God,” he 追加するd with a 抑えるd 悪口を言う／悪態, “that I could get 持つ／拘留する 平等に easily of the Secret Service スパイ／執行官 to whom you, a Frenchman, were going to sell the honour of your country!”

Then it was that—though broken in spirit and 燃やすing with thoughts of the 罰 I would mete out to Theodore—my 十分な faculties returned to me, and I queried 突然の:

“What would you give to get him?”

“Five hundred フランs,” he replied without hesitation. “Can you find him?”

“Make it a thousand,” I retorted, “and you shall have him.”

“How?”

“Will you give me five hundred フランs now,” I 主張するd, “and another five hundred when you have the man, and I will tell you?”

“Agreed,” he said impatiently.

But I was not to be played with by him again. I waited in silence until he had taken a pocket-調書をとる／予約する from the inside of his coat and counted out five hundred フランs, which he kept in his 手渡す.

“Now—” he 命令（する）d.

“The man,” I then 発表するd calmly, “will call on me for the 文書 at my lodgings at the hostelry of the ‘Grey Cat’ to-morrow morning at nine o’clock.”

“Good,” 再結合させるd M. Geoffroy. “We shall be there.”

He made no demur about giving me the five hundred フランs, but half my 楽しみ in receiving them 消えるd when I saw Theodore’s bleary 注目する，もくろむs 直す／買収する，八百長をするd ravenously upon them.

“Another five hundred フランs,” M. Geoffroy went on 静かに, “will be yours as soon as the 秘かに調査する is in our 手渡すs.”

I did get that その上の five hundred of course, for M. Charles Saurez was punctual to the minute, and M. Geoffroy was there with the police to apprehend him. But to think that I might have had twenty thousand—!

And I had to give Theodore fifty フランs on the 処理／取引, as he 脅すd me with the police when I talked of giving him the 解雇（する）.

But we were やめる good friends again after that until— But you shall 裁判官.

一時期／支部 2
A Fool’s 楽園

1

Ah! my dear Sir, I cannot tell you how poor we all were in フラン in that year of grace 1816—so poor, indeed, that a dish of roast pork was looked upon as a feast, and a new gown for the wife an unheard-of 高級な.

The war had 廃虚d everyone. Twenty-two years! and hopeless humiliation and 敗北・負かす at the end of it. The Emperor 手渡すd over to the English; a Bourbon sitting on the 王位 of フラン; （人が）群がるs of foreign 兵士s still lording it all over the country—until the country had paid its 負債s to her foreign invaders, and thousands of our own men still straggling home through Germany and Belgium—the 残余s of Napoléon’s Grand Army—ex-囚人s of war, or scattered 部隊s who had 設立する their 疲れた／うんざりした way home at last, shoeless, coatless, half 餓死するd and 死なせる／死ぬd from 冷淡な and privations, unfit for 家事, for 農業, or for 産業, fit only to follow their fallen hero, as they had done through a ４半期/4分の1 of a century, to victory and to death.

With me, Sir, 商売／仕事 in Paris was almost at a 行き詰まり. I, who had been the confidential スパイ／執行官 of two kings, three 民主主義者s and one emperor; I, who had held 外交の threads in my 手渡すs which had 原因（となる）d 王位s to totter and tyrants to 地震, and who had brought more 犯罪のs and intriguers to 調書をとる／予約する than any other man alive—I now sat in my office in the Rue Daunou day after day with never a （弁護士の）依頼人 to darken my doors, even whilst 罪，犯罪 and political intrigue were more rife in Paris than they had been in the most corrupt days of the 革命 and the 領事館.

I told you, I think, that I had forgiven Theodore his abominable treachery in connexion with the secret 海軍の 条約, and we were the best of friends—that is, outwardly, of course. Within my inmost heart I felt, Sir, that I could never again 信用 that shameless 反逆者—that I had in very truth 養育するd a serpent in my bosom. But I am proverbially tender-hearted. You will believe me or not, I 簡単に could not turn that vermin out into the street. He deserved it! Oh, even he would have 認める when he was やめる sober, which was not often, that I had every 権利 to give him the 解雇（する）, to send him 支援する to the gutter whence he had come, there to grub once more for 捨てるs of filth and to stretch a half-frozen 手渡す to the charity of the passers by.

But I did not do it, Sir. No, I did not do it. I kept him on at the office as my confidential servant; I gave him all the crumbs that fell from 地雷 own （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, and he helped himself to the 残り／休憩（する）. I made as little difference as I could in my intercourse with him. I continued to 扱う／治療する him almost as an equal. The only difference I did make in our 方式 of life was that I no longer gave him bed and board at the hostelry where I 宿泊するd in Passy, but placed the 議長，司会を務める-bedstead in the anteroom of the office 永久的に at his 処分, and 許すd him five sous a day for his breakfast.

But 借りがあるing to the scarcity of 商売／仕事 that now （機の）カム my way, Theodore had little or nothing to do, and he was in very truth eating his を回避する, and with that, 不平（をいう）, 不平（をいう） all the time, 脅すing to leave me, if you please, to leave my service for more remunerative 占領／職業. As if anyone else would dream of 雇うing such an out-at-肘s mudlark—a 刑務所，拘置所-bird, Sir, if you’ll believe me.

Thus the Spring of 1816 （機の）カム along. Spring, Sir, with its beauty and its 約束s, and the thoughts of love which come eternally in the minds of those who have not yet wholly done with 青年. Love, Sir! I dreamed of it on those long, 疲れた／うんざりした afternoons in April, after I had 消費するd my scanty repast, and whilst Theodore in the anteroom was snoring like a hog. At even, when tired out and thirsty, I would sit for a while outside a humble café on the outer boulevards, I watched the amorous couples wander past me on their way to happiness. At night I could not sleep, and bitter were my thoughts, my revilings against a cruel 運命／宿命 that had 非難するd me—a man with so 極度の慎重さを要する a heart and so generous a nature—to the 悲しみs of perpetual 孤独.

That, Sir, was my mood, when on a never-to-be-forgotten afternoon toward the end of April, I sat mooning disconsolately in my 私的な room and a timid ネズミ-tat at the outer door of the apartment roused Theodore from his brutish slumbers. I heard him shuffling up to the door, and I hurriedly put my necktie straight and smoothed my hair, which had become disordered にもかかわらず the fact that I had only indulged in a very abstemious déjeuner.

When I said that the knock at my door was in the nature of a timid ネズミ-ネズミ I did not perhaps 述べる it やめる 正確に. It was timid, if you will understand me, and yet bold, as coming from one who might hesitate to enter and にもかかわらず feels 保証するd of welcome. 明白に a （弁護士の）依頼人, I thought.

効果的に, Sir, the next moment my 注目する，もくろむs were gladdened by the sight of a lovely woman, beautifully dressed, young, charming, smiling but to hide her 苦悩, trustful, and certainly 豊富な.

The moment she stepped into the room I knew that she was 豊富な; there was an 空気／公表する of 保証／確信 about her which only those are able to assume who are not pestered with creditors. She wore two beautiful diamond （犯罪の）一味s upon her 手渡すs outside her perfectly fitting glove, and her bonnet was adorned with flowers so exquisitely fashioned that a バタフライ would have been deceived and would have perched on it with delight.

Her shoes were of the finest kid, shiny at the toes like tiny mirrors, whilst her dainty ankles were でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れるd in the filmy lace frills of her pantalets.

Within the wide brim of her bonnet her exquisite 直面する appeared like a rosebud nestling in a basket. She smiled when I rose to 迎える／歓迎する her, gave me a look that sent my susceptible heart a-ぱたぱたする and 原因（となる）d me to wish that I had not taken that 瓶／封じ込める-green coat of 地雷 to the Mont de Piété only last week. I 申し込む／申し出d her a seat, which she took, arranging her skirts about her with inimitable grace.

“One moment,” I 追加するd, as soon as she was seated, “and I am 完全に at your service.”

I took up pen and paper—an unfinished letter which I always keep handy for the 目的—and wrote 速く. It always looks 井戸／弁護士席 for a lawyer or an スパイ／執行官 confidentiel to keep a （弁護士の）依頼人 waiting for a moment or two while he …に出席するs to the enormous 圧力 of correspondence which, if 許すd to 蓄積する for five minutes, would すぐに 圧倒する him. I 調印するd and 倍のd the letter, threw it with a nonchalant 空気／公表する into a basket filled to the brim with others of equal importance, buried my 直面する in my 手渡すs for a few seconds as if to collect my thoughts, and finally said:

“And now, Mademoiselle, will you deign to tell me what procures me the honour of your visit?”

The lovely creature had watched my movements with obvious impatience, a frown upon her exquisite brow. But now she 急落（する），激減（する）d straightway into her story.

“Monsieur,” she said with that pretty, 決定するd 空気／公表する which became her so 井戸／弁護士席, “my 指名する is Estelle Bachelier. I am an 孤児, an heiress, and have need of help and advice. I did not know to whom to 適用する. Until three months ago I was poor and had to earn my living by working in a milliner’s shop in the Rue St. 栄誉（を受ける）é. The concierge in the house where I used to 宿泊する is my only friend, but she cannot help me for 推論する／理由s which will presently be made （疑いを）晴らす to you. She told me, however, that she had a 甥 指名するd Theodore, who was clerk to M. Ratichon, 支持する and confidential スパイ／執行官. She gave me your 演説（する）／住所; and as I knew no one else I 決定するd to come and 協議する you.”

I flatter myself, that though my countenance is exceptionally 動きやすい, I 所有する marvellous 力／強力にするs for keeping it impassive when necessity arises. In this instance, at について言及する of Theodore’s 指名する, I showed neither surprise nor indignation. Yet you will readily understand that I felt both. Here was that man, once more 明らかにする／漏らすd as a 反逆者. Theodore had an aunt of whom he had never as much as breathed a word. He had an aunt, and that aunt a concierge—ipso facto, if I may so 表明する it, a woman of some 実体, who, no 疑問, would often have been only too pleased to 延長する 歓待 to the man who had so signally befriended her 甥; a woman, Sir, who was undoubtedly 所有するd of 貯金 which both 推論する／理由 and 感謝 would 原因（となる） her to 投資する in an old-設立するd and 相当な 商売／仕事 run by a 信頼できる and 有能な man, such, for instance, as the bureau of a confidential スパイ／執行官 in a good ４半期/4分の1 of Paris, which, with the help of a little 資本／首都, could be （判決などを）下すd 高度に lucrative and 有益な to all those, 関心d.

I 決定するd then and there to give Theodore a piece of my mind and to 主張する upon an introduction to his aunt. After which I begged the beautiful creature to proceed.

“My father, Monsieur,” she continued, “died three months ago, in England, whither he had emigrated when I was a mere child, leaving my poor mother to struggle along for a 暮らし as best she could. My mother died last year, Monsieur, and I have hard a hard life; and now it seems that my father made a fortune in England and left it all to me.”

I was 大いに 利益／興味d in her story.

“The first intimation I had of it, Monsieur, was three months ago, when I had a letter from an English lawyer in London telling me that my father, ジーンズ Paul Bachelier—that was his 指名する, Monsieur—had died out there and made a will leaving all his money, about one hundred thousand フランs, to me.”

“Yes, yes!” I murmured, for my throat felt parched and my 注目する，もくろむs 薄暗い.

Hundred thousand フランs! Ye gods!

“It seems,” she proceeded demurely, “that my father put it in his will that the English lawyers were to 支払う／賃金 me the 利益／興味 on the money until I married or reached the age of twenty-one. Then the whole of the money was to be 手渡すd over to me.”

I had to 安定した myself against the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する or I would have fallen over backwards! This godlike creature, to whom the sum of one hundred thousand フランs was to be paid over when she married, had come to me for help and advice! The thought sent my brain reeling! I am so imaginative!

“Proceed, Mademoiselle, I pray you,” I contrived to say with dignified 静める.

“井戸／弁護士席, Monsieur, as I don’t know a word of English, I took the letter to Mr. 別れの（言葉，会）, who is the English traveller for Madame Cécile, the milliner for whom I worked. He is a 肉親，親類d, affable gentleman and was most helpful to me. He was, as a 事柄 of fact, just going over to England the very next day. He 申し込む／申し出d to go and see the English lawyers for me, and to bring me 支援する all particulars of my dear father’s death and of my 予期しない fortune.”

“And,” said I, for she had paused a moment, “did Mr. 別れの（言葉，会） go to England on your に代わって?”

“Yes, Monsieur. He went and returned about a fortnight later. He had seen the English lawyers, who 確認するd all the good news which was 含む／封じ込めるd in their letter. They took, it seems, a 広大な／多数の／重要な fancy to Mr. 別れの（言葉，会）, and told him that since I was 明白に too young to live alone and needed a 後見人 to look after my 利益／興味s, they would 任命する him my 後見人, and 示唆するd that I should make my home with him until I was married or had 達成するd the age of twenty-one. Mr. 別れの（言葉，会） told me that though this 協定 might be somewhat inconvenient in his bachelor 設立, he had been unable to resist the entreaties of the English lawyers, who felt that no one was more fitted for such onerous 義務s than himself, seeing that he was English and so 明白に my friend.”

“The scoundrel! The blackguard!” I exclaimed in an unguarded 爆発 of fury. . . .

“Your 容赦, Mademoiselle,” I 追加するd more calmly, seeing that the lovely creature was gazing at me with 注目する，もくろむs 十分な of astonishment not unmixed with 不信, “I am 心配するing. Am I to understand, then, that you have made your home with this Mr. 別れの（言葉，会）?”

“Yes, Monsieur, at number sixty-five Rue des Pyramides.”

“Is he a married man?” I asked casually.

“He is a widower, Monsieur.”

“Middle-老年の?”

“やめる 年輩の, Monsieur.”

I could have 叫び声をあげるd with joy. I was not yet forty myself.

“Why!” she 追加するd gaily, “he is thinking of retiring from 商売／仕事—he is, as I said, a 商業の traveller—in favour of his 甥, M. Adrien Cazalès.”

Once more I had to 安定した myself against the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. The room swam 一連の会議、交渉／完成する me. One hundred thousand フランs!—a lovely creature!—an unscrupulous widower!—an 平等に dangerous young 甥. I rose and tottered to the window. I flung it wide open—a thing I never do save at moments of 激烈な／緊急の crises.

The breath of fresh 空気／公表する did me good. I returned to my desk, and was able once more to assume my habitual dignity and presence of mind.

“In all this, Mademoiselle,” I said in my best professional manner, “I do not gather how I can be of service to you.”

“I am coming to that, Monsieur,” she 再開するd after a slight moment of hesitation, even as an exquisite blush suffused her damask cheeks. “You must know that at first I was very happy in the house of my new 後見人. He was exceedingly 肉親，親類d to me, though there were times already when I fancied . . .”

She hesitated—more markedly this time—and the blush became deeper on her cheeks. I groaned aloud.

“Surely he is too old,” I 示唆するd.

“Much too old,” she assented emphatically.

Once more I would have 叫び声をあげるd with joy had not a sharp pang, like a dagger-thrust, 発射 through my heart.

“But the 甥, eh?” I said as jocosely, as indifferently as I could. “Young M. Cazalès? What?”

“Oh!” she replied with perfect 無関心／冷淡. “I hardly ever see him.”

Unfortunately it were not seemly for an avocat and the スパイ／執行官 confidentiel of half the 法廷，裁判所s of Europe to 遂行する／発効させる the 対策 of a polka in the presence of a （弁護士の）依頼人, or I would indeed have jumped up and danced with glee. The happy thoughts were 大打撃を与えるing away in my mind: “The old one is much too old—the young one she never sees!” and I could have knelt 負かす／撃墜する and kissed the hem of her gown for the exquisite 無関心／冷淡 with which she had uttered those 魔法 words: “Oh! I hardly ever see him!”—words which 変えるd my brightest hopes into glowing 可能性s.

But, as it was, I held my emotions marvellously in check, and with perfect sang-froid once more asked the beauteous creature how I could be of service to her in her need.

“Of late, Monsieur,” she said, as she raised a pair of limpid, candid blue 注目する，もくろむs to 地雷, “my position in Mr. 別れの（言葉，会）’s house has become intolerable. He 追求するs me with his attentions, and he has become insanely jealous. He will not 許す me to speak to anyone, and has even forbidden M. Cazalès, his own 甥, the house. Not that I care about that,” she 追加するd with an expressive shrug of the shoulders.

“He has forbidden M. Cazalès the house,” rang like a paean in my ear. “Not that she cares about that! Tra la, la, la, la, la!” What I 現実に contrived to say with a 手段d and judicial 空気／公表する was:

“If you deign to ゆだねる me with the 行為／行う of your 事件／事情／状勢s, I would at once communicate with the English lawyers in your 指名する and 示唆する to them the advisability of 任命するing another 後見人. . . . I would 示唆する, for instance . . . er . . . that I . . .”

“How can you do that, Monsieur?” she broke in somewhat impatiently, “seeing that I cannot かもしれない tell you who these lawyers are?”

“Eh?” I queried, gasping.

“I neither know their 指名するs nor their 住居 in England.”

Once more I gasped. “Will you explain?” I murmured.

“It seems, Monsieur, that while my dear mother lived she always 辞退するd to take a 選び出す／独身 sou from my father, who had so basely 砂漠d her. Of course, she did not know that he was making a fortune over in England, nor that he was making diligent 調査s as to her どの辺に when he felt that he was going to die. Thus, he discovered that she had died the previous year and that I was working in the atelier of Madame Cécile, the 井戸／弁護士席-known milliner. When the English lawyers wrote to me at that 演説（する）／住所 they, of course, said that they would 要求する all my papers of 身元確認，身分証明 before they paid any money over to me, and so, when Mr. 別れの（言葉，会） went over to England, he took all my papers with him and . . .”

She burst into 涙／ほころびs and exclaimed piteously:

“Oh! I have nothing now, Monsieur—nothing to 証明する who I am! Mr. 別れの（言葉，会） took everything, even the 初めの letter which the English lawyers wrote to me.”

“別れの（言葉，会）,” I 勧めるd, “can be 軍隊d by the 法律 to give all your papers up to you.”

“Oh! I have nothing now, Monsieur—he 脅すd to destroy all my papers unless I 約束d to become his wife! And I 港／避難所’t the least idea how and where to find the English lawyers. I don’t remember either their 指名する or their 演説（する）／住所; and if I did, how could I 証明する my 身元 to their satisfaction? I don’t know a soul in Paris save a few irresponsible millinery 見習い工s and Madame Cécile, who, no 疑問, is 手渡す in glove with Mr. 別れの（言葉，会）. I am all alone in the world and friendless. . . . I have come to you, Monsieur, in my 苦しめる . . . and you will help me, will you not?”

She looked more adorable in grief than she had ever done before.

To tell you that at this moment 見通しs floated in my mind, before which Dante’s 見通しs of 楽園 would seem pale and tame, were but to put it mildly. I was literally 急に上がるing in heaven. For you see I am a man of intellect and of 活動／戦闘. No sooner do I see 可能性s before me than my brain 急に上がるs in an empyrean whilst conceiving daring 計画（する）s for my 団体／死体’s 永久の abode in elysium. At this 現在の moment, for instance—to 指名する but a few of the beatific 見通しs which literally dazzled me with their radiance—I could see my fair （弁護士の）依頼人 as a lovely and blushing bride by my 味方する, even whilst Messieurs X. and X., the two still unknown English lawyers, 手渡すd me a 激しい 捕らえる、獲得する which bore the legend “One hundred thousand フランs.” I could see . . . But I had not the time now to dwell on these ravishing dreams. The beauteous creature was waiting for my 決定／判定勝ち（する）. She had placed her 運命／宿命 in my 手渡すs; I placed my 手渡す on my heart.

“Mademoiselle,” I said solemnly, “I will be your 助言者 and your friend. Give me but a few days’ grace, every hour, every minute of which I will spend in your service. At the end of that time I will not only have learned the 指名する and 演説（する）／住所 of the English lawyers, but I will have communicated with them on your に代わって, and all your papers 証明するing your 身元 will be in your 手渡すs. Then we can come to a 決定／判定勝ち（する） with regard to a happier and more comfortable home for you. In the 一方／合間 I entreat you to do nothing that may precipitate Mr. 別れの（言葉，会）’s 活動／戦闘s. Do not encourage his 前進するs, but do not 撃退する them, and above all keep me 井戸／弁護士席 知らせるd of everything that goes on in his house.”

She spoke a few words of touching 感謝, then she rose, and with a gesture of exquisite grace she 抽出するd a hundred-フラン 公式文書，認める from her reticule and placed it upon my desk.

“Mademoiselle,” I 抗議するd with splendid dignity, “I have done nothing as yet.”

“Ah! but you will, Monsieur,” she entreated in accents that 完全にするd my subjugation to her charms. “Besides, you do not know me! How could I 推定する／予想する you to work for me and not to know if, in the end, I should 返す you for all your trouble? I pray you to take this small sum without demur. Mr. 別れの（言葉，会） keeps me 井戸／弁護士席 供給（する）d with pocket money. There will be another hundred for you when you place the papers in my 手渡すs.”

I 屈服するd to her, and, having once more 保証するd her of my unswerving 忠義 to her 利益／興味s, I …を伴ってd her to the door, and anon saw her graceful 人物／姿／数字 slowly descend the stairs and then disappear along the 回廊（地帯）.

Then I went 支援する to my room, and was only just in time to catch Theodore calmly pocketing the hundred-フラン 公式文書，認める which my fair （弁護士の）依頼人 had left on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. I 安全な・保証するd the 公式文書，認める and I didn’t give him a 黒人／ボイコット 注目する，もくろむ, for it was no use putting him in a bad temper when there was so much to do.

2

That very same evening I interviewed the concierge at No. 65 Rue des Pyramides. From him I learned that Mr. 別れの（言葉，会） lived on a very small income on the 最高の，を越す 床に打ち倒す of the house, that his 世帯 consisted of a housekeeper who cooked and did the work of the apartment for him, and an 半端物-職業 man who （機の）カム every morning to clean boots, knives, draw water and carry up 燃料 from below. I also learned that there was a good 取引，協定 of gossip in the house anent the presence in Mr. 別れの（言葉，会）’s bachelor 設立 of a young and beautiful girl, whom he tried to keep a 事実上の 囚人 under his 注目する，もくろむ.

The next morning, dressed in a shabby blouse, alpaca cap, and trousers frayed out 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the ankles, I—圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon, the confidant of kings—was lounging under the porte-cochere of No. 65 Rue des Pyramides. I was watching the movements of a man, 類似して attired to myself, as he crossed and recrossed the 中庭 to draw water from the 井戸／弁護士席 or to fetch 支持を得ようと努めるd from one of the sheds, and then disappeared up the main staircase.

A casual, tactful 調査 of the concierge 保証するd me that that man was indeed in the 雇う of Mr. 別れの（言葉，会）.

I waited as 根気よく and inconspicuously as I could, and at ten o’clock I saw that my man had 明白に finished his work for the morning and had finally come 負かす／撃墜する the stairs ready to go home. I followed him.

I will not speak of the long 停止（させる） in the cabaret du Chien Noir, where he spent an hour and a half in the company of his friends, playing 支配s and drinking eau-de-争う whilst I had perforce to 冷静な／正味の my heels outside. 十分である it to say that I did follow him to his house just behind the fish-market, and that half an hour later, tired out but 勝利を得た, having knocked at his door, I was 認める into the squalid room which he 占領するd.

He 調査するd me with obvious 不信, but I soon 安心させるd him.

“My friend Mr. 別れの（言葉，会） has recommended you to me,” I said with my usual 愛そうのよさ. “I was telling him just awhile ago that I needed a man to look after my office in the Rue Daunou of a morning, and he told me that in you I would find just the man I 手配中の，お尋ね者.”

“Hm!” grunted the fellow, very sullenly I thought. “I work for 別れの（言葉，会） in the mornings. Why should he recommend me to you? Am I not giving satisfaction?”

“Perfect satisfaction,” I 再結合させるd urbanely; “that is just the point. Mr. 別れの（言葉，会） 願望（する）s to do you a good turn seeing that I 申し込む／申し出d to 支払う／賃金 you twenty sous for your morning’s work instead of the ten which you are getting from him.”

I saw his 注目する，もくろむs glisten at について言及する of the twenty sous.

“I’d best go and tell him then that I am taking on your work,” he said; and his トン was no longer sullen now.

“やめる unnecessary,” I 再結合させるd. “I arranged everything with Mr. 別れの（言葉，会） before I （機の）カム to you. He has already 設立する someone else to do his work, and I shall want you to be at my office by seven o’clock to-morrow morning. And,” I 追加するd, for I am always 用心深い and judicious, and I now placed a piece of silver in his 手渡す, “here are the first twenty sous on account.”

He took the money and 敏速に became very civil, even obsequious. He not only …を伴ってd me to the door, but all the way 負かす／撃墜する the stairs, and 保証するd me all the time that he would do his best to give me entire satisfaction.

I left my 演説（する）／住所 with him, and sure enough, he turned up at the office the next morning at seven o’clock 正確に.

Theodore had had my orders to direct him in his work, and I was left 解放する／自由な to 制定する the second scene of the moving 演劇 in which I was 決定するd to play the hero and to （犯罪の）一味 負かす／撃墜する the curtain to the sound of the wedding bells.

3

I took on the work of 半端物-職業 man at 65 Rue des Pyramides. Yes, I! Even I, who had sat in the 私的な room of an emperor discussing the 運命s of Europe.

But with a beautiful bride and one hundred thousand フランs as my goal I would have worked in a coal 地雷 or on the galleys for such a guerdon.

The 仕事, I must tell you, was terribly irksome to a man of my sensibilities, endowed with an active mind and a vivid imagination. The dreary monotony of fetching water and 燃料 from below and polishing the boots of that arch-scoundrel 別れの（言葉，会） would have made a いっそう少なく stout spirit quail. I had, of course, seen through the scoundrel’s game at once. He had （判決などを）下すd Estelle やめる helpless by keeping all her papers of 身元確認，身分証明 and by 保留するing from her all the letters which, no 疑問, the English lawyers wrote to her from time to time. Thus she was 完全に in his 力／強力にする. But, thank heaven! only momentarily, for I, 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon, argus-注目する，もくろむd, was on the watch. Now and then the monotony of my 存在 and the hardship of my 仕事 were relieved by a 簡潔な／要約する glimpse of Estelle or a smile of understanding from her lips; now and then she would contrive to murmur as she 小衝突d past me while I was polishing the scoundrel’s 熟考する／考慮する 床に打ち倒す, “Any luck yet?” And this 静かな understanding between us gave me courage to go on with my 仕事.

After three days I had conclusively made up my mind that Mr. 別れの（言葉，会） kept his 価値のある papers in the drawer of the bureau in the 熟考する／考慮する. After that I always kept a lump of wax ready for use in my pocket. On the fifth day I was very nearly caught trying to take an impression of the lock of the bureau drawer. On the seventh I 後継するd, and took the impression over to a locksmith I knew of, and gave him an order to have a 重要な made to fit it すぐに. On the ninth day I had the 重要な.

Then 開始するd a 一連の 失望s and of 無益な days which would have daunted one いっそう少なく bold and いっそう少なく 決定するd. I don’t think that 別れの（言葉，会） ever 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd me, but it is a fact that never once did he leave me alone in his 熟考する／考慮する whilst I was at work there polishing the oak 床に打ち倒す. And in the 一方／合間 I could see how he was 追求するing my beautiful Estelle with his unwelcome attentions. At times I 恐れるd that he meant to 誘拐する her; his was a powerful personality and she seemed like a little bird fighting against the fascination of a serpent. Latterly, too, an 空気／公表する of discouragement seemed to dwell upon her lovely 直面する. I was half distraught with 苦悩, and once or twice, whilst I knelt upon the hard 床に打ち倒す, scrubbing and polishing as if my life depended on it, whilst he—the unscrupulous scoundrel—sat calmly at his desk, reading or 令状ing, I used to feel as if the next moment I must attack him with my scrubbing-小衝突 and knock him 負かす／撃墜する senseless whilst I ransacked his drawers. My horror of anything approaching 暴力／激しさ saved me from so foolish a step.

Then it was that in the hour of my blackest despair a flash of genius pierced through the 不明瞭 of my 悲惨. For some days now Madame Dupont, 別れの（言葉，会）’s housekeeper, had been exceedingly affable to me. Every morning now, when I （機の）カム to work, there was a cup of hot coffee waiting for me, and, when I left, a small 小包 of something appetizing for me to take away.

“Hallo!” I said to myself one day, when, over a cup of coffee, I caught sight of her small, piggy 注目する，もくろむs leering at me with an unmistakable 表現 of 賞賛. “Does 救済 嘘（をつく） where I least 推定する／予想するd it?”

For the moment I did nothing more than wink at the fat old thing, but the next morning I had my arm 一連の会議、交渉／完成する her waist—a metre and a ４半期/4分の1, Sir, where it was tied in the middle—and had imprinted a kiss upon her glossy cheek. What that love-making cost me I cannot 試みる／企てる to 述べる. Once Estelle （機の）カム into the kitchen when I was staggering under a 負担 of a hundred キロs sitting on my 膝. The reproachful ちらりと見ること which she cast at me filled my soul with unspeakable 悲しみ.

But I was working for her dear sake; working that I might 勝利，勝つ her in the end.

A week later Mr. 別れの（言葉，会） was absent from home for the evening. Estelle had retired to her room, and I was a welcome 訪問者 in the kitchen, where Madame Dupont had laid out a 正規の／正選手 feast for me. I had brought a couple of 瓶／封じ込めるs of シャンペン酒 with me and, what with the unaccustomed drink and the ogling and love-making to which I 扱う／治療するd her, a hundred キロs of foolish womanhood was soon hopelessly addled and incapable. I managed to drag her to the sofa, where she remained やめる still, with a beatific smile upon her podgy 直面する, her 注目する，もくろむs swimming in happy 涙／ほころびs.

I had not a moment to lose. The very next minute I was in the 熟考する／考慮する and with a 安定した 手渡す was 開始 the drawers of the bureau and turning over the letters and papers which I 設立する therein.

Suddenly an exclamation of 勝利 escaped my lips.

I held a packet in my 手渡す on which was written in a （疑いを）晴らす 手渡す: “The papers of Mlle. Estelle Bachelier.” A 簡潔な／要約する examination of the packet 十分であるd. It consisted of a number of letters written in English, which language I only 部分的に／不公平に understand, but they all bore the same 署名, “John Pike and Sons, solicitors,” and the 演説（する）／住所 was at the 最高の，を越す, “168 Cornhill, London.” It also 含む／封じ込めるd my Estelle’s birth 証明書, her mother’s marriage 証明書, and her police 登録 card.

I was rapt in the contemplation of my own ingenuity in having thus brilliantly 達成するd my goal, when a stealthy noise in the next room roused me from my trance and brought up vividly to my mind the awful 危険s which I was running at this moment. I turned like an animal at bay to see Estelle’s beautiful 直面する peeping at me through the half-open door.

“Hist!” she whispered. “Have you got the papers?”

I waved the packet triumphantly. She, excited and adorable, stepped briskly into the room.

“Let me see,” she murmured excitedly.

But I, emboldened by success, cried gaily:

“Not till I have received 補償（金） for all that I have done and 耐えるd.”

“補償（金）?”

“In the 形態／調整 of a kiss.”

Oh! I won’t say that she threw herself in my 武器 then and there. No, no! She demurred. All young girls, it seems, demur under the circumstances; but she was adorable, coy and tender in turns, pouting and 説得するing, and playing like a kitten till she had taken the papers from me and, with a woman’s natural curiosity, had turned the English letters over and over, even though she could not read a word of them.

Then, Sir, in the 中央 of her innocent frolic and at the very moment when I was on the point of snatching the kiss which she had so tantalizingly 否定するd me, we heard the 開始 and の近くにing of the 前線 door.

Mr. 別れの（言葉，会） had come home, and there was no other egress from the 熟考する／考慮する save the sitting-room, which in its turn had no other egress but the door 主要な into the very passage where even now Mr. 別れの（言葉，会） was standing, hanging up his hat and cloak on the rack.

4

We stood 手渡す in 手渡す—Estelle and I—前線ing the door through which Mr. 別れの（言葉，会） would presently appear.

“To-night we 飛行機で行く together,” I 宣言するd.

“Where to?” she whispered.

“Can you go to the woman at your former lodgings?”

“Yes!”

“Then I will take you there to-night. To-morrow we will be married before the Procureur du Roi; in the evening we leave for England.”

“Yes, yes!” she murmured.

“When he comes in I’ll engage him in conversation,” I continued hurriedly. “You make a dash for the door and run downstairs as 急速な／放蕩な as you can. I’ll follow as quickly as may be and 会合，会う you under the porte-cochere.”

She had only just time to nod assent when the door which gave on the sitting-room was 押し進めるd open, and 別れの（言葉，会）, unconscious at first of our presence, stepped 静かに into the room.

“Estelle,” he cried, more puzzled than angry when he suddenly caught sight of us both, “what are you doing here with that lout?”

I was trembling with excitement—not 恐れる, of course, though 別れの（言葉，会） was a powerful-looking man, a 長，率いる taller than I was. I stepped boldly 今後, covering the adored one with my 団体／死体.

“The lout,” I said with 静める dignity, “has 失望させるd the machinations of a knave. To-morrow I go to England ーするために place Mademoiselle Estelle Bachelier under the 保護 of her 合法的な 後見人s, Messieurs Pike and Sons, solicitors, of London.”

He gave a cry of 激怒（する）, and before I could retire to some 安全な entrenchment behind the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する or the sofa, he was upon me like a mad dog. He had me by the throat, and I had rolled backwards 負かす／撃墜する on to the 床に打ち倒す, with him on the 最高の，を越す of me, squeezing the breath out of me till I verily thought that my last hour had come. Estelle had run out of the room like a startled hare. This, of course, was in 一致 with my 指示／教授／教育s to her, but I could not help wishing then that she had been いっそう少なく obedient and somewhat more helpful.

As it was, I was beginning to feel a mere worm in the 支配する of that savage scoundrel, whose 直面する I could perceive just above me, distorted with passion, whilst hoarse ejaculations escaped his trembling lips:

“You meddlesome fool! You oaf! You toad! This for your 干渉，妨害!” he 追加するd as he gave me a vigorous punch on the 長，率いる.

I felt my senses reeling. My 長，率いる was swimming, my 注目する，もくろむs no longer could see distinctly. It seemed as if an unbearable 圧力 upon my chest would finally squeeze the last breath out of my 団体／死体.

I was trying to remember the 祈りs I used to murmur at my mother’s 膝, for verily I thought that I was dying, when suddenly, through my fading senses, （機の）カム the sound of a long, hoarse cry, whilst the 床に打ち倒す was shaken as with an 地震. The next moment the 圧力 on my chest seemed to relax. I could hear 別れの（言葉，会）’s 発言する／表明する uttering language such as it would be impossible for me to put on 記録，記録的な／記録する; and through it all hoarse and convulsive cries of: “You shan’t 傷つける him—you 四肢 of Satan, you!”

徐々に strength returned to me. I could see 同様に as hear, and what I saw filled me with wonder and with pride. Wonder at Ma’ame Dupont’s pluck! Pride in that her love for me had given such 力／強力にする to her mighty 武器! 誘発するd from her slumbers by the sound of the scuffle, she had run to the 熟考する／考慮する, only to find me in deadly 危険，危なくする of my life. Without a second’s hesitation she had 急ぐd on 別れの（言葉，会）, 掴むd him by the collar, pulled him away from me, and then thrown the whole 負わせる of her hundred キロs upon him, （判決などを）下すing him helpless.

Ah, woman! lovely, selfless woman! My heart a prey to 悔恨, in that I could not remain ーするために thank my 勇敢な deliverer, I にもかかわらず finally struggled to my feet and fled from the apartment and 負かす／撃墜する the stairs, never 製図／抽選 breath till I felt Estelle’s 手渡す 残り／休憩（する）ing confidingly upon my arm.

5

I took her to the house where she used to 宿泊する, and placed her under the care of the 肉親，親類d concierge who was Theodore’s aunt. Then I, too, went home, 決定するd to get a good night’s 残り／休憩（する）. The morning would be a busy one for me. There would be the special licence to get, the cure of St. Jacques to interview, the 宗教的な 儀式 to arrange for, and the places to 調書をとる／予約する on the stagecoach for Boulogne en 大勝する for England—and fortune.

I was supremely happy and slept the sleep of the just. I was up betimes and started on my 一連の会議、交渉／完成する of 商売／仕事 at eight o’clock the next morning. I was a little troubled about money, because when I had paid for the licence and given to the cure the 要求するd 料金 for the 宗教的な service and 儀式, I had only five フランs left out of the hundred which the adored one had given me. However, I 調書をとる／予約するd the seats on the 行う／開催する／段階-coach and 決定するd to 信用 to luck. Once Estelle was my wife, all money care would be at an end, since no 力／強力にする on earth could stand between me and the hundred thousand フランs, the happy goal for which I had so ably striven.

The marriage 儀式 was 直す／買収する，八百長をするd for eleven o’clock, and it was just upon ten when, at last, with a light heart and springy step, I ran up the dingy staircase which led to the adored one’s apartments. I knocked at the door. It was opened by a young man, who with a smile courteously bade me enter. I felt a little bewildered—and わずかに annoyed. My Estelle should not receive visits from young men at this hour. I 押し進めるd past the 侵入者 in the passage and walked boldly into the room beyond.

Estelle was sitting upon the sofa, her 注目する，もくろむs 有望な, her mouth smiling, a dimple in each cheek. I approached her with outstretched 武器, but she paid no 注意する to me, and turned to the young man, who had followed me into the room.

“Adrien,” she said, “this is 肉親，親類d M. Ratichon, who at 危険 of his life 得るd for us all my papers of 身元確認，身分証明 and also the 価値のある 指名する and 演説（する）／住所 of the English lawyers.”

“Monsieur,” 追加するd the young man as he 延長するd his 手渡す to me, “Estelle and I will remain eternally your debtors.”

I struck at the 手渡す which he had so impudently held out to me and turned to Estelle with my usual dignified 静める, but with wrath 表明するd in every line of my 直面する.

“Estelle,” I said, “what is the meaning of this?”

“Oh,” she retorted with one of her 刺激するing smiles, “you must not call me Estelle, you know, or Adrien will smack your 直面する. We are indeed 感謝する to you, my good M. Ratichon,” she continued more 本気で, “and though I only 約束d you another hundred フランs when your work for me was 完全にするd, my husband and I have decided to give you a thousand フランs in 見解（をとる） of the 危険s which you ran on our に代わって.”

“Your husband!” I stammered.

“I was married to M. Adrien Cazalès a month ago,” she said, “but we had perforce to keep our marriage a secret, because Mr. 別れの（言葉，会） once 公約するd to me that unless I became his wife he would destroy all my papers of 身元確認，身分証明, and then—even if I ever 後継するd in discovering who were the English lawyers who had 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 of my father’s money—I could never 証明する it to them that I and no one else was する権利を与えるd to it. But for you, dear M. Ratichon,” 追加するd the cruel and shameless one, “I should indeed never have 後継するd.”

In the 中央 of this 圧倒的な cataclysm I am proud to say that I 保持するd mastery over my 激怒（する） and contrived to say with perfect 静める:

“But why have deceived me, Mademoiselle? Why have kept your marriage a secret from me? Was I not toiling and working and 危険ing my life for you?”

“And would you have worked やめる so enthusiastically for me,” queried the 誤った one archly, “if I had told you everything?”

I groaned. Perhaps she was 権利. I don’t know.

I took the thousand フランs and never saw M. and Mme. Cazalès again.

But I met Ma’ame Dupont by 事故 soon after. She has left Mr. 別れの（言葉，会）’s service.

She still 重さを計るs one hundred キロs.

I often call on her of an evening.

Ah, 井戸／弁護士席!

一時期／支部 3
On The Brink

1

You would have thought that after the shameful way in which Theodore 扱う／治療するd me in the 事柄 of the secret 条約 that I would then and there have turned him out of doors, sent him 支援する to grub for 捨てるs out of the gutter, and 常習的な my heart once and for all against that snake in the grass whom I had 養育するd in my bosom.

But, as no 疑問 you have 発言／述べるd ere this, I have been 重荷（を負わせる）d by Nature with an over-極度の慎重さを要する heart. It is a 重荷（を負わせる）, my dear Sir, and though I have 苦しむd inexpressibly under it, I にもかかわらず agree with the English poet, George Crabbe, whose 作品 I have read with a 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定 of 楽しみ and 利益（をあげる） in the 初めの tongue, and who avers in one of his inimitable “Tales” that it is “better to love amiss than nothing to have loved.”

Not that I loved Theodore, you understand? But he and I had 株d so many ups and 負かす／撃墜するs together of late that I was loath to think of him as 減ずるd to begging his bread in the streets. Then I kept him by me, for I thought that he might at times be useful to me in my 商売／仕事.

I kept him to my 傷つける, as you will presently see.

In those days—I am now speaking of the time すぐに に引き続いて the 復古／返還 of our beloved King Louis XVIII to the 王位 of his forbears—Parisian society was, as it were, divided into two 際立った 部類s: those who had become 貧窮化した by the 革命 and the wars of the Empire, and those who had made their fortunes その為に. の中で the former was M. le Marquis de Firmin-Latour, a handsome young officer of cavalry; and の中で the latter was one Mauruss Mosenstein, a usurer of the ユダヤ人の 説得／派閥, whose wealth was という評判の in millions, and who had a handsome daughter biblically 指名するd Rachel, who a year ago had become Madame la Marquise de Firmin-Latour.

From the first moment that this brilliant young couple appeared upon the firmament of Parisian society I took a keen 利益／興味 in all their doings. In those days, you understand, it was in the essence of my 商売／仕事 to know as much as possible of the 私的な 事件／事情／状勢s of people in their position, and instinct had at once told me that in the 事例／患者 of M. le Marquis de Firmin-Latour such knowledge might 証明する very remunerative.

Thus I very soon 設立する out that M. le Marquis had not a 選び出す／独身 louis of his own to bless himself with, and that it was Papa Mosenstein’s millions that kept up the young people’s magnificent 設立 in the Rue de Grammont.

I also 設立する out that Mme. la Marquise was some dozen years older than Monsieur, and that she had been a 未亡人 when she married him. There were rumours that her first marriage had not been a happy one. The husband, M. le Compte de Naquet, had been a gambler and a spendthrift, and had dissipated as much of his wife’s fortune as he could lay his 手渡すs on, until one day he went off on a voyage to America, or goodness knows where, and was never heard of again. Mme. la Comtesse, as she then was, did not grieve over her loss; indeed, she returned to the bosom of her family, and her father—a shrewd usurer, who had amassed an enormous fortune during the wars—後継するd, with the 援助（する） of his 明らかに bottomless moneybags, in having his first son-in-法律 宣言するd 死んだ by 王室の 法令, so as to enable the beautiful Rachel to 契約 another, yet more brilliant 同盟, as far as 指名する and lineage were 関心d, with the Marquis de Firmin-Latour.

Indeed, I learned that the worthy Israelite’s one passion was the social 進歩 of his daughter, whom he worshipped. So, as soon as the marriage was consummated and the young people were home from their honeymoon, he fitted up for their use the most extravagantly sumptuous apartment Paris had ever seen. Nothing seemed too good or too luxurious for Mme. la Marquise de Firmin-Latour. He 願望（する）d her to 削減（する） a brilliant 人物／姿／数字 in Paris society—nay, to be the Ville Lumiere’s brightest and most particular 星／主役にする. After the town house he bought a chateau in the country, horses and carriages, which he placed at the 処分 of the young couple; he kept up an army of servants for them, and 補充するd their cellars with the choicest ワインs. He threw money about for diamonds and pearls which his daughter wore, and paid all his son-in-法律’s tailors’ and shirt-製造者s’ 法案s. But always the money was his, you understand? The house in Paris was his, so was the chateau on the Loire; he lent them to his daughter. He lent her the diamonds, and the carriages, and the boxes at the オペラ and the Français. But here his generosity ended. He had been deceived in his daughter’s first husband; some of the money which he had given her had gone to 支払う／賃金 the 賭事ing 負債s of an unscrupulous spendthrift. He was 決定するd that this should not occur again. A man might spend his wife’s money—indeed, the 法律 placed most of it at his 処分 in those days—but he could not touch or mortgage one sou that belonged to his father-in-法律. And, strangely enough, Mme. la Marquise de Firmin-Latour acquiesced and 補佐官d her father in his 決意. Whether it was the ユダヤ人の 血 in her, or 単に obedience to old Mosenstein’s whim, it were impossible to say. 確かな it is that out of the lavish pin-money which her father gave her as a 解放する／自由な gift from time to time, she only 施し物d out a meagre allowance to her husband, and although she had everything she 手配中の，お尋ね者, M. le Marquis on his 味方する had often いっそう少なく than twenty フランs in his pocket.

A very humiliating position, you will 収容する／認める, Sir, for a dashing young cavalry officer. Often have I seen him gnawing his finger-nails with 激怒（する） when, at the end of a copious dinner in one of the 流行の／上流の restaurants—where I myself was engaged in a 商売／仕事 capacity to keep an 注目する，もくろむ on かもしれない light-fingered 顧客s—it would be Mme. la Marquise who paid the 法案, even gave the pourboire to the waiter. At such times my heart would be filled with pity for his misfortunes, and, in my own proud and lofty independence, I felt that I did not envy him his wife’s millions.

Of course, he borrowed from every usurer in the city for as long as they would lend him any money; but now he was up to his 注目する，もくろむs in 負債, and there was not a Jew inside フラン who would have lent him one hundred フランs.

You see, his 不安定な position was 同様に known as were his extravagant tastes and the obstinate parsimoniousness of M. Mosenstein.

But such men as M. le Marquis de Firmin-Latour, you understand, Sir, are 運命にあるd by Nature first and by fortuitous circumstances afterwards to become the （弁護士の）依頼人s of men of ability like myself. I knew that sooner or later the elegant young 兵士 would be 軍隊d to 捜し出す the advice of someone wiser than himself, for indeed his 現在の 状況／情勢 could not last much longer. It would soon be “沈む” with him, for he could no longer “swim.”

And I was 決定するd that when that time （機の）カム he should turn to me as the 溺死するing man turns to the straw.

So where M. le Marquis went in public I went, when possible. I was 企て，努力，提案ing my time, and wisely too, as you will 裁判官.

2

Then one day our 注目する，もくろむs met: not in a 流行の／上流の restaurant, I may tell you, but in a 控えめの one 据えるd on the slopes of Montmartre. I was there alone, sipping a cup of coffee after a frugal dinner. I had drifted in there 主として because I had やめる accidentally caught sight of M. le Marquis de Firmin-Latour walking arm-in-arm up the Rue Lepic with a lady who was both youthful and charming—a 井戸／弁護士席-known ダンサー at the オペラ. Presently I saw him turn into that 控えめの little restaurant, where, in very truth, it was not likely that Mme. la Marquise would follow him. But I did. What made me do it, I cannot say; but for some time now it had been my wish to make the personal 知識 of M. de Firmin-Latour, and I lost no 適切な時期 which might help me to 達成する this 願望（する）.

Somehow the man 利益／興味d me. His social and 財政上の position was peculiar, you will 収容する／認める, and here, methought, was the beginning of an adventure which might 証明する the turning-point in his career and . . . my 適切な時期. I was not wrong, as you will presently see. Whilst silently eating my simple dinner, I watched M. de Firmin-Latour.

He had started the evening by 存在 very gay; he had ordered シャンペン酒 and a succulent meal, and chatted light-heartedly with his companion, until presently three young women, flashily dressed, made noisy irruption into the restaurant.

M. de Firmin-Latour’s friend あられ／賞賛するd them, introduced them to him, and soon he was host, not to one lady, but to four, and instead of two dinners he had to order five, and more シャンペン酒, and then dessert—peaches, strawberries, bonbons, liqueurs, flowers, and what not, until I could see that the 法案 which presently he would be called upon to 支払う／賃金 would 量 to far more than his 年４回の allowance from Mme. la Marquise, far more, 推定では, than he had in his pocket at the 現在の moment.

My brain 作品 with marvellous rapidity, as you know. Already I had made up my mind to see the little comedy through to the end, and I watched with a good 取引，協定 of 利益／興味 and some pity the clouds of 苦悩 集会 over M. de Firmin-Latour’s brow.

The dinner party lasted some かなりの time; then the 必然的な cataclysm occurred. The ladies were busy chattering and 紅ing their lips when the 法案 was 現在のd. They 影響する／感情d to see and hear nothing: it is a way ladies have when dinner has to be paid for; but I saw and heard everything. The waiter stood by, silent and obsequious at first, whilst M. le Marquis 追跡（する）d through all his pockets. Then there was some whispered colloquy, and the waiter’s 態度 lost something of its 訂正する dignity. After that the proprietor was called, and the whispered colloquy degenerated into altercation, whilst the ladies—not at all unaware of the 状況／情勢—giggled amongst themselves. Finally, M. le Marquis 申し込む／申し出d a promissory 公式文書，認める, which was 辞退するd.

Then it was that our 注目する，もくろむs met. M. de Firmin-Latour had 紅潮／摘発するd to the roots of his hair. His 状況／情勢 was indeed desperate, and my 適切な時期 had come. With consummate sang-froid, I 前進するd に向かって the agitated group composed of M. le Marquis, the proprietor, and the 長，率いる waiter. I ちらりと見ることd at the 法案, the 原因（となる） of all this 騒動, which reposed on a metal salver in the 長，率いる waiter’s 手渡す, and with a 簡潔な／要約する:

“If M. le Marquis will 許す me . . .” I produced my pocket-調書をとる／予約する.

The 法案 was for nine hundred フランs.

At first M. le Marquis thought that I was about to 支払う／賃金 it—and so did the proprietor of the 設立, who made a movement as if he would 嘘（をつく） 負かす／撃墜する on the 床に打ち倒す and lick my boots. But not so. To begin with, I did not happen to 所有する nine hundred フランs, and if I did, I should not have been fool enough to lend them to this young scapegrace. No! What I did was to 抽出する from my notebook a card, one of a series which I always keep by me in 事例／患者 of an 緊急 like the 現在の one. It bore the legend: “Comte Hercule de Montjoie, secrétaire particulier de M. le Duc d’Otrante,” and below it the 演説（する）／住所, “Palais du Commissariat de Police, 12 Quai d’Orsay.” This card I 現在のd with a graceful 繁栄する of the arm to the proprietor of the 設立, whilst I said with that lofty self-保証／確信 which is one of my finest せいにするs and which I have never seen equalled:

“M. le Marquis is my friend. I will be 保証（人） for this trifling 量.”

The proprietor and 長，率いる waiter stammered excuses. 私的な 長官 of M. le Duc d’Otrante! Think of it! It is not often that such personages deign to たびたび（訪れる） the restaurants of Montmartre. M. le Marquis, on the other 手渡す, looked 完全に bewildered, whilst I, taking advantage of the 状況／情勢, 掴むd him familiarly by the arm, and 主要な him toward the door, I said with condescending urbanity:

“One word with you, my dear Marquis. It is so long since we have met.”

I 屈服するd to the ladies.

“Mesdames,” I said, and was gratified to see that they followed my 劇の 出口 with 注目する，もくろむs of 評価 and of wonder. The proprietor himself 申し込む／申し出d me my hat, and a moment or two later M. de Firmin-Latour and I were out together in the Rue Lepic.

“My dear Comte,” he said as soon as he had 回復するd his breath, “how can I think you? . . .”

“Not now, Monsieur, not now,” I replied. “You have only just time to make your way as quickly as you can 支援する to your palace in the Rue de Grammont before our friend the proprietor discovers the several mistakes which he has made in the past few minutes and vents his wrath upon your fair guests.”

“You are 権利,” he 再結合させるd lightly. “But I will have the 楽しみ to call on you to-morrow at the Palais du Commissariat.”

“Do no such thing, Monsieur le Marquis,” I retorted with a pleasant laugh. “You would not find me there.”

“But—” he stammered.

“But,” I broke in with my wonted 商売／仕事-like and persuasive manner, “if you think that I have 行為／行うd this delicate 事件／事情／状勢 for you with tact and discretion, then, in your own 利益／興味 I should advise you to call on me at my 私的な office, No. 96 Rue Daunou. 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon, at your service.”

He appeared more bewildered than ever.

“Rue Daunou,” he murmured. “Ratichon!”

“私的な 調査 and confidential スパイ／執行官,” I 再結合させるd. “My brains are at your service should you 願望（する） to extricate yourself from the humiliating 財政上の position in which it has been my good luck to find you, and yours to 会合，会う with me.”

With that I left him, Sir, to walk away or stay as he pleased. As for me, I went quickly 負かす／撃墜する the street. I felt that the 状況／情勢 was 絶対 perfect; to have spoken another word might have spoilt it. Moreover, there was no knowing how soon the proprietor of that humble hostelry would begin to have 疑問s as to the 身元 of the 私的な 長官 of M. le Duc d’Otrante. So I was best out of the way.

3

The very next day M. le Marquis de Firmin-Latour called upon me at my office in the Rue Daunou. Theodore let him in, and the first thing that struck me about him was his curt, haughty manner and the look of disdain wherewith he regarded the humble 任命s of my 商売／仕事 前提s. He himself was magnificently dressed, I may tell you. His 瓶／封じ込める-green coat was of the finest cloth and the most perfect 削減（する） I had ever seen. His kerseymere pantaloons fitted him without a wrinkle. He wore gloves, he carried a muff of priceless zibeline, and in his cravat there was a diamond the size of a 幅の広い bean.

He also carried a malacca 茎, which he deposited upon my desk, and a gold-rimmed 秘かに調査する-glass which, with a gesture of 最高の affectation, he raised to his 注目する，もくろむ.

“Now, M. 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon,” he said 突然の, “perhaps you will be good enough to explain.”

I had risen when he entered. But now I sat 負かす／撃墜する again and coolly pointed to the best 議長，司会を務める in the room.

“Will you give yourself the trouble to sit 負かす／撃墜する, M. le Marquis?” I riposted blandly.

He called me 指名するs—rude 指名するs! but I took no notice of that . . . and he sat 負かす／撃墜する.

“Now!” he said once more.

“What is it you 願望（する） to know, M. le Marquis?” I queried.

“Why you 干渉するd in my 事件／事情／状勢s last night?”

“Do you complain?” I asked.

“No,” he 認める reluctantly, “but I don’t understand your 反対する.”

“My 反対する was to serve you then,” I 再結合させるd 静かに, “and later.”

“What do you mean by ‘later’?”

“To-day,” I replied, “to-morrow; whenever your 現在の position becomes 絶対 unendurable.”

“It is that now,” he said with a savage 誓い.

“I thought as much,” was my curt comment.

“And do you mean to 主張する,” he went on more 真面目に, “that you can find a way out of it?”

“If you 願望（する） it—yes!” I said.

“How?”

He drew his 議長，司会を務める nearer to my desk, and I leaned 今後, with my 肘s on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, the finger-tips of one 手渡す in 接触する with those of the other.

“Let us begin by reviewing the 状況／情勢, shall we, Monsieur?” I began.

“If you wish,” he said curtly.

“You are a gentleman of 精製するd, not to say luxurious tastes, who finds himself 絶対 without means to gratify them. Is that so?”

He nodded.

“You have a wife and a father-in-法律 who, whilst lavishing 高くつく／犠牲の大きい treasures upon you, leave you in a humiliating dependence on them for actual money.”

Again he nodded approvingly.

“Human nature,” I continued with gentle indulgence, “存在 what it is, you pine after what you do not 所有する—すなわち, money. Houses, equipages, servants, even good food and ワイン, are nothing to you beside that earnest 願望（する） for money that you can call your own, and which, if only you had it, you could spend at your 楽しみ.”

“To the point, man, to the point!” he broke in impatiently.

“One moment, M. le Marquis, and I have done. But first of all, with your 許可, shall we also review the 資産s in your life which we will have to use ーするために arrive at the gratification of your earnest wish?”

“資産s? What do you mean?”

“The means to our end. You want money; we must find the means to get it for you.”

“I begin to understand,” he said, and drew his 議長，司会を務める another インチ or two closer to me.

“Firstly, M. le Marquis,” I 再開するd, and now my 発言する／表明する had become earnest and incisive, “firstly you have a wife, then you have a father-in-法律 whose wealth is beyond the dreams of humble people like myself, and whose one 広大な／多数の／重要な passion in life is the social position of the daughter whom he worships. Now,” I 追加するd, and with the tip of my little finger I touched the sleeve of my aristocratic （弁護士の）依頼人, “here at once is your first 資産. Get at the money-捕らえる、獲得するs of papa by 脅すing the social position of his daughter.”

その結果 my young gentleman jumped to his feet and swore and 乱用d me for a mudlark and a muckworm and I don’t know what. He 掴むd his malacca 茎 and 脅すd me with it, and asked me how the devil I dared thus to speak of Mme. la Marquise de Firmin-Latour. He 悪口を言う／悪態d, and he 嵐／襲撃するd and he raved of his sixteen quarterings and of my loutishness. He did everything in fact except walk out of the room.

I let him go on やめる 静かに. It was part of his programme, and we had to go through the 業績／成果. As soon as he gave me the chance of putting in a word edgeways I 再結合させるd 静かに:

“We are not going to 傷つける Madame la Marquise, Monsieur; and if you do not want the money, let us say no more about it.”

その結果 he 静めるd 負かす／撃墜する; after a while he sat 負かす／撃墜する again, this time with his 茎 between his 膝s and its ivory knob between his teeth.

“Go on,” he said curtly.

Nor did he interrupt me again whilst I expounded my 計画／陰謀 to him—one that, mind you, I had 発展させるd during the night, knowing 井戸／弁護士席 that I should receive his visit during the day; and I flatter myself that no finer 計画／陰謀 for the bleeding of a parsimonious usurer was ever 工夫するd by any man.

If it 後継するd—and there was no 推論する／理由 why it should not—M. de Firmin-Latour would pocket a 冷静な／正味の half-million, whilst I, sir, the brain that had 工夫するd the whole 計画／陰謀, pronounced myself 満足させるd with the paltry emolument of one hundred thousand フランs, out of which, remember, I should have to give Theodore a かなりの sum.

We talked it all over, M. le Marquis and I, the whole afternoon. I may tell you at once that he was 前向きに／確かに delighted with the 計画（する）, and then and there gave me one hundred フランs out of his own meagre purse for my 予選 expenses.

The next morning we began work.

I had begged M. le Marquis to find the means of bringing me a few 捨てるs of the late M. le Comte de Naquet’s—Madame la Marquise’s first husband—handwriting. This, fortunately, he was able to do. They were a few valueless 公式文書，認めるs penned at different times by the 死んだ gentleman and which, luckily for us all, Madame had not thought it 価値（がある） while to keep under lock and 重要な.

I think I told you before, did I not? what a marvellous 専門家 I am in every 肉親，親類d of calligraphy, and soon I had a letter ready which was to 代表する the first 解雇する／砲火／射撃 in the exciting war which we were about to 行う against an obstinate lady and a parsimonious usurer.

My 身元 securely hidden under the disguise of a commissionnaire, I took that letter to Mme. la Marquise de Firmin-Latour’s sumptuous abode in the Rue de Grammont.

M. le Marquis, you understand, had in the 一方／合間 been 完全に primed in the rôle which he was to play; as for Theodore, I thought it best for the moment to dispense with his 援助（する）.

The success of our first 小競り合い より勝るd our 期待s.

Ten minutes after the letter had been taken upstairs to Mme. la Marquise, one of the maids, on going past her mistress’s door, was startled to hear cries and moans 訴訟／進行 from Madame’s room. She entered and 設立する Madame lying on the sofa, her 直面する buried in the cushions, and sobbing and 叫び声をあげるing in a truly terrifying manner. The maid 適用するd the usual restoratives, and after a while Madame became more 静める and at once very curtly ordered the maid out of the room.

M. le Marquis, on 存在 apprised of this mysterious happening, was much 苦しめるd; he hurried to his wife’s apartments, and was as gentle and loving with her as he had been in the 早期に days of their honeymoon. But throughout the whole of that evening, and, indeed, for the next two days, all the explanation that he could get from Madame herself was that she had a 頭痛 and that the letter which she had received that afternoon was of no consequence and had nothing to do with her migraine.

But 明確に the beautiful Rachel was extraordinarily agitated. At night she did not sleep, but would pace up and 負かす／撃墜する her apartments in a 明言する／公表する 国境ing on frenzy, which of course 原因（となる）d M. le Marquis a 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定 of 苦悩 and of 悲しみ.

Finally, on the Friday morning it seemed as if Madame could 含む／封じ込める herself no longer. She threw herself into her husband’s 武器 and blurted out the whole truth. M. le Comte de Naquet, her first husband, who had been 宣言するd 溺死するd at sea, and therefore 公式に 死んだ by 王室の 法令, was not dead at all. Madame had received a letter from him wherein he told her that he had indeed 苦しむd shipwreck, then untold 悲惨 on a 砂漠 island for three years, until he had been 救助（する）d by a passing 大型船, and finally been able, since he was destitute, to work his way 支援する to フラン and to Paris. Here he had lived for the past few months as best he could, trying to collect together a little money so as to （判決などを）下す himself presentable before his wife, whom he had never 中止するd to love.

調査s 慎重に 行為／行うd had 明らかにする／漏らすd the terrible truth, that Madame had been faithless to him, had light-heartedly assumed the death of her husband, and had 契約d what was nothing いっそう少なく than a bigamous marriage. Now he, M. de Naquet, standing on his 権利s as Rachel Mosenstein’s only lawful husband, 需要・要求するd that she should return to him, and as a 序幕 to a 永久の and 友好的な understanding, she was to call at three o’clock 正確に on the に引き続いて Friday at No. 96 Rue Daunou, where their 仲直り and 再会 was to take place.

The letter 発表するing this terrible news and making this preposterous 需要・要求する she now placed in the 手渡すs of M. le Marquis, who at first was horrified and thunderstruck, and appeared やめる unable to を取り引きする the 状況／情勢 or to tender advice. For Madame it meant 完全にする social 廃虚, of course, and she herself 宣言するd that she would never 生き残る such a スキャンダル. Her 涙／ほころびs and her 悲惨 made the loving heart of M. le Marquis bleed in sympathy. He did all he could to console and 慰安 the lady, whom, 式のs! he could no longer look upon as his wife. Then, 徐々に, both he and she became more composed. It was necessary above all things to make sure that Madame was not 存在 victimized by an impostor, and for this 目的 M. le Marquis generously 申し込む／申し出d himself as a disinterested friend and 助言者. He 申し込む／申し出d to go himself to the Rue Daunou at the hour 任命するd and to do his best to induce M. le Comte de Naquet—if indeed he 存在するd—to forgo his 権利s on the lady who had so innocently taken on the 指名する and 手渡す of M. le Marquis de Firmin-Latour. Somewhat more 静める, but still unconsoled, the beautiful Rachel 受託するd this generous 申し込む／申し出. I believe that she even 設立する five thousand フランs in her privy purse which was to be 申し込む／申し出d to M. de Naquet in 交流 for a 約束 never to worry Mme. la Marquise again with his presence. But this I have never been able to ascertain with any finality. 確かな it is that when at three o’clock on that same afternoon M. de Firmin-Latour 現在のd himself at my office, he did not 申し込む／申し出 me a 株 in any five thousand フランs, though he spoke to me about the money, 追加するing that he thought it would look 井戸／弁護士席 if he were to give it 支援する to Madame, and to tell her that M. de Naquet had 拒絶するd so paltry a sum with disdain.

I thought such a move unnecessary, and we argued about it rather 温かく, and in the end he went away, as I say, without 申し込む／申し出ing me any 株 in the emolument. Whether he did put his 事業／計画（する） into 死刑執行 or not I never knew. He told me that he did. After that there followed for me, Sir, many days, nay, weeks, of 苦悩 and of strenuous work. Mme. la Marquise received several more letters from the supposititious M. de Naquet, any one of which would have landed me, Sir, in a 大型船 bound for New Caledonia. The discarded husband became more and more insistent as time went on, and finally sent an 最終提案 to Madame 説 that he was tired of perpetual interviews with M. le Marquis de Firmin-Latour, whose 権利 to 干渉する in the 事柄 he now wholly 否定するd, and that he was やめる 決定するd to （人命などを）奪う，主張する his lawful wife before the whole world.

Madame la Marquise, in the 一方／合間, had passed from one fit of hysterics into another. She 否定するd her door to everyone and lived in the strictest seclusion in her beautiful apartment of the Rue de Grammont. Fortunately this all occurred in the 早期に autumn, when the absence of such a society 星／主役にする from 流行の／上流の 集会s was not as noticeable as it さもなければ would have been. But 明確に we were working up for the 最高潮, which occurred in the way I am about to relate.

4

Ah, my dear Sir, when after all these years I think of my adventure with that abominable Marquis, righteous and noble indignation almost strikes me dumb. To think that with my own 手渡すs and brains I literally put half a million into that man’s pocket, and that he repaid me with the basest ingratitude, almost makes me lose my 約束 in human nature. Theodore, of course, I could punish, and did so adequately; and where my chastisement failed, 運命／宿命 herself put the finishing touch.

But M. de Firmin-Latour . . .!

However, you shall 裁判官 for yourself.

As I told you, we now made ready for the 最高潮; and that 最高潮, Sir, I can only 述べる as 前向きに／確かに gorgeous. We began by 推定するing that Mme. la Marquise had now grown tired of incessant 需要・要求するs for interviews and small 施し物s of money, and that she would be willing to 申し込む／申し出 a かなりの sum to her first and only lawful husband in 交流 for a 会社／堅い 保証（人） that he would never trouble her again as long as she lived.

We 直す／買収する，八百長をするd the sum at half a million フランs, and the 保証（人） was to take the form of a 行為 duly 遂行する／発効させるd by a notary of repute and 調印するd by the supposititious Comte de Naquet. A letter 具体的に表現するing the 需要・要求する and 申し込む／申し出ing the 保証（人） was thereupon duly sent to Mme. la Marquise, and she, after the usual attack of hysterics, duly confided the 事柄 to M. de Firmin-Latour.

The 協議 between husband and wife on the deplorable 支配する was touching in the extreme; and I will give that abominable Marquis credit for playing his rôle in a 熟達した manner. At first he 宣言するd to his dear Rachel that he did not know what to 示唆する, for in truth she had nothing like half a million on which she could lay her 手渡すs. To speak of this awful 未解決の スキャンダル to Papa Mosenstein was not to be thought of. He was 有能な of repudiating the daughter altogether who was bringing such obloquy upon herself and would henceforth be of no use to him as a society 星／主役にする.

As for himself in this terrible 緊急, he, of course, had いっそう少なく than nothing, or his entire fortune would be placed—if he had one—at the feet of his beloved Rachel. To think that he was on the point of losing her was more than he could 耐える, and the idea that she would soon become the talk of every gossip-monger in society, and mayhap be put in 刑務所，拘置所 for bigamy, wellnigh drove him crazy.

What could be done in this awful perplexity he for one could not think, unless indeed his dear Rachel were willing to part with some of her jewellery; but no! he could not think of 許すing her to make such a sacrifice.

その結果 Madame, like a 溺死するing man, or rather woman, catching at a straw, bethought her of her emeralds. They were historic gems, once the 所有物／資産／財産 of the 皇后 Marie-Thérèse, and had been given to her on her second marriage by her adoring father. No, no! she would never 行方不明になる them; she seldom wore them, for they were 激しい and more 価値のある than elegant, and she was やめる sure that at the Mont de Piété they would lend her five hundred thousand フランs on them. Then 徐々に they could be redeemed before papa had become aware of their 一時的な 見えなくなる. Madame would save the money out of the 自由主義の allowance she received from him for pin-money. Anything, anything was より望ましい to this awful doom which hung over her 長，率いる.

But even so M. le Marquis demurred. The thought of his proud and 流行の／上流の Rachel going to the Mont de Piété to pawn her own jewels was not to be thought of. She would be seen, 認めるd, and the スキャンダル would be as bad and worse than anything that ぼんやり現れるd on the 黒人／ボイコット horizon of her 運命／宿命 at this hour.

What was to be done? What was to be done?

Then M. le Marquis had a brilliant idea. He knew of a man, a very reliable, 信頼できる man, 弁護士／代理人／検事-at-法律 by profession, and therefore a man of repute, who was often 強いるd in the 演習 of his profession to don さまざまな disguises when 跡をつけるing 犯罪のs in the 辺ぴな ４半期/4分の1s of Paris. M. le Marquis, putting all pride and dignity nobly aside in the 利益／興味s of his adored Rachel, would borrow one of these disguises and himself go to the Mont de Piété with the emeralds, 得る the five hundred thousand フランs, and remit them to the man whom he hated most in all the world, in 交流 for the aforementioned 保証（人）.

Madame la Marquise, 打ち勝つ with 感謝, threw herself, in the 中央 of a flood of 涙／ほころびs, into the 武器 of the man whom she no longer dared to call her husband, and so the 事柄 was settled for the moment. M. le Marquis undertook to have the 行為 of 保証（人） 草案d by the same notary of repute whom he knew, and, if Madame 認可するd of it, the emeralds would then be 変えるd into money, and the interview with M. le Comte de Naquet 直す／買収する，八百長をするd for Wednesday, October 10th, at some convenient place, subsequently to be 決定するd on—in all probability at the bureau of that same ubiquitous 弁護士／代理人／検事-at-法律, M. 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon, at 96 Rue Daunon.

All was going on excellently 井戸／弁護士席, as you 観察する. I duly 草案d the 行為, and M. de Firmin-Latour showed it to Madame for her 是認. It was so 簡単に and so comprehensively worded that she 表明するd herself 完全に 満足させるd with it, その結果 M. le Marquis asked her to 令状 to her shameful persecutor ーするために 直す／買収する，八百長をする the date and hour for the 交流 of the money against the 行為 duly 調印するd and 証言，証人／目撃するd. M. le Marquis had always been the intermediary for her letters, you understand, and for the small sums of money which she had sent from time to time to the factitious M. de Naquet; now he was to be ゆだねるd with the final 交渉s which, though at a 激しい cost, would bring 安全 and happiness once more in the sumptuous palace of the Rue de Grammont.

Then it was that the first little hitch occurred. Mme. la Marquise—whether 誘発するd thereto by a faint breath of 疑惑, or 単に by natural curiosity—altered her mind about the 任命. She decided that M. le Marquis, having 誓約（する）d the emeralds, should bring the money to her, and she herself would go to the bureau of M. 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon in the Rue Daunou, there to 会合，会う M. de Naquet, whom she had not seen for seven years, but who had once been very dear to her, and herself fling in his 直面する the five hundred thousand フランs, the price of his silence and of her peace of mind.

At once, as you perceive, the 状況／情勢 became delicate. To have demurred, or uttered more than a casual word of 反対, would in the 事例／患者 of M. le Marquis have been 高度に impolitic. He felt that at once, the moment he raised his 発言する／表明する in 抗議する: and when Madame 宣言するd herself 決定するd he すぐに gave up arguing the point.

The trouble was that we had so very little time wherein to 明確に表す new 計画（する）s. Monsieur was to go the very next morning to the Mont de Piété to 交渉する the emeralds, and the interview with the fabulous M. de Naquet was to take place a couple of hours later; and it was now three o’clock in the afternoon.

As soon as M. de Firmin-Latour was able to leave his wife, he （機の）カム 一連の会議、交渉／完成する to my office. He appeared 完全に at his wits’ end, not knowing what to do.

“If my wife,” he said, “主張するs on a personal interview with de Naquet, who does not 存在する, our entire 計画／陰謀 落ちるs to the ground. Nay, worse! for I shall be driven to concoct some impossible explanation for the 非，不，無-外見 of that worthy, and heaven only knows if I shall 後継する in wholly 静めるing my wife’s 疑惑s.

“Ah!” he 追加するd with a sigh, “it is doubly hard to have seen fortune so 近づく one’s reach and then to see it dashed away at one fell 急襲する by the relentless 手渡す of 運命／宿命.”

Not one word, you 観察する, of 感謝 to me or of 承認 of the subtle mind that had planned and 工夫するd the whole 計画／陰謀.

But, Sir, it is at the hour of 最高の crises like the 現在の one that 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon’s genius 急に上がるs up to the empyrean. It became 広大な／多数の／重要な, Sir; nothing short of 広大な／多数の／重要な; and even the marvellous 計画／陰謀s of the Italian Macchiavelli paled before the ingenuity which I now 陳列する，発揮するd.

Half an hour’s reflection had 十分であるd. I had made my 計画（する）s, and I had 手段d the 十分な length of the terrible 危険s which I ran. の中で these New Caledonia was the least. But I chose to take the 危険s, Sir; my genius could not stoop to 手段ing the costs of its flight. While M. de Firmin-Latour alternately raved and lamented I had already planned and contrived. As I say, we had very little time: a few hours wherein to （判決などを）下す ourselves worthy of Fortune’s smiles. And this is what I planned.

You tell me that you were not in Paris during the year 1816 of which I speak. If you had been, you would surely recollect the sensation 原因（となる）d throughout the entire city by the 見えなくなる of M. le Marquis de Firmin-Latour, one of the most dashing young officers in society and one of its 定評のある leaders. It was the 10th day of October. M. le Marquis had breakfasted in the company of Madame at nine o’clock. A couple of hours later he went out, 説 he would be home for déjeuner. Madame 明確に 推定する／予想するd him, for his place was laid, and she ordered the déjeuner to be kept 支援する over an hour in 予期 of his return. But he did not come. The afternoon wore on and he did not come. Madame sat 負かす／撃墜する at two o’clock to déjeuner alone. She told the major-domo that M. le Marquis was 拘留するd in town and might not be home for some time. But the major-domo 宣言するd that Madame’s 発言する／表明する, as she told him this, sounded tearful and 軍隊d, and that she ate 事実上 nothing, 辞退するing one succulent dish after another.

The staff of servants was thus kept on tenterhooks all day, and when the 影をつくる／尾行するs of evening began to draw in, the theory was started in the kitchen that M. le Marquis had either met with an 事故 or been foully 殺人d. No one, however, dared speak of this to Madame la Marquise, who had locked herself up in her room in the 早期に part of the afternoon, and since then had 辞退するd to see anyone. The major-domo was now at his wits’ end. He felt that in a 手段 the 責任／義務 of the 世帯 残り／休憩（する）d upon his shoulders. Indeed he would have taken it upon himself to apprise M. Mauruss Mosenstein of the terrible happenings, only that the worthy gentleman was absent from Paris just then.

Mme. la Marquise remained shut up in her room until past eight o’clock. Then she ordered dinner to be served and made pretence of sitting 負かす／撃墜する to it; but again the major-domo 宣言するd that she ate nothing, whilst subsequently the confidential maid who had undressed her 公約するd that Madame had spent the whole night walking up and 負かす／撃墜する the room.

Thus two agonizing days went by; agonizing they were to everybody. Madame la Marquise became more and more agitated, more and more hysterical as time went on, and the servants could not help but notice this, even though she made light of the whole 事件／事情／状勢, and desperate 成果／努力s to 支配（する）／統制する herself. The 長，率いるs of her 世帯, the major-domo, the confidential maid, the chef de cuisine, did 投機・賭ける to 減少（する） a hint or two as to the 可能性 of an 事故 or of foul play, and the desirability of 協議するing the police; but Madame would not hear a word of it; she became very angry at the suggestion, and 宣言するd that she was perfectly 井戸／弁護士席 aware of M. le Marquis’s どの辺に, that he was 井戸／弁護士席 and would return home almost すぐに.

As was only natural, tongues presently began to wag. Soon it was ありふれた talk in Paris that M. le Marquis de Firmin-Latour had disappeared from his home and that Madame was trying to put a bold 直面する upon the occurrence. There were surmises and there was gossip— oh! interminable and long-winded gossip! Minute circumstances in connexion with M. le Marquis’s 私的な life and Mme. la Marquise’s 事件／事情／状勢s were 自由に discussed in the cafés, the clubs and restaurants, and as no one knew the facts of the 事例／患者, surmises soon became very wild.

On the third day of M. le Marquis’s 見えなくなる Papa Mosenstein returned to Paris from Vichy, where he had just 完全にするd his 年次の cure. He arrived at Rue de Grammont at three o’clock in the afternoon, 需要・要求するd to see Mme. la Marquise at once, and then remained closeted with her in her apartment for over an hour. After which he sent for the 視察官 of police of the section, with the result that that very same evening M. le Marquis de Firmin-Latour was 設立する locked up in an humble apartment on the 最高の，を越す 床に打ち倒す of a house in the Rue Daunou, not ten minutes’ walk from his own house. When the police—事実上の／代理 on （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） 供給（する）d to them by M. Mauruss Mosenstein—軍隊d their way into that apartment, they were horrified to find M. le Marquis de Firmin-Latour there, tied 手渡す and foot with cords to a 議長，司会を務める, his likely calls for help smothered by a woollen shawl 負傷させる loosely 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the lower part of his 直面する.

He was half dead with inanition, and was 伝えるd speechless and helpless to his home in the Rue de Grammont, there, 推定では, to be nursed 支援する to health by Madame his wife.

5

Now in all this 事柄, I ask you, Sir, who ran the greatest 危険? Why, I—圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon, of course—圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon, in whose apartment M. de Firmin-Latour was discovered in a position 国境ing on 絶対の inanition. And the proof of this is, that that selfsame night I was 逮捕（する）d at my lodgings at Passy, and 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d with 強盗 and 殺人未遂.

It was a terrible predicament for a respectable 国民, a man of 正直さ and 評判, in which to find himself; but Papa Mosenstein was both tenacious and vindictive. His daughter, driven to desperation at last, and terrified that M. le Marquis had indeed been foully 殺人d by M. de Naquet, had made a clean breast of the whole 事件／事情／状勢 to her father, and he in his turn had put the minions of the 法律 in 十分な 所有／入手 of all the facts; and since M. le Comte de Naquet had 消えるd, leaving no manner of trace or 手がかり（を与える） of his person behind him, the police, needing a 犠牲者, fell 支援する on an innocent man. Fortunately, Sir, that innocence （疑いを）晴らす as 水晶 soon 向こうずねs through every calumny. But this was not before I had 苦しむd terrible 侮辱／冷遇s and all the 拷問s which base ingratitude can （打撃，刑罰などを）与える upon a 極度の慎重さを要する heart.

Such ingratitude as I am about to relate to you has never been equalled on this earth, and even after all these years, Sir, you see me 打ち勝つ with emotion at the remembrance of it all. I was under 逮捕（する）, remember, on a terribly serious 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金, but, conscious of 地雷 own innocence and of my unanswerable system of defence, I bore the 予選 examination by the juge d’指示／教授／教育 with 模範的な dignity and patience. I knew, you see, that at my very first 対決 with my supposed 犠牲者 the latter would at once say:

“Ah! but no! This is not the man who 強襲，強姦d me.”

Our 計画（する）, which so far had been 圧倒的に successful, had been this.

On the morning of the tenth, M. de Firmin-Latour having pawned the emeralds, and 得るd the money for them, was to deposit that money in his own 指名する at the bank of Raynal Frères and then at once go to the office in the Rue Daunou.

There he would be met by Theodore, who would 貯蔵所d him comfortably but securely to a 議長，司会を務める, put a shawl around his mouth and finally lock the door on him. Theodore would then go to his mother’s and there remain 静かに until I needed his services again.

It had been thought inadvisable for me to be seen that morning anywhere in the neighbourhood of the Rue Daunou, but that perfidious reptile Theodore ran no 危険s in doing what he was told. To begin with he is a past master in the art of worming himself in and out of a house without 存在 seen, and in this 事例／患者 it was his 商売／仕事 to 演習 a 二塁打 手段 of 警告を与える. And secondly, if by some unlucky chance the police did subsequently connect him with the 罪，犯罪, there was I, his 雇用者, a man of 正直さ and repute, 用意が出来ている to 断言する that the man had been in my company at the other end of Paris all the while that M. le Marquis de Firmin-Latour was, by special 協定, making use of my office in the Rue Daunou, which I had lent him for 目的s of 商売／仕事.

Finally it was agreed between us that when M. le Marquis would presently be questioned by the police as to the 外見 of the man who had 強襲，強姦d and robbed him, he would 述べる him as tall and blond, almost like an Angliche in countenance. Now I 所有する—as you see, Sir—all the finest 特徴 of the Latin race, whilst Theodore looks like nothing on earth, save perhaps a cross between a ネズミ and a monkey.

I wish you to realize, therefore, that no one ran any 危険s in this 事件／事情／状勢 excepting myself. I, as the proprietor of the apartment where the 強襲，強姦 was 現実に supposed to have taken place, did run a very 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な 危険, because I could never have 証明するd an アリバイ. Theodore was such a disreputable mudlark that his 証言 on my に代わって would have been valueless. But with sublime sacrifice I 受託するd these 危険s, and you will presently see, Sir, how I was repaid for my selflessness. I pined in a lonely 刑務所，拘置所-独房 while these two 四肢s of Satan concocted a 陰謀（を企てる） to 略奪する me of my 株 in our 相互の 請け負うing.

井戸／弁護士席, Sir, the day （機の）カム when I was taken from my 刑務所，拘置所-独房 for the 目的 of 存在 直面するd with the man whom I was （刑事）被告 of having 強襲，強姦d. As you will imagine, I was perfectly 静める. によれば our 計画（する） the 対決 would be the means of setting me 解放する／自由な at once. I was 伝えるd to the house in the Rue de Grammont, and here I was kept waiting for some little time while the juge d’指示／教授／教育 went in to 準備する M. le Marquis, who was still far from 井戸／弁護士席. Then I was introduced into the sick-room. I looked about me with the perfect composure of an innocent man about to be vindicated, and calmly gazed on the 直面する of the sick man who was sitting up in his magnificent bed, propped up with pillows.

I met his ちらりと見ること 堅固に whilst M. le Juge d’指示／教授／教育 placed the question to him in a solemn and earnest トン:

“M. le Marquis de Firmin-Latour, will you look at the 囚人 before you and tell us whether you 認める in him the man who 強襲，強姦d you?”

And that perfidious Marquis, Sir, raised his 注目する，もくろむs and looked me squarely—yes! squarely—in the 直面する and said with incredible 保証／確信:

“Yes, Monsieur le Juge, that is the man! I 認める him.”

To me it seemed then as if a thunderbolt had 衝突，墜落d through the 天井 and 爆発するd at my feet. I was like one stunned and dazed; the 黒人／ボイコット ingratitude, the abominable treachery, 完全に 奪うd me of speech. I felt choked, as if some poisonous effluvia—the 毒（薬）, Sir, of that man’s infamy—had got into my throat. That 明言する／公表する of inertia lasted, I believe, いっそう少なく than a second; the next I had uttered a hoarse cry of noble indignation.

“You vampire, you!” I exclaimed. “You viper! You . . .”

I would have thrown myself on him and strangled him with glee, but that the minions of the 法律 had me by the 武器 and dragged me away out of the hateful presence of that 反逆者, にもかかわらず my objurgations and my protestations of innocence. Imagine my feelings when I 設立する myself once more in a 刑務所，拘置所-独房, my heart filled with unspeakable bitterness against that perfidious Judas. Can you wonder that it took me some time before I could collect my thoughts 十分に to review my 状況／情勢, which no 疑問 to the villain himself who had just played me this abominable trick must have seemed desperate indeed? Ah! I could see it all, of course! He 手配中の，お尋ね者 to see me sent to New Caledonia, whilst he enjoyed the fruits of his unpardonable backsliding. ーするために 保持する the 哀れな hundred thousand フランs which he had 約束d me he did not hesitate to 急落（する），激減（する） up to the neck in this heinous 共謀.

Yes, 共謀! for the very next day, when I was once more あられ／賞賛するd before the juge d’指示／教授／教育, another 対決 を待つd me: this time with that scurvy rogue Theodore. He had been suborned by M. le Marquis to turn against the 手渡す that fed him. What price he was paid for this Judas trick I shall never know, and all that I do know is that he 現実に swore before the juge d’指示／教授／教育 that M. le Marquis de Firmin-Latour called at my office in the late forenoon of the tenth of October; that I then ordered him—Theodore—to go out to get his dinner first, and then to go all the way over to Neuilly with a message to someone who turned out to be 非，不，無-existent. He went on to 主張する that when he returned at six o’clock in the afternoon he 設立する the office door locked, and I—his 雇用者—推定では gone. This at first 大いに upset him, because he was supposed to sleep on the 前提s, but seeing that there was nothing for it but to 受託する the 必然的な, he went 一連の会議、交渉／完成する to his mother’s rooms at the 支援する of the fish-market and remained there ever since, waiting to hear from me.

That, Sir, was the tissue of lies which that jailbird had concocted for my undoing, knowing 井戸／弁護士席 that I could not disprove them because it had been my 仕事 on that eventful morning to keep an 注目する，もくろむ on M. le Marquis whilst he went to the Mont de Piété first, and then to MM. Raynal Frères, the 銀行業者s where he deposited the money. For this 目的 I had been 強いるd to don a disguise, which I had not discarded till later in the day, and thus was unable to disprove satisfactorily the monstrous lies told by that perjurer.

Ah! I can see that sympathy for my unmerited misfortunes has filled your 注目する，もくろむs with 涙／ほころびs. No 疑問 in your heart you feel that my 状況／情勢 at that hour was indeed desperate, and that I—圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon, the confidant of kings, the benefactor of the 抑圧するd—did spend the next few years of my life in a penal 解決／入植地, where those arch-malefactors themselves should have been. But no, Sir! 運命／宿命 may be a fickle jade, rogues may appear 勝利を得た, but not for long, Sir, not for long! It is brains that 征服する／打ち勝つ in the end . . . brains 支援するd by righteousness and by 司法（官）.

Whether I had 現実に foreseen the treachery of those two rattlesnakes, or whether my habitual 警告を与える and acumen alone 誘発するd me to take those 対策 of 警戒 of which I am about to tell you, I cannot truthfully remember. 確かな it is that I did take those 警戒s which 最終的に 証明するd to be the means of 補償するing me for most that I had 苦しむd.

It had been a part of the 初めの 計画（する） that, on the day すぐに に引き続いて the tenth of October, I, in my own capacity as 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon, who had been absent from my office for twenty-four hours, would arrive there in the morning, find the place locked, 軍隊 an 入り口 into the apartment, and there find M. le Marquis in his pitiable 苦境. After which I would, of course, すぐに 通知する the police of the mysterious occurrence.

That had been the rôle which I had ーするつもりであるd to play. M. le Marquis 認可するd of it and had professed himself やめる willing to 耐える a twenty-four-hours’ 殉教／苦難 for the sake of half a million フランs. But, as I have just had the honour to tell you, something which I will not 試みる／企てる to explain 誘発するd me at the last moment to 修正する my 計画（する） in one little 尊敬（する）・点. I thought it too soon to go 支援する to the Rue Daunou within twenty-four hours of our 井戸／弁護士席-contrived クーデター, and I did not altogether care for the idea of going myself to the police ーするために explain to them that I had 設立する a man gagged and bound in my office. The いっそう少なく one has to do with these minions of the 法律 the better. Mind you, I had 想像するd the 可能性 of 存在 （刑事）被告 of 強襲，強姦 and 強盗, but I did not wish to take, as it were, the very first steps myself in that direction. You might call this a 事柄 of 感情 or of prudence, as you wish.

So I waited until the evening of the second day before I got the 重要な from Theodore. Then before the concierge at 96 Rue Daunou had の近くにd the porte-cochere for the night, I slipped into the house unobserved, ran up the stairs to my office and entered the apartment. I struck a light and made my way to the inner room where the wretched Marquis hung in the 議長，司会を務める like a bundle of rags. I called to him, but he made no movement. As I had 心配するd, he had fainted for want of food. Of course, I was very sorry for him, for his 苦境 was pitiable, but he was playing for high 火刑／賭けるs, and a little 餓死 does no man any 害（を与える）. In his 事例／患者 there was half a million at the end of his 簡潔な／要約する 殉教／苦難, which could, at worst, only last another twenty-four hours. I reckoned that Mme. la Marquise could not keep the secret of her husband’s possible どの辺に longer than that, and in any event I was 決定するd that, にもかかわらず all 危険s, I would go myself to the police on the に引き続いて day.

In the 一方／合間, since I was here and since M. le Marquis was unconscious, I proceeded then and there to take the 警戒 which prudence had dictated, and without which, seeing this man’s treachery and Theodore’s villainy, I should undoubtedly have ended my days as a 罪人／有罪を宣告する. What I did was to search M. le Marquis’s pockets for anything that might subsequently 証明する useful to me.

I had no 限定された idea in the 事柄, you understand; but I had vague notions of finding the 銀行業者s’ 領収書 for the half-million フランs.

井戸／弁護士席, I did not find that, but I did find the 領収書 from the Mont de Piété for a parure of emeralds on which half a million フランs had been lent. This I carefully put away in my waistcoat pocket, but as there was nothing else I wished to do just then I 消滅させるd the light and made my way 慎重に out of the apartment and out of the house. No one had seen me enter or go out, and M. le Marquis had not stirred while I went through his pockets.

6

That, Sir, was the 警戒 which I had taken ーするために 保護（する）／緊急輸入制限 myself against the machinations of 反逆者s. And see how 権利 I was; see how hopeless would have been my 苦境 at this hour when Theodore, too, turned against me like the veritable viper that he was. I never really knew when and under what 条件s the 悪名高い 取引 was struck which was ーするつもりであるd to 奪う me of my honour and of my liberty, nor do I know what emolument Theodore was to receive for his treachery. 推定では the two miscreants arranged it all some time during that memorable morning of the tenth even whilst I was 危険ing my life in their service.

As for M. de Firmin-Latour, that 労働者 of iniquity who, ーするために save a paltry hundred thousand フランs from the hoard which I had helped him to acquire, did not hesitate to commit such an abominable 罪，犯罪, he did not long remain in the enjoyment of his wealth or of his peace of mind.

The very next day I made 確かな 声明s before M. le Juge d’指示／教授／教育 with regard to M. Mauruss Mosenstein, which 原因（となる）d the former to 召喚する the worthy Israelite to his bureau, there to be 直面するd with me. I had nothing more to lose, since those execrable rogues had already, as it were, 強化するd the rope about my neck, but I had a 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定 to 伸び（る）—復讐 above all, and perhaps the 感謝 of M. Mosenstein for 開始 his 注目する，もくろむs to the rascality of his son-in-法律.

In a stream of eloquent words which could not fail to carry 有罪の判決, I gave then and there in the bureau of the juge d’指示／教授／教育 my 見解／翻訳／版 of the events of the past few weeks, from the moment when M. le Marquis de Firmin-Latour （機の）カム to 協議する me on the 支配する of his wife’s first husband, until the hour when he tried to fasten an abominable 罪，犯罪 upon me. I told how I had been deceived by my own 雇うé, Theodore, a man whom I had 救助（する）d out of the gutter and 負担d with gifts, how by dint of a clever disguise which would have deceived his own mother he had assumed the 外見 and personality of M. le Comte de Naquet, first and only lawful lord of the beautiful Rachel Mosenstein. I told of the interviews in my office, my earnest 願望（する） to put an end to this abominable ゆすり，恐喝ing by 知らせるing the police of the whole 事件／事情／状勢. I told of the 誤った M. de Naquet’s 脅しs to create a gigantic スキャンダル which would forever 廃虚 the social position of the いわゆる Marquis de Firmin-Latour. I told of M. le Marquis’s agonized entreaties, his 祈りs, supplications, that I would do nothing in the 事柄 for the sake of an innocent lady who had already grievously 苦しむd. I spoke of my 疑問s, my scruples, my 願望（する） to do what was just and what was 権利.

A noble expose of the 状況／情勢, Sir, you will 収容する／認める. It left me hot and breathless. I mopped my 長，率いる with a handkerchief and sank 支援する, gasping, in the 武器 of the minions of the 法律. The juge d’指示／教授／教育 ordered my 除去, not 支援する to my 刑務所，拘置所-独房 but into his own 賭け金-room, where I presently 崩壊（する）d upon a very uncomfortable （法廷の）裁判 and 耐えるd the 付加 humiliation of having a glass of water held to my lips. Water! when I had asked for a drink of ワイン as my throat felt parched after that 非常に長い 成果／努力 at oratory.

However, there I sat and waited 根気よく whilst, no 疑問, M. le Juge d’指示／教授／教育 and the noble Israelite were comparing 公式文書，認めるs as to their impression of my marvellous speech. I had not long to wait. いっそう少なく than ten minutes later I was once more 召喚するd into the presence of M. le Juge; and this time the minions of the 法律 were ordered to remain in the antechamber. I thought this was of good augury; and I waited to hear M. le Juge give 前へ／外へ the order that would at once 始める，決める me 解放する／自由な. But it was M. Mosenstein who first 演説（する）／住所d me, and in very truth surprise （判決などを）下すd me momentarily dumb when he did it thus:

“Now then, you consummate rascal, when you have given up the 領収書 of the Mont de Piété which you stole out of M. le Marquis’s pocket you may go and carry on your rogueries どこかよそで and call yourself mightily lucky to have escaped so lightly.”

I 保証する you, Sir, that a feather would have knocked me 負かす／撃墜する. The coarse 侮辱, the wanton 不正, had 奪うd me of the use of my 四肢s and of my speech. Then the juge d’指示／教授／教育 proceeded dryly:

“Now then, Ratichon, you have heard what M. Mauruss Mosenstein has been good enough to say to you. He did it with my 是認 and 同意. I am 用意が出来ている to give an ordonnance de 非，不，無-lieu in your favour which will have the 影響 of at once setting you 解放する／自由な if you will 回復する to this gentleman here the Mont de Piété 領収書 which you appear to have stolen.”

“Sir,” I said with consummate dignity in the 直面する of this 繰り返し言うd taunt, “I have stolen nothing—”

M. le Juge’s 手渡す was already on the bell-pull.

“Then,” he said coolly, “I can （犯罪の）一味 for the gendarmes to take you 支援する to the 独房s, and you will stand your 裁判，公判 for ゆすり，恐喝, 窃盗, 強襲，強姦 and 強盗.”

I put up my 手渡す with an elegant and perfectly 静める gesture.

“Your 容赦, M. le Juge,” I said with the gentle 辞職 of undeserved 殉教／苦難, “I was about to say that when I re-visited my rooms in the Rue Daunou after a three days’ absence, and 設立する the police in 所有／入手, I 選ぶd up on the 床に打ち倒す of my 私的な room a white paper which on その後の examination 証明するd to be a 領収書 from the Mont de Piété for some 価値のある gems, and made out in the 指名する of M. le Marquis de Firmin-Latour.”

“What have you done with it, you abominable knave?” the irascible old usurer 再結合させるd 概略で, and I 悔いる to say that he しっかり掴むd his malacca 茎 with ominous 暴力／激しさ.

But I was not to be thus easily 脅迫してさせるd.

“Ah! voilà, M. le Juge,” I said with a shrug of the shoulders. “I have mislaid it. I do not know where it is.”

“If you do not find it,” Mosenstein went on savagely, “you will find yourself on a 罪人／有罪を宣告する ship before long.”

“In which 事例／患者, no 疑問,” I retorted with suave urbanity, “the police will search my rooms where I 宿泊する, and they will find the 領収書 from the Mont de Piété, which I had mislaid. And then the gossip will be all over Paris that Mme. la Marquise de Firmin-Latour had to pawn her jewels ーするために 満足させる the exigencies of her first and only lawful husband who has since mysteriously disappeared; and some people will 公約する that he never （機の）カム 支援する from the Antipodes, whilst others—by far the most 非常に／多数の—will shrug their shoulders and sigh: ‘One never knows!’ which will be exceedingly unpleasant for Mme. la Marquise.”

Both M. Mauruss Mosenstein and the juge d’指示／教授／教育 said a 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定 more that afternoon. I may say that their 態度 に向かって me and the language that they used were 前向きに／確かに scandalous. But I had become now the master of the 状況／情勢 and I could afford to ignore their 侮辱s. In the end everything was settled やめる 友好的に. I agreed to 配置する／処分する／したい気持ちにさせる of the 領収書 from the Mont de Piété to M. Mauruss Mosenstein for the sum of two hundred フランs, and for another hundred I would 示す to him the banking house where his precious son-in-法律 had deposited the half-million フランs 得るd for the emeralds. This latter （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） I would indeed have 申し込む／申し出d him gratuitously had he but known with what 巨大な 楽しみ I thus put a spoke in that knavish Marquis’s wheel of fortune.

The worthy Israelite その上の agreed to 支払う／賃金 me an annuity of two hundred フランs so long as I kept silent upon the entire 支配する of Mme. la Marquise’s first husband and of M. le Marquis’s rôle in the mysterious 事件／事情／状勢 of the Rue Daunou. For thus was the 事件／事情／状勢 classed amongst the police 記録，記録的な／記録するs. No one outside the 長，指導者 actors of the 演劇 and M. le Juge d’指示／教授／教育 ever knew the true history of how a dashing young cavalry officer （機の）カム to be 強襲，強姦d and left to 餓死する for three days in the humble apartment of an 弁護士／代理人／検事-at-法律 of undisputed repute. And no one outside the 私的な bureau of M. le Juge d’指示／教授／教育 ever knew what it cost the 豊富な M. Mosenstein to have the whole 事件／事情／状勢 “classed” and hushed up.

As for me, I had three hundred フランs as 支払い（額） for work which I had 危険d my neck and my 評判 to 遂行する. Three hundred instead of the hundred thousand which I had so richly deserved: that, and a paltry two hundred フランs a year, which was to 中止する the moment that as much as a rumour of the whole 事件／事情／状勢 was breathed in public. As if I could help people talking!

But M. le Marquis did not enjoy the fruits of his villainy, and I had again the satisfaction of seeing him gnaw his finger-nails with 激怒（する） whenever the lovely Rachel paid for his dinner at 流行の／上流の restaurants. Indeed Papa Mosenstein 強化するd the strings of his money-捕らえる、獲得するs even more securely than he had done in the past. Under 脅しs of 起訴 for 窃盗 and I know not what, he 軍隊d his son-in-法律 to disgorge that half-million which he had so pleasantly tucked away in the banking house of Raynal Frères, and I was indeed thankful that prudence had, on that memorable morning, 示唆するd to me the advisability of dogging the Marquis’s footsteps. I 疑問 not but what he knew whence had come the thunderbolt which had 鎮圧するd his last hopes of an 独立した・無所属 fortune, and no 疑問 too he does not 心にいだく feelings of good will に向かって me.

But this eventuality leaves me 冷淡な. He has only himself to thank for his misfortune. Everything would have gone 井戸／弁護士席 but for his treachery. We would have become 豊富な, he and I and Theodore. Theodore has gone to live with his mother, who has a fish-立ち往生させる in the Halles; she gives him three sous a day for washing 負かす／撃墜する the 立ち往生させる and selling the fish when it has become too odorous for the ordinary 顧客s.

And he might have had five hundred フランs for himself and remained my confidential clerk.

一時期／支部 4
Carissimo

1

You must not think for a moment, my dear Sir, that I was ever 現実に deceived in Theodore. Was it likely that I, who am by temperament and habit accustomed to read human visages like a 調書をとる／予約する, was it likely, I say, that I would fail to see craftiness in those pale, shifty 注目する，もくろむs, deceit in the weak, slobbering mouth, intemperance in the whole 面 of the shrunken, slouchy 人物／姿／数字 which I had, for my その後の 悲しみ, so generously 救助（する）d from 餓死?

Generous? I was more than generous to him. They say that the poor are the friends of the poor, and I told you how poor we were in those days! Ah! but poor! my dear Sir, you have no conception! Meat in Paris in the autumn of 1816 was 24 フランs the キロ, and milk 1 フラン the ４半期/4分の1 litre, not to について言及する eggs and butter, which were delicacies far beyond the reach of cultured, 井戸／弁護士席-born people like myself.

And yet throughout that trying year I fed Theodore—yes, I fed him. He used to 株 onion pie with me whenever I partook of it, and he had haricot soup every day, into which I 許すd him to boil the 肌s of all the sausages and the luscious bones of all the cutlets of which I happened to partake. Then think what he cost me in drink! Never could I leave a half or ４半期/4分の1 瓶／封じ込める of ワイン but he would finish it; his impudent fingers made light of every lock and 重要な. I dared not 許す as much as a sou to 残り／休憩（する） in the pocket of my coat but he would ferret it out the moment I hung the coat up in the outer room and my 支援する was turned for a few seconds. After a while I was 軍隊d—yes, I, Sir, who have spoken on 条件 of equality with kings—I was 軍隊d to go out and make my own 購入（する）s in the 隣人ing 準備／条項 shops. And why? Because if I sent Theodore and gave him a few sous wherewith to make these 購入（する）s, he would spend the money at the nearest cabaret in getting drunk on absinthe.

He robbed me, Sir, shamefully, にもかかわらず the fact that he had ten per cent, （売買）手数料，委託（する）／委員会／権限 on all the 利益（をあげる）s of the 会社／堅い. I gave him twenty フランs out of the money which I had earned at the sweat of my brow in the service of Estelle Bachelier. Twenty フランs, Sir! Reckoning two hundred フランs as 商売／仕事 利益（をあげる） on the 事件／事情／状勢, a generous 準備／条項 you will 収容する／認める! And yet he taunted me with having received a thousand. This was mere guesswork, of course, and I took no notice of his taunts: did the brains that conceived the 商売／仕事 deserve no 支払い（額）? Was my 労働 to be counted as dross?—the humiliation, the blows which I had to 耐える while he sat in hoggish content, eating and sleeping without thought for the morrow? After which he calmly pocketed the twenty フランs to earn which he had not raised one finger, and then 需要・要求するd more.

No, no, my dear Sir, you will believe me or not, that man could not go straight. Times out of count he would try and deceive me, にもかかわらず the fact that, once or twice, he very nearly （機の）カム hopelessly to grief in the 試みる／企てる.

Now, just to give you an instance. About this time Paris was in the 支配する of a ギャング（団） of dog-thieves as unscrupulous and heartless as they were daring. Can you wonder at it? with that awful penury about and a number of expensive “tou-tous” running about the streets under the very noses of the indigent proletariat? The ladies of the aristocracy and of the 豊富な bourgeoisie had imbibed this craze for （競技場の）トラック一周-dogs during their sojourn in England at the time of the 移住, and 存在 women of the Latin race and of undisciplined temperament, they were just then carrying their craze to 超過.

As I was 説, this indulgence led to 卸売 thieving. Tou-tous were abstracted from their adoring mistresses with marvellous adroitness; その結果 two or three days would elapse while the adoring mistress wept buckets 十分な of 涙／ほころびs and 始める，決める the police of M. Fouché, Duc d’Otrante, by the ears in search of her pet. The next 行為／法令／行動する in the tragi-comedy would be an 匿名の／不明の 需要・要求する for money—変化させるing in 量 in 一致 with the known or supposed wealth of the lady—and an 平等に 匿名の／不明の 脅し of 悲惨な vengeance upon the tou-tou if the police were put upon the 跡をつける of the thieves.

You will ask me, no 疑問, what all this had to do with Theodore. 井戸／弁護士席! I will tell you.

You must know that of late he had become extraordinarily haughty and 独立した・無所属. I could not keep him to his work. His 義務s were to sweep the office—he did not do it; to light the 解雇する／砲火／射撃s—I had to light them myself every morning; to remain in the anteroom and show （弁護士の）依頼人s in—he was never at his 地位，任命する. In fact he was never there when I did want him: morning, noon and night he was out—gadding about and coming home, Sir, only to eat and sleep. I was 本気で thinking of giving him the 解雇（する）. And then one day he disappeared! Yes, Sir, disappeared 完全に as if the earth had swallowed him up. One morning—it was in the beginning of December and the 冷淡な was biting—I arrived at the office and 設立する that his 議長，司会を務める-bed which stood in the antechamber had not been slept in; in fact that it had not been made up 夜通し. In the cupboard I 設立する the 残余s of an onion pie, half a sausage, and a ４半期/4分の1 of a litre of ワイン, which 証明するd conclusively that he had not been in to supper.

At first I was not 大いに 乱すd in my mind. I had 設立する out やめる recently that Theodore had some sort of a squalid home of his own somewhere behind the fish-market, together with an old and wholly disreputable mother who plied him with drink whenever he spent an evening with her and either he or she had a フラン in their pocket. Still, after these 一区切り／（ボクシングなどの）試合s spent in the bosom of his family he usually returned to sleep them off at my expense in my office.

I had unfortunately very little to do that day, so in the late afternoon, not having seen anything of Theodore all day, I turned my steps toward the house behind the fish-market where lived the mother of that ungrateful wretch.

The woman’s surprise when I 問い合わせd after her precious son was undoubtedly 本物の. Her lamentations and crocodile 涙／ほころびs certainly were not. She reeked of alcohol, and the one room which she 住むd was indescribably filthy. I 申し込む／申し出d her half a フラン if she gave me authentic news of Theodore, knowing 井戸／弁護士席 that for that sum she would have sold him to the devil. But very 明白に she knew nothing of his どの辺に, and I soon made haste to shake the dirt of her abode from my heels.

I had become ばく然と anxious.

I wondered if he had been 殺人d somewhere 負かす／撃墜する a 支援する street, and if I should 行方不明になる him very much.

I did not think that I would.

Moreover, no one could have any 反対する in 殺人ing Theodore. In his own stupid way he was 害のない enough, and he certainly was not 所有するd of anything 価値（がある） stealing. I myself was not over-fond of the man—but I should not have bothered to 殺人 him.

Still, I was undoubtedly anxious, and slept but little that night thinking of the wretch. When the に引き続いて morning I arrived at my office and still could see no trace of him, I had serious thoughts of putting the 法律 in 動議 on his に代わって.

Just then, however, an 出来事/事件 occurred which drove all thoughts of such an insignificant personage as Theodore from my mind.

I had just finished tidying up the office when there （機の）カム a peremptory （犯罪の）一味 at the outer door, repeated at intervals of twenty seconds or so. It meant giving a 迅速な ちらりと見ること all 一連の会議、交渉／完成する to see that no fragments of onion pie or of cheap claret ぐずぐず残るd in unsuspected places, and it meant my going, myself, to open the door to my impatient 訪問者.

I did it, Sir, and then at the door I stood transfixed. I had seen many beautiful women in my day—広大な／多数の／重要な ladies of the 法廷，裁判所, brilliant ladies of the 領事館, the Directorate and the Empire—but never in my life had I seen such an exquisite and resplendent apparition as the one which now sailed through the antechamber of my humble abode.

Sir, 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon’s heart has ever been susceptible to the charms of beauty in 苦しめる. This lovely 存在, Sir, who now at my 招待 entered my office and sank with perfect grace into the arm-議長，司会を務める, was in obvious 苦しめる. 涙／ほころびs hung on the fringe of her dark 攻撃するs, and the gossamer-like handkerchief which she held in her dainty 手渡す was nothing but a wet rag. She gave herself 正確に／まさに two minutes wherein to compose herself, after which she 乾燥した，日照りのd her 注目する，もくろむs and turned the 十分な 大砲 of her bewitching ちらりと見ること upon me.

“Monsieur Ratichon,” she began, even before I had taken my accustomed place at my desk and assumed that engaging smile which 奮起させるs 信用／信任 even in the most timorous; “Monsieur Ratichon, they tell me that you are so clever, and—oh! I am in such trouble.”

“Madame,” I 再結合させるd with noble 簡単, “you may 信用 me to do the impossible ーするために be of service to you.”

Admirably put, you will 収容する／認める. I have always been counted a master of appropriate diction, and I had been quick enough to 公式文書，認める the plain 禁止（する）d of gold which encircled the third finger of her dainty left 手渡す, 側面に位置するd though it was by a multiplicity of diamond, pearl and other jewelled （犯罪の）一味s.

“You are 肉親，親類d, Monsieur Ratichon,” 再開するd the beauteous creature more calmly. “But indeed you will 要求する all the ingenuity of your resourceful brain ーするために help me in this 事柄. I am struggling in the 支配する of a relentless 運命／宿命 which, if you do not help me, will leave me broken-hearted.”

“命令（する） me, Madame,” I riposted 静かに.

From out the daintiest of reticules the fair lady now 抽出するd a very greasy and very dirty bit of paper, and 手渡すd it to me with the 簡潔な／要約する request: “Read this, I pray you, my good M. Ratichon.” I took the paper. It was a clumsily worded, ill-written, ill-spelt 需要・要求する for five thousand フランs, failing which sum the thing which Madame had lost would forthwith be destroyed.

I looked up, puzzled, at my fair （弁護士の）依頼人.

“My darling Carissimo, my dear M. Ratichon,” she said in reply to my mute query.

“Carissimo?” I stammered, yet その上の intrigued.

“My darling pet, a 価値のある creature, the companion of my lonely hours,” she 再結合させるd, once more bursting into 涙／ほころびs. “If I lose him, my heart will 必然的に break.”

I understood at last.

“Madame has lost her dog?” I asked.

She nodded.

“It has been stolen by one of those 専門家 dog thieves, who then 徴収する ゆすり，恐喝 on the unfortunate owner?”

Again she nodded in assent.

I read the dirty, almost illegible scrawl through more carefully this time. It was a clumsy notification 演説（する）／住所d to Mme. la Comtesse de Nolé de St. Pris to the 影響 that her tou-tou was for the moment 安全な, and would be 回復するd to the 武器 of his fond mistress 供給するd the sum of five thousand フランs was deposited in the 手渡すs of the 持参人払いの of the missive.

Minute directions were then given as to where and how the money was to be deposited. Mme. la Comtesse de Nolé was, on the third day from this at six o’clock in the evening 正確に, to go in person and alone to the angle of the Rue Guénégaud and the Rue Mazarine, at the 後部 of the Institut.

There two men would 会合，会う her, one of whom would have Carissimo in his 武器; to the other she must を引き渡す the money, その結果 the pet would at once be 手渡すd 支援する to her. But if she failed to keep this 任命, or if in the 一方／合間 she made the slightest 試みる／企てる to trace the writer of the missive or to lay a 罠（にかける） for his 逮捕（する） by the police, Carissimo would at once 会合，会う with a 要約 death.

These were the usual 策略 of experienced dog thieves, only that in this 事例／患者 the 需要・要求する was certainly exorbitant. Five thousand フランs! But even so . . . I cast a 早い and 包括的な ちらりと見ること on the brilliant apparition before me—the jewelled （犯罪の）一味s, the diamonds in the 爆撃する-like ears, the priceless fur coat—and with an expressive shrug of the shoulders I 手渡すd the dirty 捨てる of paper 支援する to its fair 受取人.

“式のs, Madame,” I said, taking care that she should not guess how much it cost me to give her such advice, “I am afraid that in such 事例／患者s there is nothing to be done. If you wish to save your pet you will have to 支払う／賃金. . .”

“Ah! but, Monsieur,” she exclaimed tearfully, “you don’t understand. Carissimo is all the world to me, and this is not the first time, nor yet the second, that he has been stolen from me. Three times, my good M. Ratichon, three times has he been stolen, and three times have I received such peremptory 需要・要求するs for money for his 安全な return; and every time the 需要・要求する has been more and more exorbitant. いっそう少なく than a month ago M. le Comte paid three thousand フランs for his 回復.”

“Monsieur le Comte?” I queried.

“My husband, Sir,” she replied, with an exquisite 空気／公表する of hauteur. “M. le Comte de Nolé de St. Pris.”

“Ah, then,” I continued calmly, “I 恐れる me that Monsieur de Nolé de St. Pris will have to 支払う／賃金 again.”

“But he won’t!” she now cried out in a 発言する／表明する broken with sobs, and incontinently once more saturated her gossamer handkerchief with her 涙／ほころびs.

“Then I see nothing for it, Madame,” I 再結合させるd, much against my will with a slight touch of impatience, “I see nothing for it but that yourself . . .”

“Ah! but, Monsieur,” she retorted, with a sigh that would have melted a heart of 石／投石する, “that is just my difficulty. I cannot 支払う／賃金 . . .”

“Madame,” I 抗議するd.

“Oh! if I had money of my own,” she continued, with an adorable gesture of impatience, “I would not worry. Mais voilà: I have not a silver フラン of my own to bless myself with. M. le Comte is over generous. He 支払う／賃金s all my 法案s without a murmur—he 支払う／賃金s my dressmaker, my furrier; he 負担s me with gifts and dispenses charity on a lavish 規模 in my 指名する. I have horses, carriages, servants—everything I can かもしれない want and more, but I never have more than a few hundred フランs to 配置する／処分する／したい気持ちにさせる of. Up to now I have never for a moment felt the want of money. To-day, when Carissimo is 存在 lost to me, I feel the entire horror of my position.”

“But surely, Madame,” I 勧めるd, “M. le Comte . . .”

“No, Monsieur,” she replied. “M. le Comte has きっぱりと 辞退するd this time to 支払う／賃金 these abominable thieves for the 回復 of Carissimo. He upbraids himself for having 産する／生じるd to their 需要・要求するs on the three previous occasions. He calls these 需要・要求するs ゆすり，恐喝ing, and 公約するs that to give them money again is to encourage them in their nefarious practices. Oh! he has been cruel to me, cruel!—for the first time in my life, Monsieur, my husband has made me unhappy, and if I lose my darling now I shall indeed be broken-hearted.”

I was silent for a moment or two. I was beginning to wonder what part I should be 推定する／予想するd to play in the 悲劇 which was 存在 広げるd before me by this lovely and impecunious creature.

“Madame la Comtesse,” I 示唆するd 試験的に, after a while, “your jewellery . . . you must have a 広大な number which you seldom wear . . . five thousand フランs is soon made up. . . .”

You see, Sir, my hopes of a really good remunerative 商売／仕事 had by now dwindled 負かす／撃墜する to 消えるing point. All that was left of them was a vague idea that the beautiful Comtesse would perhaps 雇う me as an intermediary for the sale of some of her jewellery, in which 事例／患者 . . . But already her next words disillusioned me even on that point.

“No, Monsieur,” she said; “what would be the use? Through one of the usual perverse tricks of 運命／宿命, M. le Comte would be sure to 問い合わせ after the very piece of jewellery of which I had so 性質の／したい気がして, and moreover . . .”

“Moreover—yes, Mme. la Comtesse?”

“Moreover, my husband is 権利,” she 結論するd decisively. “If I give in to those thieves to-day and 支払う／賃金 them five thousand フランs, they would only 始める，決める to work to steal Carissimo again and 需要・要求する ten thousand フランs from me another time.”

I was silent. What could I say? Her argument was indeed unanswerable.

“No, my good M. Ratichon,” she said very determinedly after a while. “I have やめる decided that you must confound those thieves. They have given me three days’ grace, as you see in their abominable letter. If after three days the money is not 来たるべき, and if in the 一方／合間 I dare to 始める，決める a 罠（にかける） for them or in any way communicate with the police, my darling Carissimo will be killed and my heart be broken.”

“Madame la Comtesse,” I entreated, for of a truth I could not 耐える to see her cry again.

“You must bring Carissimo 支援する to me, M. Ratichon,” she continued peremptorily, “before those awful three days have elapsed.”

“I 断言する that I will,” I 再結合させるd solemnly; but I must 収容する／認める that I did it 完全に on the 刺激（する） of the moment, for of a truth I saw no prospect whatever of 存在 able to 遂行する what she 願望（する）d.

“Without my 支払う／賃金ing a 選び出す／独身 louis to those execrable thieves,” the exquisite creature went on peremptorily,

“It shall be done, Madame la Comtesse.”

“And let me tell you,” she now 追加するd, with the sweetest and archest of smiles, “that if you 後継する in this, M. le Comte de Nolé de St. Pris will 喜んで 支払う／賃金 you the five thousand フランs which he 辞退するs to give to those miscreants.”

Five thousand フランs! A もや swam before my 注目する，もくろむs,

“Mais, Madame la Comtesse . . .” I stammered.

“Oh!” she 追加するd, with an adorable uptilting of her little chin, “I am not 約束ing what I cannot fulfil. M. le Comte de Nolé only said this morning, apropos of dog thieves, that he would 喜んで give ten thousand フランs to anyone who 後継するd in ridding society of such pests.”

I could have knelt 負かす／撃墜する on the hard 床に打ち倒す, Sir, and . . .

“井戸／弁護士席 then, Madame,” was my ready rejoinder, “why not ten thousand フランs to me?”

She bit her 珊瑚 lips . . . but she also smiled. I could see that my personality and my manners had 大いに impressed her.

“I will only be 責任がある the first five thousand,” she said lightly. “But, for the 残り／休憩（する）, I can confidently 保証する you that you will not find a miser in M. le Comte de Nolé de St. Pris.”

I could have knelt 負かす／撃墜する on the hard 床に打ち倒す, Sir, and kissed her exquisitely shod feet. Five thousand フランs 確かな ! Perhaps ten! A fortune, Sir, in those days! One that would keep me in 慰安—nay, affluence, until something else turned up. I was swimming in the empyrean and only （機の）カム rudely to earth when I recollected that I should have to give Theodore something for his 株 of the 商売／仕事. Ah! fortunately that for the moment he was comfortably out of the way! Thoughts that perhaps he had been 殺人d after all once more coursed through my brain: not unpleasantly, I’ll 収容する／認める. I would not have raised a finger to 傷つける the fellow, even though he had 扱う／治療するd me with the basest ingratitude and treachery; but if someone else took the trouble to 除去する him, why indeed should I quarrel with 運命／宿命?

支援する I （機の）カム 速く to the happy 現在の. The lovely creature was showing me a beautifully painted miniature of Carissimo, a King Charles spaniel of no ありふれた type. This she 示唆するd that I should keep by me for the 現在の for 目的s of 身元確認，身分証明. After this we had to go into the 詳細（に述べる）s of the circumstances under which she had lost her pet. She had been for a walk with him, it seems, along the Quai Voltaire, and was returning home by the 味方する of the river, when suddenly a number of workmen in blouses and 頂点（に達する）d caps （機の）カム 軍隊／機動隊ing out of a 味方する street and 妨害するd her 進歩. She had Carissimo on the lead, and she at once 認める to me that at first she never thought of connecting this 押し進めるing and jostling 群衆 with any possible 窃盗. She held her ground for awhile, 直面するing the （人が）群がる: for a few moments she was 権利 in the 中央 of it, and just then she felt the dog 緊張するing at the lead. She turned 一連の会議、交渉／完成する at once with the 意向 of 選ぶing him up, when to her horror she saw that there was only a bundle of something 重大な at the end of the lead, and that the dog had disappeared.

The whole 出来事/事件 occurred, the lovely creature 宣言するd, within the space of thirty seconds; the next instant the （人が）群がる had scattered in several directions, the men running and laughing as they went. Mme. la Comtesse was left standing alone on the quay. Not a passer-by in sight, and the only gendarme 明白な, a long way 負かす／撃墜する the Quai, had his 支援する turned toward her. にもかかわらず she ran and hied him, and presently he turned and, realizing that something was amiss, he too ran to 会合，会う her. He listened to her story, swore lustily, but shrugged his shoulders in 記念品 that the tale did not surprise him and that but little could be done. にもかかわらず he at once 召喚するd those of his 同僚s who were on 義務 in the neighbourhood, and one of them went off すぐに to 通知する the 窃盗 at the nearest commissariat of police. After which they all proceeded to a 包括的な scouring of the many tortuous sidestreets of the quartier; but, needless to say, there was no 調印する of Carissimo or of his abductors.

That night my lovely （弁護士の）依頼人 went home distracted.

The に引き続いて evening, when, broken-hearted, she wandered 負かす／撃墜する the quays living over again the agonizing moments during which she lost her pet, a workman in a blue blouse, with a 頂点（に達する）d cap pulled 井戸／弁護士席 over his 注目する，もくろむs, lurched up against her and thrust into her 手渡す the missive which she had just shown me. He then disappeared into the night, and she had only the vaguest possible recollection of his 外見.

That, Sir, was the 実体 of the story which the lovely creature told me in a 発言する／表明する oft choked with 涙／ほころびs. I questioned her very closely and in my most impressive professional manner as to the 身元 of any one man の中で the （人が）群がる who might have attracted her attention, but all that she could tell me was that she had a vague impression of a wizened hunchback with evil 直面する, shaggy red 耐えるd and hair, and a 黒人／ボイコット patch covering the left 注目する，もくろむ.

2

Not much data to go on, you will, I think, 収容する／認める, and I can 保証する you, Sir, that had I not 所有するd that unbounded belief in myself which is the true hall-示す of genius, I would at the 手始め have felt profoundly discouraged.

As it was, I 設立する just the 権利 words of なぐさみ and of hope wherewith to 屈服する my brilliant （弁護士の）依頼人 out of my humble apartments, and then to settle 負かす／撃墜する to 深い and considered meditation. Nothing, Sir, is so 役立つ to thought as a long, きびきびした walk through the （人が）群がるd streets of Paris. So I 小衝突d my coat, put on my hat at a becoming angle, and started on my way.

I walked as far as Suresnes, and I thought. After that, feeling 疲労，（軍の）雑役d, I sat on the terrace of the Café Bourbon, overlooking the river. There I sipped my coffee and thought. I walked 支援する into Paris in the evening, and still thought, and thought, and thought. After that I had some dinner, washed 負かす／撃墜する by an agreeable 瓶／封じ込める of ワイン—did I について言及する that the lovely creature had given me a hundred フランs on account?—then I went for a stroll along the Quai Voltaire, and I may 安全に say that there is not a 選び出す／独身 味方する and tortuous street in its 周辺 that I did not 調査する from end to end during the course of that never to be forgotten evening.

But still my mind remained in a 大混乱／混沌とした 条件. I had not 後継するd in forming any 計画（する）. What a quandary, Sir! Oh! what a quandary! Here was I, 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon, the confidant of kings, the 権利 手渡す of two emperors, 始める，決める to the 仕事 of stealing a dog—for that is what I should have to do—from an unscrupulous ギャング（団） of thieves whose 身元, abode and methods were alike unknown to me. Truly, Sir, you will own that this was a herculean 仕事.

ばく然と my thoughts 逆戻りするd to Theodore. He might have been of good counsel, for he knew more about thieves than I did, but the ungrateful wretch was out of the way on the one occasion when he might have been of use to me who had done so much for him. Indeed, my 推論する／理由 told me that I need not trouble my 長，率いる about Theodore. He had 消えるd; that he would come 支援する presently was, of course, an indubitable fact; people like Theodore never 消える 完全に. He would come 支援する and 需要・要求する I know not what, his 株, perhaps, in a 商売／仕事 which was so 約束ing even if it was still so vague.

Five thousand フランs! A 一連の会議、交渉／完成する sum! If I gave Theodore five hundred the sum would at once appear meagre, unimportant. Four thousand five hundred フランs!—it did not even sound 井戸／弁護士席 to my mind.

So I took care that Theodore 消えるd from my mental 見通し as 完全に as he had done for the last two days from my ken, and as there was nothing more that could be done that evening, I turned my 疲れた／うんざりした footsteps toward my lodgings at Passy.

All that night, Sir, I lay wakeful and 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするing in my bed, alternately ガス／煙ing and 拒絶するing 計画（する）s for the attainment of that golden goal—the 回復 of Mme. de Nolé’s pet dog. And the whole of the next day I spent in vain 追求（する），探索（する）. I visited every haunt of ill-fame known to me within the city. I walked about with a ピストル in my belt, a hunk of bread and cheese in my pocket, and slowly growing despair in my heart.

In the evening Mme. la Comtesse de Nolé called for news of Carissimo, and I could give her 非，不，無. She cried, Sir, and implored, and her 涙／ほころびs and entreaties got on to my 神経s until I felt ready to 落ちる into hysterics. One more day and all my chances of a 有望な and 豊富な 未来 would have 消えるd. Unless the money was 来たるべき on the morrow, the dog would be destroyed, and with him my every hope of that five thousand フランs. And though she still irradiated charm and 高級な from her entire lovely person, I begged her not to come to the office again, and 約束d that as soon as I had any news to impart I would at once 現在の myself at her house in the Faubourg St. Germain.

That night I never slept one wink. Think of it, Sir! The next few hours were 運命にあるd to see me either a 繁栄する man for many days to come, or a 哀れな, helpless, disappointed wretch. At eight o’clock I was at my office. Still no news of Theodore. I could now no longer 解任する him from my mind. Something had happened to him, I could have no 疑問. This 苦悩, 追加するd to the other more serious one, drove me to a 明言する／公表する 国境ing on frenzy. I hardly knew what I was doing. I wandered all day up and 負かす／撃墜する the Quai Voltaire, and the Quai des Grands Augustins, and in and around the tortuous streets till I was dog-tired, distracted, half crazy.

I went to the Morgue, thinking to find there Theodore’s dead 団体／死体, and 設立する myself ばく然と looking for the mutilated 死体 of Carissimo. Indeed, after a while Theodore and Carissimo became so inextricably mixed up in my mind that I could not have told you if I was 捜し出すing for the one or for the other and if Mme. la Comtesse de Nolé was now waiting to clasp her pet dog or my man-of-all-work to her exquisite bosom.

She in the 一方／合間 had received a second, yet more peremptory, missive through the same channel as the previous one. A grimy deformed man, with ginger-coloured hair, and wearing a 黒人／ボイコット patch over one 注目する，もくろむ, had been seen by one of the servants lolling 負かす／撃墜する the street where Madame lived, and subsequently the concierge discovered that an exceedingly dirty 捨てる of paper had been thrust under the door of his 宿泊する. The writer of the epistle 需要・要求するd that Mme. la Comtesse should stand in person at six o’clock that same evening at the corner of the Rue Guénégaud, behind the Institut de フラン. Two men, each wearing a blue blouse and 頂点（に達する）d cap, would 会合，会う her there. She must を引き渡す the money to one of them, whilst the other would have Carissimo in his 武器. The missive の近くにd with the usual 脅しs that if the police were mixed up in the 事件／事情／状勢, or the money not 来たるべき, Carissimo would be destroyed.

Six o’clock was the hour 直す／買収する，八百長をするd by these abominable thieves for the final doom of Carissimo. It was now の近くに on five. In a little more than an hour my last hope of five or ten thousand フランs and a smile of 感謝 from a pair of lovely lips would have gone, never again to return. A 広大な／多数の／重要な 接近 of righteous 激怒（する） 掴むd upon me. I 決定するd that those 哀れな thieves, whoever they were, should 苦しむ for the 失望 which I was now 耐えるing. If I was to lose five thousand フランs, they at least should not be left 解放する／自由な to 追求する their evil ways. I would communicate with the police; the police should 会合，会う the miscreants at the corner of the Rue Guénégaud. Carissimo would die; his lovely mistress would be brokenhearted. I would be left to 嘆く／悼む yet another illusion of a possible fortune, but they would 苦しむ in gaol or in New Caledonia the consequences of all their misdeeds.

防備を堅める／強化するd by this 決意／決議, I turned my 疲れた／うんざりした footsteps in the direction of the gendarmerie where I ーするつもりであるd to 宿泊する my denunciation of those abominable thieves and blackmailers. The night was dark, the streets ill-lighted, the 空気／公表する 激しく 冷淡な. A thin 霧雨, half rain, half snow, was descending, 冷気／寒がらせるing me to the bone.

I was walking 速く along the river bank with my coat collar pulled up to my ears, and still instinctively peering up every 狭くする street which debouches on the quay. Then suddenly I 秘かに調査するd Theodore. He was coming 負かす／撃墜する the Rue Beaune, slouching along with 長，率いる bent in his usual way. He appeared to be carrying something, not 正確に／まさに 激しい, but cumbersome, under his left arm. Within the next few minutes he would have been 直面する to 直面する with me, for I had come to a 停止（させる） at the angle of the street, 決定するd to have it out with the rascal then and there in spite of the 冷淡な and in spite of my 苦悩 about Carissimo.

All of a sudden he raised his 長，率いる and saw me, and in a second he turned on his heel and began to run up the street in the direction whence he had come. At once I gave chase. I ran after him—and then, Sir, he （機の）カム for a second within the circle of light 事業／計画（する）d by a street lanthorn. But in that one second I had seen that which turned my frozen 血 into liquid 溶岩—a tail, Sir!—a dog’s tail, fluffy and curly, 事業／計画（する）ing from beneath that recreant’s left arm.

A dog, Sir! a dog! Carissimo! the darling of Mme. la Comtesse de Nolé’s heart! Carissimo, the 回復 of whom would mean five thousand フランs into my pocket! Carissimo! I knew it! For me there 存在するd but one dog in all the world; one dog and one spawn of the devil, one arch-反逆者, one 四肢 of Satan! Theodore!

How he had come by Carissimo I had not time to conjecture. I called to him. I called his accursed 指名する, using 呼称s which fell far short of those which he deserved. But the louder I called the faster he ran, and I, breathless, panting, ran after him, 決定するd to run him to earth, fearful lest I should lose him in the 不明瞭 of the night. All 負かす／撃墜する the Rue Beaune we ran, and already I could hear behind me the 激しい and more leisured tramp of a couple of gendarmes who in their turn had started to give chase.

I tell you, Sir, the sound lent wings to my feet. A chance—a last chance—was 存在 申し込む／申し出d me by a benevolent 運命／宿命 to earn that five thousand フランs, the keystone to my 未来 fortune. If I had the strength to 掴む and 持つ／拘留する Theodore until the gendarmes （機の）カム up, and before he had time to do away with the dog, the five thousand フランs could still be 地雷.

So I ran, Sir, as I had never run before; the beads of perspiration 注ぐd 負かす／撃墜する from my forehead; the breath （機の）カム stertorous and hot from my heaving breast.

Then suddenly Theodore disappeared!

Disappeared, Sir, as if the earth had swallowed him up! A second ago I had seen him dimly, yet distinctly through the 隠す of snow and rain ahead of me, running with that unmistakable shuffling gait of his, hugging the dog closely under his arm. I had seen him—another 成果／努力 and I might have touched him!—now the long and 砂漠d street lay dark and mysterious before me, and behind me I could hear the 手段d tramp of the gendarmes and their peremptory call of “停止（させる）, in the 指名する of the King!”

But not in vain, Sir, am I called 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon; not in vain have kings and emperors reposed 信用／信任 in my valour and my presence of mind. In いっそう少なく time than it takes to relate I had already 示すd with my 注目する，もくろむ the very 位置／汚点／見つけ出す—負かす／撃墜する the street—where I had last seen Theodore. I hurried 今後 and saw at once that my surmise had been 訂正する. At that very 位置／汚点／見つけ出す, Sir, there was a low doorway which gave on a dark and dank passage. The door itself was open. I did not hesitate. My life stood in the balance but I did not 滞る. I might be affronting within the next second or two a ギャング（団） of desperate thieves, but I did not 地震.

I turned into that doorway, Sir; the next moment I felt a 素晴らしい blow between my 注目する，もくろむs. I just remember calling out with all the strength of my 肺s: “Police! Gendarmes! A moi!” Then nothing more.

3

I woke with the consciousness of violent wordy 戦争 carried on around me. I was lying on the ground, and the first things I saw were three or four pairs of feet standing の近くに together. 徐々に out of the 混乱させるd hubbub a few 宣告，判決s struck my reawakened senses.

“The man is drunk.”

“I won’t have him inside the house.”

“I tell you this is a respectable house.” This from a shrill feminine 発言する／表明する. “We’ve never had the 法律 inside our doors before.”

By this time I had 後継するd in raising myself on my 肘, and, by the 薄暗い light of a hanging lamp somewhere 負かす／撃墜する the passage, I was pretty 井戸／弁護士席 able to take 在庫／株 of my surroundings.

The half-dozen bedroom candlesticks on a （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する up against the 塀で囲む, the 列／漕ぐ／騒動 of 重要なs hanging on hooks 直す／買収する，八百長をするd to a board above, the glass partition with the words “Concierge” and “Réception” painted across it, all told me that this was one of those small, mostly squalid and disreputable 宿泊するing houses or hotels in which this ４半期/4分の1 of Paris still abounds.

The two gendarmes who had been running after me were arguing the 事柄 of my presence here with the proprietor of the place and with the concierge.

I struggled to my feet. その結果 for the space of a solid two minutes I had to 耐える as calmly as I could the 乱用 and vituperation which the feminine proprietor of this “respectable house” chose to hurl at my unfortunate 長，率いる. After which I 得るd a 審理，公聴会 from the bewildered minions of the 法律. To them I gave as 簡潔な／要約する and succinct a narrative as I could of the events of the past three days. The 窃盗 of Carissimo—the 見えなくなる of Theodore—my 会合 him a while ago, with the dog under his arm—his second 見えなくなる, this time within the doorway of this “respectable abode,” and finally the blow which alone had 妨げるd me from running the abominable どろぼう to earth.

The gendarmes at first were incredulous. I could see that they were still under the belief that my excitement was 予定 to over-indulgence in アル中患者 アルコール飲料, whilst Madame the proprietress called me an abominable liar for daring to 示唆する that she harboured thieves within her doors. Then suddenly, as if in vindication of my character, there （機の）カム from a 床に打ち倒す above the sound of a loud, shrill bark.

“Carissimo!” I cried triumphantly. Then I 追加するd in a 早い whisper, “Mme. la Comtesse de Nolé is rich. She spoke of a big reward for the 回復 of her pet.”

These happy words had the 影響 of 刺激するing the zeal of the gendarmes. Madame the proprietress grew somewhat 混乱させるd and incoherent, and finally blurted it out that one of her lodgers—a 高度に respectable gentleman—did keep a dog, but that there was no 罪，犯罪 in that surely.

“One of your lodgers?” queried the 代表者／国会議員 of the 法律. “When did he come?”

“About three days ago,” she replied sullenly.

“What room does he 占領する?”

“Number twenty-five on the third 床に打ち倒す.”

“He （機の）カム with his dog?” I interposed quickly, “a spaniel?”

“Yes.”

“And your lodger, is he an ugly, slouchy creature—with 麻薬中毒の nose, bleary 注目する，もくろむs and shaggy yellow hair?”

But to this she vouchsafed no reply.

Already the 事柄 had passed out of my 手渡すs. One of the gendarmes 用意が出来ている to go upstairs and bade me follow him, whilst he ordered his comrade to remain below and on no account to 許す anyone to enter or leave the house. The proprietress and concierge were 警告するd that if they 干渉するd with the 予定 死刑執行 of the 法律 they would be 厳しく dealt with; after which we went upstairs.

For a while, as we 上がるd, we could hear the dog barking furiously, then, presently, just as we reached the upper 上陸, we heard a loud 悪口を言う／悪態, a 緊急発進する, and then a piteous whine quickly smothered.

My very heart stood still. The next moment, however, the gendarme had kicked open the door of No. 25, and I followed him into the room. The place looked dirty and squalid in the extreme—just the sort of place I should have 推定する／予想するd Theodore to haunt. It was almost 明らかにする save for a （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する in the centre, a couple of rickety 議長，司会を務めるs, a broken-負かす／撃墜する bedstead and an アイロンをかける stove in the corner. On the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する a tallow candle was spluttering and throwing a very feeble circle of light around.

At first ちらりと見ること I thought that the room was empty, then suddenly I heard another violent expletive and became aware of a man sitting の近くに beside the アイロンをかける stove. He turned to 星／主役にする at us as we entered, but to my surprise it was not Theodore’s ugly 直面する which 直面するd us. The man sitting there alone in the room where I had 推定する／予想するd to see Theodore and Carissimo had a shaggy 耐えるd of an undoubted ginger hue. He had on a blue blouse and a 頂点（に達する）d cap; beneath his cap his lank hair protruded more decided in colour even than his 耐えるd. His 長，率いる was sunk between his shoulders, and 権利 across his 直面する, from the left eyebrow over the cheek and as far as his ear, he had a hideous crimson scar, which told up vividly against the 恐ろしい pallor of his 直面する.

But there was no 調印する of Theodore!

At first my friend the gendarme was やめる 都市の. He asked very politely to see Monsieur’s pet dog. Monsieur 否定するd all knowledge of a dog, which 否定 only tended to 設立する his own 犯罪 and the veracity of 地雷 own narrative. The gendarme thereupon became more peremptory and the man 敏速に lost his temper.

I, in the 一方／合間, was ちらりと見ることing 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the room and soon 秘かに調査するd a 塀で囲む cupboard which had 明白に been deliberately 審査するd by the bedstead. While my companion was bringing the whole majesty of the 法律 to 耐える upon the miscreant’s denegations I calmly dragged the bedstead aside and opened the cupboard door.

An ejaculation from my quivering throat brought the gendarme to my 味方する. Crouching in the dark 休会 of the 塀で囲む cupboard was Carissimo—not dead, thank goodness! but literally shaking with terror. I pulled him out as gently as I could, for he was so 脅すd that he growled and snapped viciously at me. I 手渡すd him to the gendarme, for by the 味方する of Carissimo I had seen something which literally froze my 血 within my veins. It was Theodore’s hat and coat, which he had been wearing when I chased him to this house of mystery and of ill-fame, and wrapped together with it was a rag all smeared with 血, whilst the same hideous stains were now distinctly 明白な on the door of the cupboard itself.

I turned to the gendarme, who at once 直面するd the abominable malefactor with the obvious proofs of a horrible 罪，犯罪. But the depraved wretch stood by, Sir, perfectly 静める and with a cynicism in his whole 耐えるing which I had never before seen equalled!

“I know nothing about that coat,” he 主張するd with a shrug of the shoulders, “nor about the dog.”

The gendarme by this time was purple with fury.

“Not know anything about the dog?” he exclaimed in a 発言する／表明する choked with righteous indignation. “Why, he . . . he barked!”

But this indisputable fact in no way disconcerted the miscreant.

“I heard a dog yapping,” he said with consummate impudence, “but I thought he was in the next room. No wonder,” he 追加するd coolly, “since he was in a 塀で囲む cupboard.”

“A 塀で囲む cupboard,” the gendarme 再結合させるd triumphantly, “据えるd in the very room which you 占領する at this moment.”

“That is a mistake, my friend,” the 冷笑的な wretch retorted, undaunted. “I do not 占領する this room. I do not 宿泊する in this hotel at all.”

“Then how （機の）カム you to be here?”

“I （機の）カム on a visit to a friend who happened to be out when I arrived. I 設立する a pleasant 解雇する／砲火／射撃 here, and I sat 負かす／撃墜する to warm myself. Your noisy and unwarranted irruption into this room has so bewildered me that I no longer know whether I am standing on my 長，率いる or on my heels.”

“We’ll show you soon enough what you are standing on, my 罰金 fellow,” the gendarme riposted with breezy, cheerfulness. “Allons!”

I must say that the pampered minion of the 法律 arose splendidly to the occasion. He 掴むd the miscreant by the arm and took him downstairs, there to 直面する him with the proprietress of the 設立, while I—with marvellous presence of mind—took 所有／入手 of Carissimo and hid him as best I could beneath my coat.

In the hall below a surprise and a 失望 were in 蓄える／店 for me. I had reached the 底（に届く） of the stairs when the shrill feminine accents of Mme. the proprietress struck unpleasantly on my ear.

“No! no! I tell you!” she was 説. “This man is not my lodger. He never （機の）カム here with a dog. There,” she 追加するd volubly, and pointing an unwashed finger at Carissimo who was struggling and growling in my 武器, “there is the dog. A gentleman brought him with him last Wednesday, when he 問い合わせd if he could have a room here for a few nights. Number twenty-five happened to be 空いている, and I have no 反対 to dogs. I let the gentleman have the room, and he paid me twenty sous in 前進する when he took 所有／入手 and told me he would keep the room three nights.”

“The gentleman? What gentleman?” the gendarme queried, rather inanely I thought.

“My lodger,” the woman replied. “He is out for the moment, but he will be 支援する presently I make no 疑問. The dog is his. . . .”

“What is he like?” the minion of the 法律 queried 突然の.

“Who? the dog?” she retorted impudently.

“No, no! Your lodger.”

Once more the unwashed finger went up and pointed straight at me.

“He 述べるd him 井戸／弁護士席 enough just now; thin and slouchy in his ways. He has lank, yellow hair, a nose perpetually crimson—with the 冷淡な no 疑問—and pale, watery 注目する，もくろむs. . . .”

“Theodore,” I exclaimed mentally.

Bewildered, the gendarme pointed to his 囚人.

“But this man . . . ?” he queried.

“Why,” the proprietress replied. “I have seen Monsieur twice, or was it three times? He would visit number twenty-five now and then.”

I will not 疲れた／うんざりした you with その上の accounts of the の近くに examination to which the 代表者／国会議員 of the 法律 支配するd the 職員／兵員 of the squalid hotel. The concierge and the man of all work did indeed 確認する what the proprietress said, and whilst my friend the gendarme —puzzled and floundering—was scratching his 長，率いる in 完全にする bewilderment, I thought that the 適切な時期 had come for me to slip 静かに out by the still open door and make my way as 急速な／放蕩な as I could to the sumptuous abode in the Faubourg St. Germain, where the 感謝 of Mme. de Nolé, together with five thousand フランs, were even now を待つing me.

After Madame the proprietress had identified Carissimo, I had once more carefully 隠すd him under my coat. I was ready to 掴む my 適切な時期, after which I would be 解放する／自由な to を取り引きする the 事柄 of Theodore’s amazing 見えなくなる. Unfortunately just at this moment the little brute gave a yap, and the minion of the 法律 at once interposed and took 所有／入手 of him.

“The dog belongs to the police now, Sir,” he said 厳しく.

The fatuous jobbernowl 手配中の，お尋ね者 his 株 of the reward, you see.

4

Having been 軍隊d thus to give up Carissimo, and with him all my hopes of a really 相当な fortune, I was 決定するd to make the red-投票d miscreant 苦しむ for my 失望, and the minions of the 法律 sweat in the 演習 of their 義務.

I 需要・要求するd Theodore! My friend, my comrade, my 権利 手渡す! I had seen him not ten minutes ago, carrying in his 武器 this very dog, whom I had subsequently 設立する inside a 塀で囲む cupboard beside a 血-stained coat. Where was Theodore? Pointing an avenging finger at the red-長，率いるd reprobate, I boldly （刑事）被告 him of having 殺人d my friend with a 見解（をとる） to robbing him of the reward 申し込む／申し出d for the 回復 of the dog.

This brought a new train of thought into the 木造の pates of the gendarmes. A quartet of them had by this time 組み立てる／集結するd within the respectable 管区s of the Hôtel des Cadets. One of them—上級の to the others—at once 派遣（する）d a younger comrade to the nearest commissary of police for advice and 援助.

Then he ordered us all into the room pompously labelled “Réception,” and there proceeded once more to interrogate us all, making copious 公式文書，認めるs in his leather-bound 調書をとる／予約する all the time, whilst I, moaning and lamenting the loss of my faithful friend and man of all work, loudly 需要・要求するd the 罰 of his 暗殺者.

Theodore’s coat, his hat, the 血-stained rag, had all been brought 負かす／撃墜する from No. 25 and laid out upon the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する ready for the 査察 of M. the Commissary of Police.

That gentleman arrived with two 私的な スパイ／執行官s, 武装した with 十分な 力／強力にするs and wrapped in the magnificent imperturbability of the 法律. The gendarme had already put him au fait of the events, and as soon as he was seated behind the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する upon which reposed the “pièces de 有罪の判決,” he in his turn proceeded to interrogate the ginger-pated miscreant.

But 努力する／競う how he might, M. the Commissary elicited no その上の （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） from him than that which we all already 所有するd. The man gave his 指名する as Aristide Nicolet. He had no 直す／買収する，八百長をするd abode. He had come to visit his friend who 宿泊するd in No. 25 in the Hôtel des Cadets. Not finding him at home he had sat by the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 and had waited for him. He knew 絶対 nothing of the dog and 絶対 nothing of the どの辺に of Theodore.

“We’ll soon see about that!” 主張するd M. the Commissary.

He ordered a perquisition of every room and every corner of the hotel, Madame the proprietress loudly lamenting that she and her respectable house would henceforth be 不名誉d for ever. But the thieves—whoever they were—were clever. Not a trace of any illicit practice was 設立する on the 前提s—and not a trace of Theodore.

Had he indeed been 殺人d? The thought now had taken root in my mind. For the moment I had even forgotten Carissimo and my 消えるd five thousand フランs.

井戸／弁護士席, Sir! Aristide Nicolet was marched off to the 倉庫・駅—still 抗議するing his innocence. The next day he was 直面するd with Mme. la Comtesse de Nolé, who could not say more than that he might have formed part of the ギャング（団） who had jostled her on the Quai Voltaire, whilst the servant who had taken the missive from him failed to 認める him.

Carissimo was 回復するd to the 武器 of his loving mistress, but the reward for his 回復 had to be 株d between the police and myself: three thousand フランs going to the police who apprehended the どろぼう, and two thousand to me who had put them on the 跡をつける.

It was not a fortune, Sir, but I had to be 満足させるd. But in the 一方／合間 the 見えなくなる of Theodore had remained an unfathomable mystery. No 量 of 尋問s and cross-尋問s, no 量 of 対決s and perquisitions, had brought any new 事柄 to light. Aristide Nicolet 固執するd in his 声明s, as did the proprietress and the concierge of the Hôtel des Cadets in theirs. Theodore had undoubtedly 占領するd room No. 25 in the hotel during the three days while I was racking my brain as to what had become of him. I 平等に undoubtedly saw him for a few moments running up the Rue Beaune with Carissimo’s tail 事業／計画（する）ing beneath his coat. Then he entered the open doorway of the hotel, and henceforth his どの辺に remained a baffling mystery.

Beyond his coat and hat, the stained rag and the dog himself, there was not the faintest 指示，表示する物 of what became of him after that. The concierge 公約するd that he did not enter the hotel—Aristide Nicolet 公約するd that he did not enter No. 25. But then the dog was in the cupboard, and so were the hat and coat; and even the police were bound to 収容する／認める that in the short space of time between my last glimpse of Theodore and the gendarme’s 入ること／参加（者） into room 25 it would be impossible for the most experienced 犯罪の on earth to 殺人 a man, 隠す every trace of the 罪，犯罪, and so to 配置する／処分する／したい気持ちにさせる of the 団体／死体 as to baffle the most minute 調査 and the most exhaustive search.

いつかs when I thought the whole 事柄 out I felt that I was growing crazy.

5

Thus about a week or ten days went by and I had just come reluctantly to the 結論 that there must be some truth in the old mediaeval legends which tell us that the devil runs away with his elect from time to time, when I received a 召喚するs from M. the Commissary of Police to 現在の myself at his bureau.

He was pleasant and 都市の as usual, but to my anxious query after Theodore he only gave me the old reply: “No trace of him can be 設立する.”

Then he 追加するd: “We must therefore take it for 認めるd, my good M. Ratichon, that your man of all work is—of his own 解放する／自由な will—keeping out of the way. The 殺人 theory is untenable; we have had to abandon it. The total 見えなくなる of the 団体／死体 is an unanswerable argument against it. Would you care to 申し込む／申し出 a reward for （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） 主要な to the 回復 of your 行方不明の friend?”

I hesitated. I certainly was not 用意が出来ている to 支払う／賃金 anyone for finding Theodore.

“Think it over, my good M. Ratichon,” 再結合させるd M. le Commissaire pleasantly. “But in the 一方／合間 I must tell you that we have decided to 始める，決める Aristide Nicolet 解放する／自由な. There is not a 粒子 of 証拠 against him either in the 事柄 of the dog or of that of your friend. Mme. de Nolé’s servants cannot 断言する to his 身元, whilst you have sworn that you last saw the dog in your man’s 武器. That 存在 so, I feel that we have no 権利 to 拘留する an innocent man.”

井戸／弁護士席, Sir, what could I say? I knew 井戸／弁護士席 enough that there was not a tittle of solid 証拠 against the man Nicolet, nor had I the 力／強力にする to move the police of His Majesty the King from their 決定／判定勝ち（する）. In my heart of hearts I had the 会社／堅い 有罪の判決 that the ginger-投票d ruffian knew all about Carissimo and all about the 現在の どの辺に of that rascal Theodore. But what could I say, Sir? What could I do?

I went home that night to my lodgings at Passy more perplexed than ever I had been in my life before.

The next morning I arrived at my office soon after nine. The problem had 現在のd itself to me during the night of finding a new man of all work who would serve me on the same 条件 as that ungrateful wretch Theodore.

I 機動力のある the stairs with a 激しい step and opened the outer door of my apartment with my 私的な 重要な; and then, Sir, I 保証する you that for one 簡潔な／要約する moment I felt that my 膝s were giving way under me and that I should presently 手段 my 十分な length on the 床に打ち倒す.

There, sitting at the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する in my 私的な room, was Theodore. He had donned one of the many 控訴s of 着せる／賦与するs which I always kept at the office for 目的s of my 商売／仕事, and he was calmly 消費するing a luscious sausage which was to have been part of my dinner today, and finishing a half-瓶／封じ込める of my best Bordeaux.

He appeared wholly unconscious of his enormities, and when I 税金d him with his villainies and plied him with peremptory questions he met me with a dogged silence and a sulky 態度 which I have never seen equalled in all my life. He きっぱりと 否定するd that he had ever walked the streets of Paris with a dog under his arm, or that I had ever chased him up the Rue Beaune. He 否定するd ever having 宿泊するd in the Hôtel des Cadets, or been 熟知させるd with its proprietress, or with a red-投票d, hunchback miscreant 指名するd Aristide Nicolet. He 否定するd that the coat and hat 設立する in room No. 25 were his; in fact, he 否定するd everything, and with an impudence, Sir, which was past belief.

But he put the 栄冠を与える to his insolence when he finally 需要・要求するd two hundred フランs from me: his 株 in the sum paid to me by Mme. de Nolé for the 回復 of her dog. He 需要・要求するd this, Sir, in the 指名する of 司法（官） and of 公正，普通株主権, and even brandished our 共同 契約 in my 直面する.

I was so 怒った at his audacity, so disgusted that presently I felt that I could not 耐える the sight of him any longer. I turned my 支援する on him and walked out of my own 私的な room, leaving him there still munching my sausage and drinking my Bordeaux.

I was going through the antechamber with a 見解（をとる） to going out into the street for a little fresh 空気／公表する when something in the 面 of the 議長，司会を務める-bedstead on which that abominable brute Theodore had 明らかに spent the night attracted my attention. I turned over one of the cushions, and with a cry of 激怒（する） which I took no 苦痛s to 抑える I 掴むd upon what I 設立する lying beneath: a blue linen blouse, Sir, a 頂点（に達する）d cap, a ginger-coloured wig and 耐えるd!

The villain! The abominable mountebank! The wretch! The . . . I was wellnigh choking with wrath.

With the damning pieces of 有罪の判決 in my 手渡す, I 急ぐd 支援する into the inner room. Already my cry of indignation had 誘発するd the vampire from his orgy. He stood before me sheepish, grinning, and taunted me, Sir—taunted me for my blindness in not 認めるing him under the disguise of the いわゆる Aristide Nicolet.

It was a disguise which he had kept by him in 事例／患者 of an 緊急 when first he decided to start 商売／仕事 as a dog どろぼう. Carissimo had been his first serious 投機・賭ける and but for my 干渉，妨害 it would have been a wholly successful one. He had worked the whole thing out with marvellous cleverness, 存在 大いに 補助装置d by Madame Sand, the proprietress of the Hôtel des Cadets, who was a friend of his mother’s. The lady, it seems, carried on a lucrative 商売／仕事 of the same sort herself, and she undertook to furnish him with the necessary confederates for the carrying out of his 計画（する）. The proceeds of the 事件／事情／状勢 were to be 株d 平等に between himself and Madame; the confederates, who helped to jostle Mme. de Nolé whilst her dog was 存在 stolen, were to receive five フランs each for their trouble.

When he met me at the corner of the Rue Beaune he was on his way to the Rue Guénégaud, hoping to 交流 Carissimo for five thousand フランs. When he met me, however, he felt that the best thing to do for the moment was to 捜し出す safety in flight. He had only just time to run 支援する to the hotel to 警告する Mme. Sand of my approach and beg her to 拘留する me at any cost. Then he flew up the stairs, changed into his disguise, Carissimo barking all the time furiously. Whilst he was trying to pacify the dog, the latter bit him 厳しく in the arm, 製図／抽選 a good 取引，協定 of 血—the crimson scar across his 直面する was a last happy inspiration which put the finishing touch to his disguise and to the hoodwinking of the police and of me. He had only just time to 信頼できる the 血 from his arm and to thrust his own 着せる／賦与するs and Carissimo into the 塀で囲む cupboard when the gendarme and I burst in upon him.

I could only gasp. For one 簡潔な／要約する moment the thought 急ぐd through my mind that I would 公然と非難する him to the police for . . . for . . .

But that was just the trouble. Of what could I 告発する／非難する him? Of 殺人ing himself or of stealing Mme. de Nolé’s dog? The commissary would hardly listen to such a tale . . . and it would make me seem ridiculous. . . .

So I gave Theodore the soundest thrashing he ever had in his life, and fifty フランs to keep his mouth shut.

But did I not tell you that he was a monster of ingratitude?

一時期／支部 5
The Toys

1

You are 権利, Sir, I very seldom speak of my halcyon days—those days when the greatest 君主 the world has ever known honoured me with his intimacy and 信用／信任. I had my office in the Rue St. Roch then, at the 最高の，を越す of a house just by the church, and not a 石／投石する’s throw from the palace, and I can tell you, Sir, that in those days 大臣s of 明言する／公表する, foreign 外交官／大使s, aye! and members of His Majesty’s 世帯, were up and 負かす／撃墜する my staircase at all hours of the day. I had not yet met Theodore then, and 運命／宿命 was wont to smile on me.

As for M. le Duc d’Otrante, 大臣 of Police, he would send to me or for me whenever an intricate 事例／患者 要求するd special acumen, resourcefulness and secrecy. Thus in the 事柄 of the English とじ込み／提出するs—have I told you of it before? No? 井戸／弁護士席, then, you shall hear.

Those were the days, Sir, when the Emperor’s Berlin 法令s were going to sweep the world （疑いを）晴らす of English 商業 and of English 企業. It was not a 事例／患者 of 支払う／賃金ing 激しい 義務 on English goods, or a still heavier 罰金 if you 密輸するd; it was total 禁止, and hanging if you were caught bringing so much as a metre of Bradford cloth or half a dozen Sheffield とじ込み／提出するs into the country. But you know how it is, Sir: the more strict the 法律 the more ready are 確かな lawless human creatures to break it. Never was 密輸するing so rife as it was in those days—I am speaking now of 1810 or 11—never was it so daring or smugglers so 無謀な.

M. le Duc d’Otrante had his 手渡すs 十分な, I can tell you. It had become a 事柄 for the secret police; the coastguard or customs 公式の／役人s were no longer able to を取り引きする it.

Then one day Hypolite Leroux （機の）カム to see me. I knew the man 井戸／弁護士席—a keen sleuthhound if ever there was one—and 井戸／弁護士席 did he deserve his 指名する, for he was as red as a fox.

“Ratichon,” he said to me, without preamble, as soon as he had seated himself opposite to me, and I had placed half a 瓶／封じ込める of good Bordeaux and a couple of glasses on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. “I want your help in the 事柄 of these English とじ込み／提出するs. We have done all that we can in our department. M. le Duc has 二塁打d the customs 職員／兵員 on the スイスの frontier, the coastguard is both keen and efficient, and yet we know that at the 現在の moment there are thousands of English とじ込み／提出するs used in this country, even inside His Majesty’s own 軍備 作品. M. le Duc d’Otrante is 決定するd to put an end to the スキャンダル. He has 申し込む／申し出d a big reward for （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） which will lead to the 有罪の判決 of one or more of the 長，指導者 犯人s, and I am 決定するd to get that reward—with your help, if you will give it.”

“What is the reward?” I asked 簡単に.

“Five thousand フランs,” he replied. “Your knowledge of English and Italian is what 原因（となる）d me to 申し込む／申し出 you a 株 in this splendid 企業—”

“It’s no good lying to me, Leroux,” I broke in 静かに, “if we are going to work 友好的に together.”

He swore.

“The reward is ten thousand フランs.” I made the 発射 at a 投機・賭ける, knowing my man 井戸／弁護士席.

“I 断言する that it is not,” he 主張するd hotly.

“断言する again,” I retorted, “for I’ll not を取り引きする you for いっそう少なく than five thousand.”

He did 断言する again and 抗議するd loudly. But I was 会社／堅い.

“Have another glass of ワイン,” I said.

After which he gave in.

The 事件／事情／状勢 was bound to be risky. Smugglers of English goods were 決定するd and desperate men who were playing for high 火刑／賭けるs and 危険ing their necks on the board. In all 事柄s of 密輸するing a knowledge of foreign languages was an invaluable 資産. I spoke Italian 井戸／弁護士席 and knew some English. I knew my 価値（がある）. We both drank a glass of cognac and 調印（する）d our 社債 then and there.

After which Leroux drew his 議長，司会を務める closer to my desk.

“Listen, then,” he said. “You know the 会社／堅い of Fournier Frères, in the Rue Colbert?”

“By 指名する, of course. Cutlers and surgical 器具 製造者s by 任命 to His Majesty. What about them?”

“M. le Duc has had his 注目する，もくろむs on them for some time.”

“Fournier Frères!” I ejaculated. “Impossible! A more reputable 会社／堅い does not 存在する in フラン.”

“I know, I know,” he 再結合させるd impatiently. “And yet it is a curious fact that M. Aristide Fournier, the junior partner, has lately bought for himself a house at St. Claude.”

“At St. Claude?” I ejaculated.

“Yes,” he 答える／応じるd dryly. “Very 近づく to Gex, what?”

I shrugged my shoulders, for indeed the circumstances did appear somewhat strange.

Do you know Gex, my dear Sir? Ah, it is a curious and romantic 位置／汚点／見つけ出す. It has 可能性s, both natural and political, which appear to have been expressly 工夫するd for the 利益 of the 密輸するing fraternity. Nestling in the 中央 of the Jura mountains, it is outside the customs zone of the Empire. So you see the 可能性s, do you not? Gex soon became the picturesque 倉庫／問屋 of every 考えられる 肉親，親類d of contraband goods. On one 味方する of it there was the スイスの frontier, and the スイスの 政府 was always willing to の近くに one 注目する，もくろむ in the 事柄 of customs 供給するd its palm was 十分に greased by the light-fingered gentry. No difficulty, therefore, as you see, in getting contraband goods—even English ones—as far as Gex.

Here they could be kept hidden until a fitting 適切な時期 occurred for 密輸するing them into フラン, 適切な時期s for which the Jura, with their 狭くする defiles and difficult mountain paths, afforded magnificent 範囲. St. Claude, of which Leroux had just spoken as the place where M. Aristide Fournier had recently bought himself a house, is in フラン, only a few kilometres from the 中立の zone of Gex. It seemed a strange 位置／汚点／見つけ出す to choose for a 豊富な and 流行の／上流の member of Parisian bourgeois society, I was bound to 収容する／認める.

“But,” I mused, “one cannot go to Gex without a 許す from the police.”

“Not by road,” Leroux assented. “But you will own that there are means 利用できる to men who are young and vigorous like M. Fournier, who moreover, I understand, is an 遂行するd mountaineer. You know Gex, of course?”

I had crossed the Jura once, in my 青年, but was not very intimately familiar with the 地区. Leroux had a carefully drawn-out 地図／計画する of it in his pocket; this he laid out before me.

“These two roads,” he began, tracing the windings of a couple of thin red lines on the 地図／計画する with the point of his finger, “are the only two made ones that lead in and out of the 地区. Here is the Valserine,” he went on, pointing to a blue line, “which flows from north to south, and both the roads 勝利，勝つd over 橋（渡しをする）s that （期間が）わたる the river の近くに to our frontier. The French customs 駅／配置するs are on our 味方する of those 橋（渡しをする）s. But, besides those two roads, the frontier can, of course, be crossed by one or other of the innumerable mountain 跡をつけるs which are only accessible to 歩行者s or mules. That is where our customs 公式の／役人s are 権力のない, for the 跡をつけるs are precipitous and 申し込む／申し出 制限のない cover to those who know every インチ of the ground. Several of them lead 直接／まっすぐに into St. Claude, at some かなりの distance from the customs 駅／配置するs, and it is these 跡をつけるs which are 存在 used by M. Aristide Fournier for the felonious 目的 of 貿易（する）ing with the enemy—on this I would 火刑／賭ける my life. But I mean to be even with him, and if I get the help which I 要求する from you, I am 納得させるd that I can lay him by the heels.”

“I am your man,” I 結論するd 簡単に.

“Very 井戸／弁護士席,” he 再開するd. “Are you 用意が出来ている to 旅行 with me to Gex?”

“When do you start?”

“To-day.”

“I shall be ready.”

He gave a 深い sigh of satisfaction.

“Then listen to my 計画（する）,” he said. “We’ll 旅行 together as far as St. Claude; from there you will 押し進める on to Gex, and take up your abode in the city, styling yourself an interpreter. This will give you the 適切な時期 of mixing with some of the 密輸するing fraternity, and it will be your 義務 to keep both your 注目する，もくろむs and ears open. I, on the other 手渡す, will （問題を）取り上げる my ４半期/4分の1s at Mijoux, the French customs 駅／配置する, which is on the frontier, about half a dozen kilometres from Gex. Every day I’ll arrange to 会合，会う you, either at the latter place or somewhere half-way, and hear what news you may have to tell me. And mind, Ratichon,” he 追加するd 厳しく, “it means running straight, or the reward will slip through our fingers.”

I chose to ignore the coarse insinuation, and only riposted 静かに:

“I must have money on account. I am a poor man, and will be out of pocket by the 処理／取引 from the hour I start for Gex to that when you 支払う／賃金 me my fair 株 of the reward.”

By way of a reply he took out a 事例／患者 from his pocket. I saw that it was bulging over with banknotes, which 確認するd me in my 有罪の判決 both that he was 現実に an 特使 of the 大臣 of Police and that I could have 需要・要求するd an 付加 thousand フランs without 恐れる of losing the 商売／仕事.

“I’ll give you five hundred on account,” he said as he licked his ugly thumb 準備の to counting out the money before me.

“Make it a thousand,” I retorted; “and call it ‘付加,’ not ‘on account.’”

He tried to argue.

“I am not keen on the 商売／仕事,” I said with 静める dignity, “so if you think that I am asking too much—there are others, no 疑問, who would do the work for いっそう少なく.”

It was a bold move. But it 後継するd. Leroux laughed and shrugged his shoulders. Then he counted out ten hundred-フラン 公式文書，認めるs and laid them out upon the desk. But before I could touch them he laid his large bony 手渡すs over the lot and, looking me straight between the 注目する，もくろむs, he said with earnest significance:

“English とじ込み／提出するs are 価値（がある） as much as twenty フランs apiece in the market.”

“I know.”

“Fournier Frères would not take the 危険s which they are doing for a consignment of いっそう少なく than ten thousand.”

“I 疑問 if they would,” I 再結合させるd blandly.

“It will be your 商売／仕事 to find out how and when the smugglers 提案する to get their next consignment over the frontier.”

“正確に／まさに.”

“And to communicate any （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） you may have 得るd to me.”

“And to keep an 注目する，もくろむ on the 価値のある 貨物, of course?” I 結論するd.

“Yes,” he said 概略で, “an 注目する，もくろむ. But 手渡すs off, understand, my good Ratichon, or there’ll be trouble.”

He did not wait to hear my indignant 抗議する. He had risen to his feet, and had already turned to go. Now he stretched his 広大な／多数の／重要な coarse 手渡す out to me.

“All in good part, eh?”

I took his 手渡す. He meant no 害（を与える）, did old Leroux. He was just a ありふれた, vulgar fellow who did not know a gentleman when he saw one.

And we parted the best of friends.

2

A week later I was at Gex. At St. Claude I had parted from Leroux, and then 雇うd a chaise to take me to my 目的地. It was a 事柄 of fifteen kilometres by road over the frontier of the customs zone and through the most superb scenery I had ever seen in my life. We drove through 狭くする gorges, on each 味方する of which the mountain 高さs rose rugged and precipitous to incalculable 高度s above. From time to time only did I get peeps of almost imperceptible 跡をつけるs along the declivities, 跡をつけるs on which it seemed as if goats alone could 得る a 地盤. Once—hundreds of feet above me—I 秘かに調査するd a couple of mules descending what seemed like a sheer perpendicular path 負かす／撃墜する the mountain 味方する. The animals appeared to be ひどく laden, and I marvelled what forbidden goods lay hidden within their packs and whether in the days that were to come I too should be called upon to 危険 my life on those declivities に引き続いて in the footsteps of the 無謀な and desperate 犯罪のs whom it was my 義務 to 追求する.

I 自白する that at the thought, and with those pictures of grim nature before me, I felt an unpleasant shiver coursing 負かす／撃墜する my spine.

Nothing of importance occurred during the first fortnight of my sojourn at Gex. I was 任命する／導入するd in moderately comfortable, furnished rooms in the heart of the city, の近くに to the church and market square. In one of my 前線 windows, 据えるd on the ground 床に打ち倒す, I had placed a card 耐えるing the inscription: “Aristide Barrot, Interpreter,” and below, “Anglais, Allemand, Italien.” I had even had a few （弁護士の）依頼人s—conversations between the 地元の police and some poor wretches caught in the 行為／法令／行動する of 密輸するing a few yards of スイスの silk or a couple of cream cheeses over the French frontier, and sent 支援する to Gex to be dealt with by the 地元の 当局.

Leroux had 設立する lodgings at Mijoux, and twice daily he walked over to Gex to 協議する with me. We met, mornings and evenings, at the café restaurant of the Crâne Chauve, an obscure little tavern 据えるd on the 郊外s of the city. He was waxing impatient at what he called my supineness, for indeed so far I had had nothing to 報告（する）／憶測.

There was no 調印する of M. Aristide Fournier. No one in Gex appeared to know anything about him, though the proprietor of the 主要な／長／主犯 hotel in the town did recollect having had a 訪問者 of that 指名する once or twice during the past year. But, of course, during this 早期に 行う／開催する／段階 of my stay in the town it was impossible for me to believe anything that I was told. I had not yet 後継するd in winning the 信用／信任 of the inhabitants, and it was soon pretty evident to me that the whole countryside was engaged in the perilous 産業 of 密輸するing. Everyone from the 市長 downwards did a bit of a 取引，協定 now and again in contraband goods. In ordinary 事例／患者s it only meant 罰金s if one was caught, or perhaps 監禁，拘置 for repeated 罪／違反s.

But four or five days after my arrival at Gex I saw three fellows 手渡すd over to the police of the department. They had been caught in the 行為／法令／行動する of trying to ford the Valserine with half a dozen pack-mules laden with English cloth. They were hanged at St. Claude two days later.

I can 保証する you, Sir, that the news of this 要約 行政 of 司法（官） sent another 冷淡な shiver 負かす／撃墜する my spine, and I marvelled if indeed Leroux’s surmises were 訂正する and if a respectable tradesman like Aristide Fournier would take such terrible 危険s even for the sake of 激しい 伸び（る）s.

I had been in Gex just a fortnight when the 天候, which hitherto had been splendid, turned to squalls and 嵐／襲撃するs. We were then in the second week of September. A 豪雨 had fallen the whole of one day, during which I had only been out ーするために 会合，会う Leroux, as usual, at the Café du Crâne Chauve. I had just come home from our evening 会合—it was then ten o’clock—and I was 準備するing to go comfortably to bed, when I was startled by a violent （犯罪の）一味 at the 前線-door bell.

I had only just time to wonder if this belated 訪問者 願望（する）d to see me or my worthy landlady, Mme. Bournon, when her 激しい footsteps resounded along the passage. The next moment I heard my 指名する spoken peremptorily by a 厳しい 発言する／表明する, and Mme. Bournon’s reply that M. Aristide Barrot was indeed within. A few seconds later she 勧めるd my nocturnal 訪問者 into my room.

He was wrapped in a dark mantle from 長，率いる to foot, and he wore a wide-brimmed hat pulled 権利 over his 注目する，もくろむs. He did not 除去する either as he 演説（する）／住所d me without その上の preamble.

“You are an interpreter, Sir?” he queried, speaking very 速く and in sharp 命令（する）ing トンs.

“At your service,” I replied.

“My 指名する is Ernest Berty. I want you to come with me at once to my house. I 要求する your services as intermediary between myself and some men who have come to see me on 商売／仕事. These men whom I wish you to see are ロシアのs,” he 追加するd, I fancied as an afterthought, “but they speak English fluently.”

I suppose that I looked just as I felt—somewhat 疑わしい 借りがあるing to the lateness of the hour and the 不明瞭 of the night, not to speak of the abominable 天候, for he continued with 示すd impatience:

“It is imperative that you should come at once. Though my house is at some little distance from here, I have a chaise outside which will also bring you 支援する, and,” he 追加するd 意味ありげに, “I will 支払う／賃金 you whatever you 需要・要求する.”

“It is very late,” I demurred, “the 天候—”

“Your 料金, man!” he broke in 概略で, “and let’s get on!”

“Five hundred フランs,” I said at a 投機・賭ける.

“Come!” was his curt reply. “I will give you the money as we 運動 along.”

I wished I had made it a thousand; 明らかに my services were 価値（がある） a 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定 to him. However, I 選ぶd up my mantle and my hat, and within a few seconds was ready to go. I shouted up to Mme. Bournon that I would not be home for a couple of hours, but that as I had my 重要な I need not 乱す her when I returned.

Once outside the door I almost regretted my ready acquiescence in this nocturnal adventure. The rain was （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing 負かす／撃墜する unmercifully, and at first I saw no 調印する of a 乗り物; but in answer to my 訪問者’s sharp 命令（する） I followed him 負かす／撃墜する the street as far as the market square, at the corner of which I 秘かに調査するd the 薄暗い 輪郭（を描く） of a carriage and a couple of horses.

Without wasting too many words, M. Ernest Berty bundled me into the carriage, and very soon we were on the way. The night was impenetrably dark and the chaise more than ordinarily rickety. I had but little 適切な時期 to ascertain which way we were going. A small lanthorn 直す／買収する，八百長をするd opposite to me in the 内部の of the carriage, and flickering incessantly before my 注目する，もくろむs, made it still more impossible for me to see anything outside the 狭くする window. My companion sat beside me, silent and 吸収するd. After a while I 投機・賭けるd to ask him which way we were 運動ing.

“Through the town,” he replied curtly. “My house is just outside Divonne.”

Now, Divonne is, as I knew, やめる の近くに to the スイスの frontier. It is a 事柄 of seven or eight kilometres—an hour’s 運動 at the very least in this supremely uncomfortable 乗り物. I tried to induce その上の conversation, but made no 前進 against my companion’s taciturnity. However, I had little 原因（となる） for （民事の）告訴 in another direction. After the first ４半期/4分の1 of an hour, and when we had left the cobblestones of the city behind us, he drew a bundle of 公式文書，認めるs from his pocket, and by the flickering light of the lanthorn he counted out ten fifty-フラン 公式文書，認めるs and 手渡すd them without another word to me.

The 運動 was unspeakably wearisome; but after a while I suppose that the monotonous rumbling of the wheels and the incessant patter of the rain against the window-panes なぎd me into a 肉親，親類d of torpor. 確かな it is that presently—much sooner than I had 心配するd—the chaise drew up with a jerk, and I was roused to 十分な consciousness by 審理，公聴会 M. Berty’s 発言する／表明する 説 curtly:

“Here we are! Come with me!”

I was stiff, Sir, and I was shivering—not so much with 冷淡な as with excitement. You will readily understand that all my faculties were now on the qui vive. Somehow or other during the wearisome 運動 by the 味方する of my の近くに-tongued companion my mind had fastened on the certitude that my adventure of this night bore a の近くに connexion to the 会社／堅い of Fournier Frères and to the English とじ込み／提出するs which were 原因（となる）ing so many sleepless nights to M. le Duc d’Otrante, 大臣 of Police.

But nothing in my manner, as I stepped out of the carriage under the porch of the house which ぼんやり現れるd dark and 大規模な out of the surrounding gloom, betrayed anything of what I felt. Outwardly I was just a worthy bourgeois, an interpreter by profession, and delighted at the remunerative work so opportunely put in my way.

The house itself appeared lonely 同様に as dark. M. Berty led the way across a 狭くする passage, at the end of which there was a door which he 押し進めるd open, 説 in his usual abrupt manner: “Go in there and wait. I’ll send for you 直接／まっすぐに.”

Then he の近くにd the door on me, and I heard his footsteps recrossing the 回廊（地帯） and presently 上がるing some stairs. I was left alone in a small, sparsely furnished room, dimly lighted by an oil lamp which hung 負かす／撃墜する from the 天井. There was a （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する in the middle of the room, a square of carpet on the 床に打ち倒す, and a couple of 議長，司会を務めるs beside a small アイロンをかける stove. I noticed that the 選び出す／独身 window was closely shuttered and 閉めだした. I sat 負かす／撃墜する and waited. At first the silence around me was only broken by the pattering of the rain against the shutters and the soughing of the 勝利，勝つd 負かす／撃墜する the アイロンをかける chimney 麻薬を吸う, but after a little while my senses, which by this time had become 最高の-激烈な／緊急の, were conscious of さまざまな noises within the house itself: footsteps 総計費, a 混乱させるd murmur of 発言する／表明するs, and anon the unmistakable sound of a 女性（の） 発言する／表明する raised as if in entreaty or in （民事の）告訴.

Somehow a vague feeling of alarm 所有するd itself of my nervous system. I began to realise my position—alone, a stranger in a house as to whose 状況／情勢 I had not the remotest idea, and の中で a 始める，決める of men who, if my surmises were 訂正する, were nothing いっそう少なく than a ギャング（団） of 決定するd and dangerous 犯罪のs. The 発言する／表明するs, 特に the 女性（の） one, were now sounding more （疑いを）晴らす. I tiptoed to the door, and very gently opened it. There was indeed no mistaking the トン of desperate pleading which （機の）カム from some room above and through a woman’s lips. I even caught the words: “Oh, don’t! Oh, don’t! Not again!” repeated at intervals with pitiable 主張.

Mastering my not unnatural 苦悩, I opened the door a little さらに先に and slipped out into the passage, all my instincts of chivalry に向かって beauty in 苦しめる 誘発するd by those piteous cries. Forgetful of every possible danger and of all prudence, I had already darted 負かす／撃墜する the 回廊（地帯）, 決定するd to do my 義務 as a gentleman as soon as I had ascertained whence had come those cries of anguish, when I heard the frou-frou of skirts and a 早い patter of small feet 負かす／撃墜する the stairs. The next moment a radiant 見通し, all white muslin, fair curls and the scent of violets, descended on me from above, a soft 手渡す の近くにd over 地雷 and drew me, unresisting, 支援する into the room from whence I had just come.

Bewildered, I gazed on the winsome apparition before me, and beheld a young girl, slender as a lily, dressed in a soft, 粘着するing gown which made her appear more slender still, her fair hair arranged in a 絡まる of unruly curls 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the dainty oval of her 直面する.

She was exquisite, Sir! And the slenderness of her! You cannot imagine it! She looked like a young sapling bending to the 強風. But what 削減（する） me to the heart was the look of terror and of 悲惨 in her 直面する. She clasped her 手渡すs together and the 涙／ほころびs gathered in her 注目する，もくろむs.

“Go, Sir, go at once!” she murmured under her breath, speaking very 速く. “Do not waste a minute, I beg of you! As you value your life, go before it is too late!”

“But, Mademoiselle,” I stammered; for indeed her words and 外見 had roused all my worst 恐れるs, but also all my instincts of the sleuth-hound scenting his quarry.

“Don’t argue, I beg of you,” continued the lovely creature, who indeed seemed the prey of 圧倒的な emotions—恐れる, horror, pity. “When he comes 支援する do not let him find you here. I’ll explain, I’ll know what to say, only I entreat you—go!”

Sir, I have many faults, but cowardice does not happen to be one of them, and the more the angel pleaded the more 決定するd was I to see this 商売／仕事 through. I was, of course, やめる 納得させるd by now that I was on the 跡をつける of M. Aristide Fournier and the English とじ込み／提出するs, and I was not going to let five thousand フランs and the 感謝 of the 大臣 of Police slip through my fingers so easily.

“Mademoiselle,” I 再結合させるd as calmly as I could, “let me 保証する you that though your 苦悩 for me is like manna to a 餓死するing man, I have no 恐れるs for my own safety. I have come here in the capacity of a humble interpreter; I certainly am not 価値（がある） putting out of the way. Moreover, I have been paid for my services, and these I will （判決などを）下す to my 雇用者 to the best of my 能力s.”

“Ah, but you don’t know,” she retorted, not 出発／死ing one 手早く書き留める from her 態度 of terror and of entreaty, “you don’t understand. This house, Monsieur,” she 追加するd in a hoarse whisper, “is nothing but a den of 犯罪のs wherein no honest man or woman is 安全な.”

“容赦, Mademoiselle,” I riposted as lightly and as gallantly as I could, “I see before me the living proof that angels, at any 率, dwell therein.”

“式のs! Sir,” she 再結合させるd, with a heart-rending sigh, “if you mean me, I am only to be pitied. My dear mother and I are naught but slaves to the will of my brother, who uses us as 道具s for his nefarious ends.”

“But . . .” I stammered, horrified beyond speech at the vista of villainy which her words had opened up before me.

“My mother, Sir,” she said 簡単に, “is old and 病んでいる; she is dying of anguish at sight of her son’s misdeeds. I would not, could not leave her, yet I would give my life to see her 解放する／自由な from that miscreant’s clutches!”

My whole soul was stirred to its depths by the intensity of passion which rang through this delicate creature’s words. What weird and awesome mystery of iniquity and of 罪，犯罪 lay hid, I wondered, between these 塀で囲むs? In what 悲劇 had I thus accidentally become 伴う／関わるd while 実行するing my prosaic 義務 in the 利益／興味 of His Majesty’s exchequer? As in a flash it suddenly （機の）カム to me that perhaps I could serve both this lovely creature and the Emperor better by going out of the house now, and lying hidden all the night through somewhere in its 周辺 until in daylight I could 位置を示す its exact 状況／情勢. Then I could communicate with Leroux at once and procure the 逮捕 of this Berty—or Fournier—who 明らかに was a desperate 犯罪の. Already a bold 計画（する） was taking 形態／調整 in my brain, and with my mind’s 注目する，もくろむ I had 手段d the distance which separated me from the 前線 door and safety when, in the distance, I heard 激しい footsteps slowly descending the stairs. I looked at my lovely companion, and saw her 注目する，もくろむs 徐々に dilating with 増加するd horror. She gave a smothered cry, 圧力（をかける）d her handkerchief to her lips, then she murmured hoarsely, “Too late!” and fled precipitately from the room, leaving me a prey to mingled emotions such as I had never experienced before.

3

A moment or two later M. Ernest Berty, or whatever his real 指名する may have been, entered the room. Whether he had 遭遇（する）d his exquisite sister on the 回廊（地帯） or the stairs, I could not tell; his 直面する, in the 薄暗い light of the hanging lamp, looked impenetrable and 悪意のある.

“This way, M. Barrot,” he said curtly.

Just for one 簡潔な／要約する moment the thought occurred to me to throw myself upon him with my whole 負わせる—which was かなりの—and make a wild dash for the 前線 door. But it was more than probable that I should be 迎撃するd and brought 支援する, after which no 疑問 I would be an 反対する of 疑惑 to these rascals and my life would not be 価値（がある） an hour’s 購入（する）. With the young girl’s 警告s （犯罪の）一味ing in my ears, I felt that my one chance of safety and of 回避するing these 犯罪のs lay in my seeming ingenuousness and 完全にする guilelessness.

I assumed a perfect professional manner and followed my companion up the stairs. He 勧めるd me into a room just above the one where I had been waiting up to now. Three men dressed in rough 着せる／賦与するs were sitting at a （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する on which stood a couple of tankards and four empty pewter 襲う，襲って強奪するs. My 雇用者 申し込む／申し出d me a glass of ale, which I 拒絶する／低下するd. Then we got to work.

At the first words which M. Berty uttered I knew that all my surmises had been 訂正する. Whether he himself was M. Aristide Fournier, or another partner of that 会社／堅い, or some other rascal engaged in nefarious doings, I could not know; 確かな it was that through the medium of cipher words and phrases which he thought were unintelligible to me, and which he ordered me to 解釈する／通訳する into English, he was giving directions to the three men with regard to the 軍用車隊ing of contraband 貨物 over the frontier.

There was much talk of “toys” and “babies”—the latter were to take a walk in the mountains and to 避ける the “thorns”; the “toys” were to be securely fastened and 井戸／弁護士席 保護するd against water. It was 明白に a 事例／患者 of mules and of the goods, the “thorns” 存在 the customs 公式の／役人s. By the time that we had finished I was 絶対 納得させるd in my mind that the 貨物 was one of English とじ込み／提出するs or かみそりs, for it was evidently extraordinarily 価値のある and not at all bulky, seeing that two “babies” were to carry all the “toys” for a かなりの distance. The men, too, were 明白に English. I tried the few words of ロシアの that I knew on them, and their 直面するs remained perfectly blank.

Yes, indeed, I was on the 跡をつける of M. Aristide Fournier, and of one of the most important 運ぶ／漁獲高s of enemy goods which had ever been made in フラン. Not only that. I had also before me one of the most brutish 犯罪のs it had ever been my misfortune to come across. A いじめ（る）, a fiend of cruelty. In very truth my fertile brain was seething with 計画（する）s for 結局 laying that abominable ruffian by the heels: hanging would be a 慈悲の 罰 for such a miscreant. Yes, indeed, five thousand フランs—a goodly sum in those days, Sir—was 事実上 保証するd me. But over and above mere lucre there was the certainty that in a few days’ time I should see the light of 感謝 向こうずねing out of a pair of lustrous blue 注目する，もくろむs, and a winning smile chasing away the look of 恐れる and of 悲しみ from the sweetest 直面する I had seen for many a day.

にもかかわらず the 騒動 that was 激怒（する）ing in my brain, however, I flatter myself that my manner with the rascals remained 終始一貫して 静める, 事務的な, indifferent to all save to the work in 手渡す. The soi-disant Ernest Berty spoke invariably in French, either dictating his orders or 捜し出すing （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）, and I made 言葉の translation into English of all that he said. The séance lasted の近くに upon an hour, and presently I gathered that the 事件／事情／状勢 was 終結させるd and that I could consider myself 解任するd.

I was about to take my leave, having 明らかに 完全にするd my work, when M. Ernest Berty called me 支援する with a curt 命令（する）.

“One moment, M. Barrot,” he said.

“At Monsieur’s service,” I 答える／応じるd blandly.

“As you see,” he continued, “these fellows do not know a word of French. All along the way which they will have to 横断する they will 会合，会う friendly outposts, who will 報告（する）／憶測 to them on the 条件 of the roads and 警告する them of any danger that might be ahead. Their ignorance of our language may be a source of infinite 危険，危なくする to them. They need an interpreter to …を伴って them over the mountains.”

He paused for a moment or two, then 追加するd 突然の:

“Would you care to go? The 事柄 is important,” he went on 静かに, “and I am willing to 支払う／賃金 you. It means a couple of nights’ 旅行—a 停止（させる） in the mountains during the day—and there will be ten thousand フランs for you if the ‘toys’ reach St. Claude 安全に.”

I suppose that something in my 直面する betrayed the 切望 which I felt. Here was indeed the finger of Providence pointing to the best means of undoing this abominable 犯罪の. Not that I ーするつもりであるd to 危険 my neck for any ten thousand フランs he chose to 申し込む／申し出 me, but as the 信用d guide of his ingenuous “babies” I could 軍用車隊 them—not to St. Claude, as he blandly believed, but straight into the 武器 of Leroux and the customs 公式の／役人s.

“Then that is understood,” he said in his usual 独裁的な manner, taking my 同意 for 認めるd. “Ten thousand フランs. And you will …を伴って these gentlemen and their ‘babies’ as far as St. Claude?”

“I am a poor man, Sir,” I 答える／応じるd meekly.

“Of course you are,” he broke in 概略で.

Then from a number of papers which lay upon the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, he selected one which he held out to me.

“Do you know St. Cergues?” he asked.

“Yes,” I replied. “It is a short walk from Gex.”

“This,” he 追加するd, pointing to a paper which I had taken from him, “is a 計画（する） of the village and of the Pass of Cergues の近くに by. 熟考する／考慮する it carefully. At some point some way up the pass, which I have 示すd with a cross, I and my men with the ‘babies’ will be waiting for you to-morrow evening at eight o’clock. You cannot かもしれない fail to find the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す, for the 計画（する） is very 正確な and very minute, and it is いっそう少なく than five hundred metres from the last house at the 入り口 of the pass. I shall 護衛する the men until then, and 手渡す them over into your 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 for the mountain 旅行. Is that （疑いを）晴らす?”

“Perfectly.”

“Very 井戸／弁護士席, then; you may go. The carriage is outside the door. You know your way.”

He 解任するd me with a curt nod, and the next two minutes saw me outside this house of mystery and 任命する／導入するd inside the ramshackle 乗り物 on my way 支援する to my lodgings.

I was worn out with 疲労，（軍の）雑役 and excitement, and I imagine that I slept most of the way. 確かな it is that the 旅行 home was not nearly so long as the outward one had been. The rain was still coming 負かす／撃墜する ひどく, but I cared nothing about the 天候, nothing about 疲労，（軍の）雑役. My path to fame and fortune had been made easier for me than in my wildest dreams I would have dared to hope. In the morning I would see Leroux and make final 手はず／準備 for the 逮捕（する） of those impudent smugglers, and I thought the best way would be for him to 会合，会う me and the “babies” and the “toys” at the very 手始め of our 旅行, as I did not 大いに relish the idea of crossing lonely and dangerous mountain paths in the company of these ruffians.

I reached home without adventure. The 乗り物 drew up just outside my lodgings, and I was about to alight when my 注目する，もくろむs were attracted by something white which lay on the 前線 seat of the carriage, conspicuously placed so that the light from the inside lanthorn fell 十分な upon it. I had been too tired and too dazed, I suppose, to notice the thing before, but now, on closer 査察, I saw that it was a 公式文書，認める, and that it was 演説（する）／住所d to me: “M. Aristide Barrot, Interpreter,” and below my 指名する were the words: “Very 緊急の.”

I took the 公式文書，認める feeling a thrill of excitement running through my veins at its touch. I alighted, and the 乗り物 すぐに disappeared into the night. I had only caught one glimpse of the horses, and 非，不，無 at all of the coachman. Then I went straight into my room, and by the light of the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する lamp I 広げるd and read the mysterious 公式文書，認める. It bore no 署名, but at the first words I knew that the writer was 非，不，無 other than the lovely young creature who had appeared to me like an angel of innocence in the 中央 of that den of thieves.

“Monsieur,” she had written in a 手渡す which had 明確に been trembling with agitation, “you are good, you are 肉親，親類d; I entreat you to be 慈悲の. My dear mother, whom I worship, is sick with terror and 悲惨. She will die if she remains any longer under the sway of that 残忍な monster who, 式のs! is my own brother. And if I lose her I shall die, too, for I should no longer have anyone to stand between me and his cruelties.

“My dear mother has some relations living at St. Claude. She would have gone to them before now, but my brother keeps us both 事実上の 囚人s here, and we have no means of arranging for such a perilous 旅行 for ourselves. Now, by the most 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の 一打／打撃 of good fortune, my brother will be absent all day to-morrow and the に引き続いて night. My dear mother and I feel that God Himself is showing us the way to our 解放（する）.

“Will you, can you help us, dear M. Barrot? Mother and I will be at Gex to-morrow at one hour after sundown. We will 嘘（をつく） perdu in the little Taverne du Roi de Rome, where, if you come to us, you will find us waiting anxiously. If you can do nothing to help us, we must return broken-hearted to our hated 刑務所，拘置所; but something in my heart tells me that you can help us. All that we want is a 乗り物 of some sort and the 護衛する of a 勇敢に立ち向かう man like yourself as far as St. Claude, where our 親族s will thank you on their 膝s for your 親切 and generosity to two helpless, 哀れな, unprotected women, and I will kiss your 手渡すs in unbounded 感謝 and devotion.”

It were impossible, Monsieur, to tell you of the 変化させるd emotions which filled my heart when I had perused that heart-rending 控訴，上告. All my instincts of chivalry were 誘発するd. I was 決定するd to do my 義務 to these helpless ladies as a man and as a gallant knight. Even before I finally went to bed I had settled in my mind what I meant to do. Fortunately it was やめる possible for me to reconcile my 義務s to my Emperor and those which I 借りがあるd to myself in the 事柄 of the reward for the 逮捕 of the smugglers, with my 燃やすing 願望（する） to be the saviour and protector of the lovely creature whose beauty had inflamed my impressionable heart, and to have my 手渡すs kissed by her in 感謝 and devotion.

The next morning Leroux and I were 深い in our 計画（する）s, whilst we sipped our coffee outside the Crâne Chauve. He was beside himself with joy and excitement at the 見込みのある 運ぶ／漁獲高, which would, of course, redound enormously to his credit, even though the success of the whole 請け負うing would be 予定 to my acumen, my resourcefulness and my pluck. Fortunately I 設立する him not only ready but eager to （判決などを）下す me what 援助 he could in the 事柄 of the two ladies who had thrown themselves so 完全に on my 保護.

“We might get 価値のある （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） out of them,” he 発言／述べるd. “In the 超過 of their 感謝 they may betray many more secrets and nefarious doings of the 会社／堅い of Fournier Frères.”

“Which その上の 証明するs,” I 発言／述べるd, “how 深く，強烈に you and Monsieur le Ministre of Police are indebted to me over this 事件／事情／状勢.”

He did not argue the point. Indeed, we were both of us far too much excited to waste words in useless bickerings. Our 計画（する）s for the evening were 公正に／かなり simple. We both pored over the 地図／計画する which Fournier-Berty had given me, until we felt that we could reach blindfolded the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す which had been 示すd with a cross. We then arranged that Leroux should betake himself thither with a strong posse of gendarmes during the day, and 嘘（をつく） hidden in the 周辺 until such time as I myself appeared upon the scene, identified my friends of the night before, 交渉，会談d with them for a minute or two, and finally retired, leaving the 法律 in all its majesty, as 代表するd by Leroux, to を取り引きする the rascals.

In the 合間 I also mapped out for myself my own 株 in this night’s adventurous work. I had 雇うd a 乗り物 to take me as far as St. Cergues; here I ーするつもりであるd to leave it at the 地元の inn, and then proceed on foot up the mountain pass to the 任命するd 位置／汚点／見つけ出す. As soon as I had seen the smugglers 安全に in the 手渡すs of Leroux and the gendarmes, I would make my way 支援する to St. Cergues as 速く as I could, step into my 乗り物, 運動 like the 勝利，勝つd 支援する to Gex, and place myself at the 処分 of my fair angel and her afflicted mother.

Leroux 約束d me that at the customs 駅／配置する on the French frontier the 公式の／役人s would look after me and the ladies, and that a pair of fresh horses would be ready to take us straight on to St. Claude, which, if all was 井戸／弁護士席, we could then reach by daybreak.

Having settled all these 事柄s we parted company, he to arrange his own 事件／事情／状勢s with the Commissary of Police and the customs 公式の／役人s, and I to を待つ with as much patience as I could the hour when I could start for St. Cergues.

4

The night—just as I 心配するd—約束d to be very dark. A thin 霧雨, which wetted the unfortunate 歩行者 to the 骨髄, had 取って代わるd the 豪雨 of the previous day.

Twilight was の近くにing in very 急速な／放蕩な. In the late autumn afternoon I drove to St. Cergues, after which I left the chaise in the village and boldly started to walk up the mountain pass. I had 熟考する／考慮するd the 地図／計画する so carefully that I was やめる sure of my way, but though my 任命 with the rascals was for eight o’clock, I wished to reach the 任命するd 位置／汚点／見つけ出す before the last flicker of grey light had disappeared from the sky.

Soon I had left the last house 井戸／弁護士席 behind me. Boldly I 急落（する），激減（する）d into the 狭くする path. The loneliness of the place was indescribable. Every step which I took on the stony 跡をつける seemed to rouse the echoes of the grim 高さs which rose precipitously on either 味方する of me, and in my mind I felt aghast at the 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の courage of those men who—like Aristide Fournier and his ギャング（団）—chose to affront such obvious and manifold dangers as these frowning mountain 地域s held for them for the sake of paltry lucre.

I had walked, によれば my reckoning, just upon five hundred metres through the gorge, when on ahead I perceived the flicker of lights which appeared to be moving to and fro. The silence and loneliness no longer seemed to be 絶対の. A few metres from where I was men were living and breathing, plotting and planning, unconscious of the 逮捕する which the unerring 手渡す of a skilful fowler had drawn 一連の会議、交渉／完成する them and their misdeeds.

The next moment I was challenged by a peremptory “停止（させる）!” 承認 followed. M. Ernest Berty, or Aristide Fournier, whichever he was, 定評のある with a few words my punctuality, whilst through the gloom I took 早い 在庫／株 of his little party. I saw the vague 輪郭（を描く） of three men and a couple of mules which appeared to be ひどく laden. They were 組み立てる／集結するd on a flat piece of ground which appeared like a roofless cavern carved out of the mountain 味方する. The 塀で囲むs of 激しく揺する around them afforded them both cover and 避難. They seemed in no hurry to start. They had the long night before them, so one of them 発言／述べるd in English.

However, presently M. Fournier-Berty gave the signal for the start to be made, he himself 準備するing to take leave of his men. Just at that moment my ears caught the welcome sound of the tramping of feet, and before any of the rascals there could realise what was happening, their way was 閉めだした by Leroux and his gendarmes, who loudly gave the order, “手渡すs up, in the 指名する of the Emperor!”

I was only conscious of a 混乱させるd murmur of 発言する／表明するs, of the click of 小火器, of words of 命令（する） passing to and fro, and of several violent 誓いs uttered in the not unfamiliar 発言する／表明する of M. Aristide Fournier. But already I had 秘かに調査するd Leroux. I only 交流d a few words with him, for indeed my 株 of the evening’s work was done as far as he was 関心d, and I made haste to retrace my steps through the 不明瞭 and the rain along the lonely mountain path toward the goal where chivalry and manly ardour beckoned to me from afar.

I 設立する my 乗り物 waiting for me at St. Cergues, and by the 約束 of an 付加 pourboire, I 後継するd in making the driver whip up his horses to some 目的. いっそう少なく than an hour later we drew up at Gex outside the little inn, pretentiously called Le Roi de Rome. On alighting I was met by the proprietress who, in answer to my 調査 after two ladies who had arrived that afternoon, at once 行為／行うd me upstairs.

Already my mind was busy conjuring up 見通しs of the fair lady of yester-eve. The landlady threw open a door and 勧めるd me into a small room which reeked of stale food and damp 着せる／賦与するs. I stepped in and 設立する myself 直面する to 直面する with a large and exceedingly ugly old woman who rose with difficulty from the sofa as I entered.

“M. Aristide Barrot,” she said as soon as the landlady had の近くにd the door behind me.

“At your service, Madame,” I stammered. “But—”

I was indeed almost aghast. Never in my life had I seen anything so grotesque as this woman. To begin with she was more than ordinarily stout and unwieldy—indeed, she appeared like a veritable mountain of flesh; but what was so 乱すing to my mind was that she was nothing but a hideous caricature of her lovely daughter, whose dainty features she grotesquely 解任するd. Her 直面する was seamed and wrinkled, her white hair was plastered 負かす／撃墜する above her yellow forehead. She wore an old-fashioned bonnet tied under her chin, and her 抱擁する 本体，大部分／ばら積みの was draped in a large-patterned cashmere shawl.

“You 推定する／予想するd to see my dear daughter beside me, my good M. Barrot,” she said after a while speaking with remarkable gentleness and dignity.

“I 自白する, Madame—” I murmured.

“Ah! the darling has sacrificed herself for my sake. We 設立する to-day that though my son was out of the way, he had 始める，決める his abominable servants to watch over us. Soon we realized that we could not both get away. It meant one of us staying behind to 行為／法令／行動する the part of unconcern and to throw dust in the 注目する，もくろむs of our jailers. My daughter—ah! she is an angel, Monsieur—恐れるd that the 失望 and my son’s cruelty, when he returned on the morrow and 設立する that he had been tricked, would 本気で 危うくする my life. She decided that I must go and that she would remain.”

“But, Madame—” I 抗議するd.

“I know, Monsieur,” she 再結合させるd with the same 静める dignity which already had 命令（する）d my 尊敬（する）・点, “I know that you think me a selfish old woman; but my Angèle—she is an angel, of a truth!—made all the 手はず／準備, and I could not help but obey her. But have no 恐れるs for her safety, Monsieur. My son would not dare lay 手渡すs on her as often as he has done on me. Angèle will be 勇敢に立ち向かう, and our relations at St. Claude will, 直接／まっすぐに we arrive, make 手はず／準備 to go and fetch her and bring her 支援する to me. My brother is an 影響力のある man; he would never have 許すd my son to martyrize me and Angèle had he known what we have had to 耐える.”

Of course I could not then tell her that all her 恐れるs for herself and the lovely Angèle could now be laid to 残り／休憩（する）. Her ruffianly son was even now 存在 伝えるd by Leroux and his gendarmes to the frontier, where the 法律 would take its course. I was indeed not sorry for him. I was not sorry to think that he would end his evil life upon the guillotine or the gallows. I was only grieved for Angèle who would spend a night and a day, perhaps more, in agonized suspense, knowing nothing of the events which at one 広大な／多数の／重要な 急襲する would 解放する／自由な her and her beloved mother from the tyranny of a hated brother and send him to expiate his 罪，犯罪s. Not only did I grieve, Sir, for the tender 犠牲者 of that man’s brutality, but I trembled for her safety. I did not know what minions or confederates Fournier-Berty had left in the lonely house yonder, or under what orders they were in 事例／患者 he did not return from his nocturnal 探検隊／遠征隊.

Indeed for the moment I felt so agitated at thought of that beautiful angel’s 危険，危なくする that I looked 負かす／撃墜する with 怒り／怒る and 軽蔑（する） at the fat old woman who ought to have remained beside her daughter to 慰安 and to 保護物，者 her.

I was on the point of telling her everything, and dragging her 支援する to her 地位，任命する of 義務 which she should never have 放棄するd. Fortunately my sense of what I 借りがあるd to my own professional dignity 妨げるd my taking such a step. It was 明確に not for me to argue. My first 義務 was to stand by this helpless woman in 苦しめる, who had been committed to my 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金, and to 伝える her 安全に to St. Claude. After which I could see to it that Mademoiselle Angèle was brought along too as quickly as 影響力のある 親族s could contrive.

In the 一方／合間 I derived some なぐさみ from the thought that at any 率 for the next four and twenty hours the lovely creature would be 安全な. No news of the 逮捕（する） of Aristide Fournier could かもしれない reach the lonely house until I myself could return thither and take her under my 保護.

So I said nothing; but with perfect gallantry, just as if fat Mme. Fournier had been a young and beautiful woman, I begged her to give herself the trouble of 開始するing into the carriage which was waiting for her.

It took time and trouble, Sir, to hoist that 集まり of solid flesh into the 乗り物, and the driver 不平（をいう）d not a little at the 予期しない 負わせる. However, his horses were powerful, wiry, mountain ponies, and we made 前進 through the 不明瞭 and along the smooth, departmental road at 穏健な 速度(を上げる）. I may say that it was a miserably uncomfortable 旅行 for me, sitting, as I was 軍隊d to do, on the 狭くする 前線 seat of the carriage, without support for my 長，率いる or room for my 脚s. But Madame’s 本体，大部分／ばら積みの filled the whole of the 支援する seat, and it never seemed to enter her 長，率いる that I too might like the use of a cushion. However, even the worst moments and the weariest 旅行s must come to an end, and we reached the frontier in the small hours of the morning. Here we 設立する the customs 公式の／役人s ready to （判決などを）下す us any service we might 要求する. Leroux had not failed to order the fresh relay of horses, and whilst these were 存在 put to, the polite officers of the 駅／配置する gave Madame and myself some excellent coffee. Beyond the formal: “Madame has nothing to 宣言する for His Majesty’s customs?” and my companion’s 平等に formal: “Nothing, Monsieur, except my personal 所持品,” they did not ply us with questions, and after half an hour’s 停止（させる） we again proceeded on our way.

We reached St. Claude at daybreak, and に引き続いて Madame’s directions, the driver pulled up in 前線 of a large house in the Avenue du Jura. Again there was the same difficulty in hoisting the unwieldy lady out of the 乗り物, but this time, in 返答 to my vigorous pull at the outside bell, the concierge and another man （機の）カム out of the house, and very respectfully they approached Madame and 伝えるd her into the house.

While they did so she 明らかに gave them some directions about myself, for anon the concierge returned, and with extreme politeness told me that Madame Fournier 大いに hoped that I would stay in St. Claude a day or two as she had the 願望（する） to see me again very soon. She also honoured me with an 招待 to dine with her that same evening at seven of the clock. This was the first time, I noticed, that the 指名する Fournier was 現実に used in connexion with any of the people with whom I had become so 劇的な 伴う／関わるd. Not that I had ever 疑問d the 身元 of the ruffianly Ernest Berty; still it was very 満足な to have my surmises 確認するd. I 結論するd that the 罰金 house in the Avenue du Jura belonged to Mme. Fournier’s brother, and I ばく然と wondered who he was. The 招待 to dinner had certainly been given in her 指名する, and the servants had received her with a show of 尊敬（する）・点 which 示唆するd that she was more than a guest in her brother’s house.

Be that as it may, I betook myself for the nonce to the Hôtel des Moines in the centre of the town and killed time for the 残り／休憩（する） of the day as best I could. For one thing I needed 残り／休憩（する） after the emotions and the 疲労，（軍の）雑役 of the past forty-eight hours. Remember, Sir, I had not slept for two nights and had spent the last eight hours on the 狭くする 前線 seat of a 揺さぶるing chaise. So I had a good 残り／休憩（する） in the afternoon, and at seven o’clock I 現在のd myself once more at the house in the Avenue du Jura.

My 意向 was to retire 早期に to bed after spending an agreeable evening with the family, who would no 疑問 圧倒する me with their 感謝, and at daybreak I would 運動 支援する to Gex after I had heard all the 最新の news from Leroux.

I 自白する that it was with a pardonable feeling of agitation that I tugged at the wrought-アイロンをかける bell-pull on the perron of the magnificent mansion in the Avenue du Jura. To begin with I felt somewhat rueful at having to appear before ladies at this hour in my travelling 着せる／賦与するs, and then, you will 収容する／認める, Sir, that it was a somewhat ぎこちない predicament for a man of 高度に 極度の慎重さを要する temperament to 会合，会う on 条件 of equality a 精製するd if stout lady whose son he had just helped to send to the gallows. Fortunately there was no 見込み of Mme. Fournier 存在 as yet aware of this unpleasant fact: even if she did know at this hour that her son’s illicit adventure had come to grief, she could not かもしれない in her mind connect me with his ill-fortune. So I 許すd the sumptuous valet to take my hat and coat and I followed him with as 静める a demeanour as I could assume up the richly carpeted stairs. 明白に the 親族s of Mme. Fournier were more than 井戸／弁護士席 to do. Everything in the house showed 証拠s of 高級な, not to say wealth. I was 勧めるd into an elegant salon wherein every corner showed traces of dainty feminine 手渡すs. There were embroidered silk cushions upon the sofa, lace covers upon the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議するs, whilst a work basket, filled with a 暴動 of many coloured silks, stood invitingly open. And through the apartment, Sir, a scent of violets ぐずぐず残るd and caressed my nostrils, reminding me of a beauteous creature in 苦しめる whom it had been my good fortune to succour.

I had waited いっそう少なく than five minutes when I heard a swift, elastic step approaching through the next room, and a second or so later, before I had time to take up an appropriate posture, the door was thrown open and the exquisite 見通し of my waking dreams—the beautiful Angèle— stood smiling before me.

“Mademoiselle,” I stammered somewhat clumsily, for of a truth I was hardly able to 回復する my breath, and surprise had 井戸／弁護士席 nigh robbed me of speech, “how comes it that you are here?”

She only smiled in reply, the most adorable smile I had ever seen on any human 直面する, so 十分な of joy, of mischief—aye, of 勝利, was it. I asked after Madame. Again she smiled, and said Madame was in her room, 残り／休憩（する）ing from the 疲労，（軍の）雑役s of her 旅行. I had 不十分な 回復するd from my 初期の surprise when another—more 完全にする still—直面するd me. This was the 外見 of Monsieur Aristide Fournier, whom I had 情愛深く imagined already expiating his 罪，犯罪s in a frontier 刑務所，拘置所, but who now entered, also smiling, also 極端に pleasant, who 迎える／歓迎するd me as if we were lifelong friends, and who then—I 不十分な could believe my 注目する，もくろむs—placed his arm affectionately 一連の会議、交渉／完成する his sister’s waist, while she turned her 甘い 直面する up to his and gave him a fond—nay, a loving look. A loving look to him who was a brute and a いじめ（る） and a miscreant amenable to the gallows! True his 外見 was 完全に changed: his 注目する，もくろむs were 有望な and kindly, his mouth continued to smile, his manner was 都市の in the extreme when he finally introduced himself to me as: “Aristide Fournier, my dear Monsieur Ratichon, at your service.”

He knew my 指名する, he knew who I was! whilst I . . . I had to pass my 手渡す once or twice over my forehead and to の近くに and 再開する my 注目する，もくろむs several times, for, of a truth, it all seemed like a dream. I tried to stammer out a question or two, but I could only gasp, and the lovely Angèle appeared 高度に amused at my 苦しめる.

“Let us dine,” she said gaily, “after which you may ask as many questions as you like.”

In very truth I was in no mood for dinner. Puzzlement and 苦悩 appeared to 支配する me by the throat and to choke me. It was all very 井戸／弁護士席 for the beautiful creature to laugh and to make merry. She had cruelly deceived me, played upon the chords of my 極度の慎重さを要する heart for 目的s which no 疑問 would presently be made （疑いを）晴らす, but in the 一方／合間 since the 密輸するing of the English とじ込み／提出するs had been successful—as it 明らかに was—what had become of Leroux and his gendarmes?

What 悲劇 had been 制定するd in the 狭くする gorge of St. Cergues, and what, oh! what had become of my hopes of that five thousand フランs for the 逮捕 of the smugglers, 約束d me by Leroux? Can you wonder that for the moment the very thought of dinner was abhorrent to me? But only for the moment. The next a sumptuous valet had thrown open the 倍のing-doors, and 負かす／撃墜する the vista of the stately apartment I perceived a （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する richly laden with 磁器 and glass and silver, whilst a distinctly savoury odour was wafted to my nostrils.

“We will not answer a 選び出す／独身 question,” the fair Angèle 繰り返し言うd with adorable 決意, “until after we have dined.”

What, Sir, would you have done in my place? I believe that never until this hour had 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon reached to such a sublimity of manner. I 屈服するd with perfect dignity in 記念品 of obedience to the fair creature, Sir; then without a word I 申し込む／申し出d her my arm. She placed her 手渡す upon it, and I 行為／行うd her to the dining-room, whilst Aristide Fournier, who at this hour should have been on a fair way to 存在 hanged, followed in our wake.

Ah! it seemed indeed a lovely dream: one that lasted through an excellent and copious dinner, and which turned to delightful reality when, over a final glass of succulent Madeira, Monsieur Aristide Fournier slowly counted out one hundred 公式文書，認めるs, 価値（がある） one hundred フランs each, and 現在のd these to me with a gracious nod.

“Your 料金, Monsieur,” he said, “and 許す me to say that never have I paid out so large a sum with such a willing 手渡す.”

“But I have done nothing,” I murmured from out the depths of my bewilderment.

Mademoiselle Angèle and Monsieur Fournier looked at one another, and, no 疑問, I 現在のd a very comical spectacle; for both of them burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter.

“Indeed, Monsieur,” quoth Monsieur Fournier as soon as he could speak coherently, “you have done everything that you 始める，決める out to do and done it with perfect chivalry. You 伝えるd ‘the toys’ 安全に over the frontier as far as St. Claude.”

“But how?” I stammered, “how?”

Again Mademoiselle Angèle laughed, and through the ripples of her laughter （機の）カム her merry words:

“Maman was very fat, was she not, my good Monsieur Ratichon? Did you not think she was extraordinarily like me?”

I caught the ちらりと見ること in her 注目する，もくろむs, and they were literally glowing with mischief. Then all of a sudden I understood. She had impersonated a fat mother, covered her lovely 直面する with lines, worn a disfiguring wig and an 古風な bonnet, and 一連の会議、交渉／完成する her slender 人物／姿／数字 she had tucked away thousands of 一括s of English とじ込み／提出するs. I could only gasp. Astonishment, not to say 賞賛, at her pluck literally took my breath away.

“But, Monsieur Berty?” I murmured, my mind in a 騒動, my thoughts running 暴動 through my brain. “The Englishmen, the mules, the packs?”

“Monsieur Berty, as you see, stands before you now in the person of Monsieur Fournier,” she replied. “The Englishmen were three faithful servants who threw dust not only in your 注目する，もくろむs, my dear M. Ratichon, but in those of the customs 公式の／役人s, while the packs 含む／封じ込めるd 害のない personal luggage which was taken by your friend and his gendarmes to the customs 駅／配置する at Mijoux, and there, after much 断言するing, 平等に solemnly 解放（する）d with many 陳謝s to M. Fournier, who was 許すd to proceed unmolested on his way, and who arrived here 安全に this afternoon, whilst Maman divested herself of her fat and once more became the slender Mme. Aristide Fournier, at your service.”

She bobbed me a dainty curtsy, and I could only try and hide the 苦痛 which this last cruel を刺す had （打撃，刑罰などを）与えるd on my heart. So she was not “Mademoiselle” after all, and henceforth it would even be wrong to indulge in dreams of her.

But the ten thousand フランs crackled pleasantly in my breast pocket, and when I finally took leave of Monsieur Aristide Fournier and his charming wife, I was an exceedingly happy man.

But Leroux never forgave me. Of what he 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd me I do not know, or if he 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd me at all. He certainly must have known about fat Maman from the customs 公式の／役人s who had given us coffee at Mijoux.

But he never について言及するd the 支配する to me at all, nor has he spoken to me since that memorable night. To one of his 同僚s he once said that no words in his vocabulary could かもしれない be 適する to 表明する his feelings.

一時期／支部 6
Honour の中で —

1

Ah, my dear Sir, it is 平易な enough to despise our profession, but believe me that all the finer 質s—those of 忠義 and of truth—are 必須の, not only to us, but to our subordinates, if we are to 後継する in making even a small competence out of it.

Now let me give you an instance. Here was I, 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon, settled in Paris in that eventful year 1816 which saw the new order of things finally swept aside and the old order 再開する its 勝利を得た sway, which saw us all, 含むing our God-given King Louis XVIII, as poor as the proverbial church mice and as eager for a bit of 慰安 and 高級な as a hungry dog is for a bone; the year which saw the army 解散するd and hordes of 失業した and unemployable men wandering disconsolate and half 餓死するd through the country 捜し出すing in vain for some means of 暮らし, while the 連合した 軍隊／機動隊s, 井戸／弁護士席 fed and 井戸／弁護士席 着せる／賦与するd, stalked about as if the sacred 国／地域 of フラン was so much dirt under their feet; the year, my dear Sir, during which more intrigues were hatched and more 陰謀（を企てる）s concocted than in any previous century in the whole history of フラン. We were all trying to make money, since there was so precious little of it about. Those of us who had brains 後継するd, and then not always.

Now, I had brains—I do not 誇る of them; they are a gift from Heaven—but I had them, and good looks, too, and a general 空気／公表する of strength, coupled with refinement, which was bound to 控訴，上告 to anyone needing help and advice, and willing to 支払う／賃金 for both, and yet—but you shall 裁判官.

You know my office in the Rue Daunou, you have been in it—plainly furnished; but, as I said, these were not days of 高級な. There was an antechamber, too, where that 反逆者, blackmailer and どろぼう, Theodore, my confidential clerk in those days, 宿泊するd at my expense and kept importunate （弁護士の）依頼人s at bay for what was undoubtedly a 自由主義の salary—ten per cent, on all the 利益（をあげる）s of the 商売／仕事—and yet he was always complaining, the ungrateful, avaricious brute!

井戸／弁護士席, Sir, on that day in September—it was the tenth, I remember—1816, I must 自白する that I was feeling exceedingly dejected. Not one （弁護士の）依頼人 for the last three weeks, half a フラン in my pocket, and nothing but a small ４半期/4分の1 of Strasburg patty in the larder. Theodore had eaten most of it, and I had just sent him out to buy two sous’ 価値（がある） of stale bread wherewith to finish the 残りの人，物. But after that? You will 収容する／認める, Sir, that a いっそう少なく buoyant spirit would not have remained so long undaunted.

I was just 悪口を言う／悪態ing that lout Theodore inwardly, for he had been gone half an hour, and I 堅固に 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd him of having spent my two sous on a glass of absinthe, when there was a （犯罪の）一味 at the door, and I, 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon, the confidant of kings and intimate counsellor of half the aristocracy in the kingdom, was 軍隊d to go and open the door just like a ありふれた lackey.

But here the sight which 迎える／歓迎するd my 注目する，もくろむs fully 補償するd me for the 一時的な humiliation, for on the threshold stood a gentleman who had wealth written plainly upon his 罰金 着せる／賦与するs, upon the dainty linen at his throat and wrists, upon the 質 of his rich satin necktie and the perfect 始める，決める of his 罰金 cloth pantaloons, which were of an exquisite shade of dove-grey. When, then, the apparition spoke, 問い合わせing with just a 十分なこと of aristocratic hauteur whether M. 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon were in, you cannot be surprised, my dear Sir, that my dejection fell from me like a cast-off mantle and that all my usual urbanity of manner returned to me as I 知らせるd the elegant gentleman that M. Ratichon was even now standing before him, and begged him to take the trouble to pass through into my office.

This he did, and I placed a 議長，司会を務める in position for him. He sat 負かす／撃墜する, having 以前 dusted the 議長，司会を務める with a graceful sweep of his lace-辛勝する／優位d handkerchief. Then he raised a gold-rimmed eyeglass to his 権利 注目する，もくろむ with a superlatively elegant gesture, and 調査するd me 批判的に for a moment or two ere he said:

“I am told, my good M. Ratichon, that you are a 信頼できる fellow, and one who is willing to 請け負う a delicate piece of 商売／仕事 for a 穏健な honorarium.”

Except for the fact that I did not like the word “穏健な,” I was enchanted with him.

“Rumour for once has not lied, Monsieur,” I replied in my most attractive manner.

“井戸／弁護士席,” he 再結合させるd—I won’t say curtly, but with 事務的な brevity, “for all 目的s connected with the 事件／事情／状勢 which I 願望（する） to 扱う／治療する with you my 指名する, as far as you are 関心d, shall be ジーンズ Duval. Understand?”

“Perfectly, Monsieur le Marquis,” I replied with a bland smile.

It was a wild guess, but I don’t think that I underestimated my new （弁護士の）依頼人’s 階級, for he did not wince.

“You know Mlle. 火星?” he queried.

“The actress?” I replied. “Perfectly.”

“She is playing in Le Rêve at the Theatre 王室の just now.”

“She is.”

“In the first and third 行為／法令／行動するs of the play she wears a gold bracelet 始める，決める with large green 石／投石するs.”

“I noticed it the other night. I had a seat in the parterre, I may say.”

“I want that bracelet,” broke in the soi-disant ジーンズ Duval 無作法に. “The 石／投石するs are 誤った, the gold strass. I admire Mlle. 火星 immensely. I dislike seeing her wearing 誤った jewellery. I wish to have the bracelet copied in real 石／投石するs, and to 現在の it to her as a surprise on the occasion of the twenty-fifth 業績／成果 of Le Rêve. It will cost me a king’s 身代金, and her, for the time 存在, an infinite 量 of 苦悩. She 始める，決めるs 広大な／多数の／重要な 蓄える／店 by the valueless trinket 単独で because of the 長所 of its design, and I want its 見えなくなる to have every 外見 of a 窃盗. All the greater will be the lovely creature’s 楽しみ when, at my 手渡すs, she will receive an infinitely precious jewel the exact 相当するもの in all save its intrinsic value of the trifle which she had thought lost.”

It all sounded deliciously romantic. A flavour of the past century—before the endless war and abysmal poverty had killed all chivalry in us—clung to this 提案するd 処理／取引. There was nothing of the roturier, nothing of a ジーンズ Duval, in this polished man of the world who had thought out this subtle 計画／陰謀 for ingratiating himself in the 注目する，もくろむs of his lady fair.

I murmured an appropriate phrase, placing my services 完全に at M. le Marquis’s 処分, and once more he broke in on my polished diction with that brusquerie which betrayed the man accustomed to be silently obeyed.

“Mlle. 火星 wears the bracelet,” he said, “during the third 行為／法令／行動する of Le Rêve. At the end of the 行為／法令／行動する she enters her dressing-room, and her maid helps her to change her dress. During this entr’行為／法令／行動する Mademoiselle with her own 手渡すs puts by all the jewellery which she has to wear during the more gorgeous scenes of the play. In the last 行為／法令／行動する—the finale of the 悲劇—she appears in a plain stuff gown, whilst all her jewellery reposes in the small アイロンをかける 安全な in her dressing-room. It is while Mademoiselle is on the 行う／開催する／段階 during the last 行為／法令／行動する that I want you to enter her dressing-room and to 抽出する the bracelet out of the 安全な for me.”

“I, M. le Marquis?” I stammered. “I, to steal a—”

“Firstly, M.—er—er—Ratichon, or whatever your confounded 指名する may be,” interposed my （弁護士の）依頼人 with inimitable hauteur, “understand that my 指名する is ジーンズ Duval, and if you forget this again I shall be under the necessity of laying my 茎 across your shoulders and incidentally to take my 商売／仕事 どこかよそで. Secondly, let me tell you that your affectations of 乱暴／暴力を加えるd probity are lost on me, seeing that I know all about the stolen 条約 which—”

“Enough, M. ジーンズ Duval,” I said with a dignity equal, if not greater, than his own; “do not, I pray you, misunderstand me. I am ready to do you service. But if you will deign to explain how I am to break open an アイロンをかける 安全な inside a （人が）群がるd building and 抽出する therefrom a trinket, without 存在 caught in the 行為／法令／行動する and locked up for house-breaking and 窃盗, I shall be eternally your debtor.”

“The 抽出するing of the trinket is your 事件／事情／状勢,” he 再結合させるd dryly. “I will give you five hundred フランs if you bring the bracelet to me within fourteen days.”

“But—” I stammered again.

“Your 仕事 will not be such a difficult one after all. I will give you the duplicate 重要な of the 安全な.”

He dived into the breast pocket of his coat, and drew from it a somewhat large and clumsy 重要な, which he placed upon my desk.

“I managed to get that easily enough,” he said nonchalantly, “a couple of nights ago, when I had the honour of visiting Mademoiselle in her dressing-room. A piece of wax in my 手渡す, Mademoiselle’s momentary absorption in her reflection while her maid was doing her hair, and the impression of the 初めの 重要な was in my 所有／入手. But between taking a model of the 重要な and the actual 窃盗 of the bracelet out of the 安全な there is a wide 湾 which a gentleman cannot 橋（渡しをする） over. Therefore, I choose to 雇う you, M.—er—er—Ratichon, to 完全にする the 処理／取引 for me.”

“For five hundred フランs?” I queried blandly.

“It is a fair sum,” he argued.

“Make it a thousand,” I 再結合させるd 堅固に, “and you shall have the bracelet within fourteen days.”

He paused a moment ーするために 反映する; his steel-grey 注目する，もくろむs, 冷静な／正味の and disdainful, were 直す／買収する，八百長をするd searchingly on my 直面する. I pride myself on the way that I 耐える that 肉親，親類d of scrutiny, so even now I looked bland and withal purposeful and 有能な.

“Very 井戸／弁護士席,” he said, after a few moments, and he rose from his 議長，司会を務める as he spoke; “it shall be a thousand フランs, M.—er—er—Ratichon, and I will を引き渡す the money to you in 交流 for the bracelet—but it must be done within fourteen days, remember.”

I tried to induce him to give me a small sum on account. I was about to take terrible 危険s, remember; housebreaking, 窃盗罪, 窃盗—call it what you will, it meant the police correctionelle and a couple of years in New Orleans for sure. He finally gave me fifty フランs, and once more 脅すd to take his 商売／仕事 どこかよそで, so I had to 受託する and to look as 都市の and dignified as I could.

He was out of the office and about to descend the stairs when a thought struck me.

“Where and how can I communicate with M. ジーンズ Duval,” I asked, “when my work is done?”

“I will call here,” he replied, “at ten o’clock of every morning that follows a 業績／成果 of Le Rêve. We can 完全にする our 処理／取引 then across your office desk.”

The next moment he was gone. Theodore passed him on the stairs and asked me, with one of his impertinent leers, whether we had a new （弁護士の）依頼人 and what we might 推定する／予想する from him. I shrugged my shoulders. “A new （弁護士の）依頼人!” I said disdainfully. “Bah! Vague 約束s of a couple of louis for finding out if Madame his wife sees more of a 確かな captain of the guards than Monsieur the husband cares about.”

Theodore 匂いをかぐd. He always 匂いをかぐs when 財政上の 事柄s are on the tapis.

“Anything on account?” he queried.

“A paltry ten フランs,” I replied, “and I may 同様に give you your 株 of it now.”

I 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd a フラン to him across the desk. By the 条件 of my 契約 with him, you understand, he was する権利を与えるd to ten per cent, of every 利益（をあげる） accruing from the 商売／仕事 in lieu of 給料, but in this instance do you not think that I was 正当化するd in looking on one フラン now, and perhaps twenty when the 処理／取引 was 完全にするd, as a more than just honorarium for his 株 in it? Was I not taking all the 危険s in this delicate 商売／仕事? Would it be fair for me to give him a hundred フランs for sitting 静かに in the office or sipping absinthe at a 隣人ing 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 whilst I 危険d New Orleans—not to speak of the gallows?

He gave me a strange look as he 選ぶd up the silver フラン, spat on it for luck, bit it with his 広大な／多数の／重要な yellow teeth to ascertain if it were 偽造の or 本物の, and finally slipped it into his pocket, and shuffled out of the office whistling through his teeth.

An abominably low, deceitful creature, that Theodore, you will see anon. But I won’t 心配する.

2

The next 業績／成果 of Le Rêve was 発表するd for the に引き続いて evening, and I started on my （選挙などの）運動をする. As you may imagine, it did not 証明する an 平易な 事柄. To 得る 接近 through the 行う／開催する／段階-door to the 支援する of the theatre was one thing—a フラン to the doorkeeper had done the trick—to mingle with the scene-shifters, to talk with the 最高のs, to take off my hat with every form of 深い 尊敬（する）・点 to the 主要な／長／主犯s had been 平等に simple.

I had even 後継するd in placing a bouquet on the dressing-（米）棚上げする／（英）提議する of the 広大な／多数の／重要な tragedienne on my second visit to the theatre. Her dressing-room door had been left ajar during that memorable fourth 行為／法令／行動する which was to see the consummation of my 労働s. I had the bouquet in my 手渡す, having brought it expressly for that 目的. I 押し進めるd open the door, and 設立する myself 直面する to 直面する with a young though somewhat forbidding damsel, who peremptorily 需要・要求するd what my 商売／仕事 might be.

ーするために minimise the 危険 of その後の trouble, I had assumed the disguise of a middle-老年の Angliche—red 味方する-whiskers, florid complexion, a ginger-coloured wig plastered rigidly over the ears に向かって the 寺s, high 在庫／株 collar, nankeen pantaloons, a patch over one 注目する，もくろむ and an eyeglass 直す／買収する，八百長をするd in the other. My own sainted mother would never have known me.

With becoming diffidence I explained in broken French that my 深い though respectful 賞賛 of Mlle. 火星 had 誘発するd me to lay a floral 尊敬の印 at her feet. I 願望（する）d nothing more.

The damsel 注目する，もくろむd me coldly, though at the moment I was looking やめる my best, diffident yet courteous, a perfect gentleman of the old 政権. Then she took the bouquet from me and put it 負かす／撃墜する on the dressing-（米）棚上げする／（英）提議する.

I fancied that she smiled, not unkindly, and I 投機・賭けるd to pass the time of day. She replied not altogether disapprovingly. She sat 負かす／撃墜する by the dressing-（米）棚上げする／（英）提議する and took up some needlework which she had 明白に thrown aside on my arrival. の近くに by, on the 床に打ち倒す, was a solid アイロンをかける chest with 抱擁する ornamental hinges and a large escutcheon over the lock. It stood about a foot high and perhaps a couple of feet long.

There was nothing else in the room that 示唆するd a receptacle for jewellery; this, therefore, was 明白に the 安全な which 含む／封じ込めるd the bracelet. At the self-same second my 注目する，もくろむs alighted on a large and clumsy-looking 重要な which lay upon the dressing-（米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, and my 手渡す at once wandered instinctively to the pocket of my coat and の近くにd convulsively on the duplicate one which the soi-disant ジーンズ Duval had given me.

I talked eloquently for a while. The damsel answered in monosyllables, but she sat unmoved at needlework, and after ten minutes or so I was 軍隊d to （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 a 退却／保養地.

I returned to the 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 at the next 業績／成果 of Le Rêve, this time with a box of bonbons for the maid instead of the bouquet for the mistress. The damsel was やめる amenable to a little conversation, やめる willing that I should dally in her company. She munched the bonbons and coquetted a little with me. But she went on stolidly with her needlework, and I could see that nothing would move her out of that room, where she had 明白に been left in 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金.

Then I bethought me of Theodore. I realised that I could not carry this 事件／事情／状勢 through 首尾よく without his help. So I gave him a その上の five フランs—as I said to him it was out of my own 貯金—and I 保証するd him that a 確かな M. ジーンズ Duval had 約束d me a couple of hundred フランs when the 商売／仕事 which he had ゆだねるd to me was satisfactorily 結論するd. It was for this 商売／仕事—so I explained—that I 要求するd his help, and he seemed やめる 満足させるd.

His 仕事 was, of course, a very 平易な one. What a contrast to the 危険 I was about to run! Twenty-five フランs, my dear Sir, just for knocking at the door of Mlle. 火星’ dressing-room during the fourth 行為／法令／行動する, whilst I was engaged in conversation with the attractive 後見人 of the アイロンをかける 安全な, and to say in 井戸／弁護士席-assumed, breathless トンs:

“Mademoiselle 火星 has been taken suddenly unwell on the 行う／開催する／段階. Will her maid go to her at once?”

It was some little distance from the dressing-room to the wings—負かす／撃墜する a flight of ill-lighted 石／投石する stairs which 需要・要求するd 用心深い ascent and 降下／家系. Theodore had orders to 妨害する the maid during her 進歩 as much as he could without rousing her 疑惑s.

I reckoned that she would be fully three minutes going, 尋問, finding out that the whole thing was a hoax, and running 支援する to the dressing-room—three minutes in which to open the chest, 抽出する the bracelet and, incidentally, anything else of value there might be の近くに to my 手渡す. 井戸／弁護士席, I had thought of that eventuality, too; one must think of everything, you know—that is where genius comes in. Then, if possible, relock the 安全な, so that the maid, on her return, would find everything 明らかに in order and would not, perhaps, raise the alarm until I was 安全に out of the theatre.

It could be done—oh, yes, it could be done—with a minute to spare! And to-morrow at ten o’clock M. ジーンズ Duval would appear, and I would not part with the bracelet until a thousand フランs had passed from his pocket into 地雷. I must get Theodore out of the house, by the way, before the arrival of M. Duval.

A thousand フランs! I had not seen a thousand フランs all at once for years. What a dinner I would have tomorrow! There was a 確かな little restaurant in the Rue des Pipots where they concocted a cassolette of goose 肝臓 and pork chops with haricot beans which . . . ! I only tell you that.

How I got through the 残り／休憩（する） of that day I cannot tell you. The evening 設立する me—やめる an habitué now—behind the 行う／開催する／段階 of the Theatre 王室の, nodding to one or two 知識s, most of the people looking on me with 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な 尊敬（する）・点 and talking of me as the eccentric milor. I was supposed to be pining for an introduction to the 広大な／多数の／重要な tragedienne, who, very 排除的 as usual, had so far given me the 冷淡な shoulder.

Ten minutes after the rise of the curtain on the fourth 行為／法令／行動する I was in the dressing-room, 現在のing the maid with a gold locket which I had bought from a cheapjack’s barrow for five and twenty フランs—almost the last of the fifty which I had received from M. Duval on account. The damsel was 注目する，もくろむing the locket somewhat disdainfully and giving me grudging thanks for it when there （機の）カム a hurried knock at the door. The next moment Theodore poked his ugly 直面する into the room. He, too, had taken the 警戒 of assuming an excellent disguise—頂点（に達する）d cap 始める，決める aslant over one 注目する，もくろむ, grimy 直面する, the blouse of a scene-shifter.

“Mlle. 火星,” he gasped breathlessly; “she has been taken ill—on the 行う／開催する／段階—very suddenly. She is in the wings—asking for her maid. They think she will faint.”

The damsel rose, visibly 脅すd.

“I’ll come at once,” she said, and without the slightest flurry she 選ぶd up the 重要な of the 安全な and slipped it into her pocket. I fancied that she gave me a look as she did this. Oh, she was a pearl の中で Abigails! Then she pointed 無作法に to the door.

“Milor!” was all she said, but of course I understood. I had no idea that English milors could be thus 扱う／治療するd by pert maidens. But what cared I for social amenities just then? My 手渡す had の近くにd over the duplicate 重要な of the 安全な, and I walked out of the room in the wake of the damsel. Theodore had disappeared.

Once in the passage, the girl started to run. A second or two later I heard the patter of her high-heeled shoes 負かす／撃墜する the 石／投石する stairs. I had not a moment to lose.

To slip 支援する into the dressing-room was but an instant’s work. The next I was ひさまづくing in 前線 of the chest. The 重要な fitted the lock 正確に; one turn, and the lid flew open.

The chest was filled with a miscellaneous collection of theatrical 所有物／資産／財産s all lying loose—showy necklaces, chains, pendants, all of them 明白に 誤った; but lying beneath them, and 部分的に／不公平に hidden by the meretricious ornaments, were one or two boxes covered with velvet such as jewellers use. My keen 注目する，もくろむs 公式文書，認めるd these at once. I was indeed in luck! For the moment, however, my 手渡す fastened on a leather 事例／患者 which reposed on the 最高の，を越す in one corner, and which very 明白に, from its 形態／調整, 含む／封じ込めるd a bracelet. My 手渡すs did not tremble, though I was quivering with excitement. I opened the 事例／患者. There, indeed, was the bracelet—the large green 石／投石するs, the magnificent gold setting, the whole jewel dazzlingly beautiful. If it were real—the thought flashed through my mind—it would be indeed priceless. I の近くにd the 事例／患者 and put it on the dressing-（米）棚上げする／（英）提議する beside me. I had at least another minute to spare—sixty seconds wherein to dive for those velvet-covered boxes which— My 手渡す was on one of them when a slight noise 原因（となる）d me suddenly to turn and to look behind me. It all happened as quickly as a flash of 雷. I just saw a man disappearing through the door. One ちらりと見ること at the dressing-（米）棚上げする／（英）提議する showed me the whole extent of my misfortune. The 事例／患者 含む／封じ込めるing the bracelet had gone, and at that 正確な moment I heard a commotion from the direction of the stairs and a woman 叫び声をあげるing at the 最高の，を越す of her 発言する／表明する: “どろぼう! Stop どろぼう!”

Then, Sir, I brought upon the perilous 状況／情勢 that presence of mind for which the 指名する of 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon will for ever remain famous. Without a 選び出す／独身 flurried movement, I slipped one of the velvet-covered 事例／患者s which I still had in my 手渡す into the breast pocket of my coat, I の近くにd 負かす／撃墜する the lid of the アイロンをかける chest and locked it with the duplicate 重要な, and I went out of the room, の近くにing the door behind me.

The passage was dark. The damsel was running up the stairs with a couple of 行う／開催する／段階 手渡すs behind her. She was explaining to them volubly, and to the accompaniment of sundry half-hysterical little cries, the 悪名高い hoax to which she had fallen a 犠牲者. You might think, Sir, that here was I caught like a ネズミ in a 罠（にかける）, and with that velvet-covered 事例／患者 in my breast pocket by way of damning 証拠 against me!

Not at all, Sir! Not at all! Not so is 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon, the keenest secret スパイ／執行官 フラン has ever known, the confidant of kings, brought to earth by an untoward move of 運命／宿命. Even before the damsel and the 行う／開催する／段階 手渡すs had reached the 最高の，を越す of the stairs and turned into the 回廊（地帯）, which was on my left, I had slipped 一連の会議、交渉／完成する noiselessly to my 権利 and 設立する 避難所 in a 狭くする doorway, where I was 審査するd by the surrounding 不明瞭 and by a 発射／推定 of the でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる. While the three of them made straight for Mademoiselle’s dressing-room, and spent some かなりの time there in uttering 変化させるd ejaculations when they 設立する the place and the chest to all 外見s untouched, I slipped out of my hiding-place, sped 速く along the 回廊（地帯）, and was soon half-way 負かす／撃墜する the stairs.

Here my habitual composure in the 直面する of danger stood me in good stead. It enabled me to walk composedly and not too hurriedly through the （人が）群がる behind the scenes—最高のs, scene-shifters, 主要な／長／主犯s, 非，不，無 of whom seemed to be aware as yet of the hoax practised on Mademoiselle 火星’ maid; and I reckon that I was out of the 行う／開催する／段階 door 正確に／まさに five minutes after Theodore had called the damsel away.

But I was minus the bracelet, and in my mind there was the 会社／堅い 有罪の判決 that that 反逆者 Theodore had played me one of his abominable tricks. As I said, the whole thing had occurred as quickly as a flash of 雷, but even so my keen, experienced 注目する，もくろむs had 保持するd the impression of a 頂点（に達する）d cap and the corner of a blue blouse as they disappeared through the dressing-room door.

3

Tact, wariness and strength were all 要求するd, you must 収容する／認める, in order to を取り引きする the 現在の delicate 状況／情勢. I was スピード違反 along the Rue de Richelieu on my way to my office. My 意向 was to spend the night there, where I had a 議長，司会を務める-bedstead on which I had oft before slept soundly after a day’s hard work, and anyhow it was too late to go to my lodgings at Passy at this hour.

Moreover, Theodore slept in the antechamber of the office, and I was more 堅固に 納得させるd than ever that it was he who had stolen the bracelet. “Blackleg! どろぼう! 反逆者!” I mused. “But thou hast not done with 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon yet.”

In the 一方／合間 I bethought me of the velvet-covered box in my breast pocket, and of the ginger-coloured hair and whiskers that I was still wearing, and which might 証明する an unpleasant “piece de 有罪の判決” in 事例／患者 the police were after the stolen bracelet.

With a 見解（をとる） to 診察するing the one and getting rid of the other, I turned into the Square Louvois, which, as usual, was very dark and wholly 砂漠d. Here I took off my wig and whiskers and threw them over the railings into the garden. Then I drew the velvet-covered box from my pocket, opened it, and groped for its contents. Imagine my feelings, my dear Sir, when I realised that the 事例／患者 was empty! 運命／宿命 was indeed against me that night. I had been fooled and cheated by a 反逆者, and had 危険d New Orleans and worse for an empty box.

For a moment I must 自白する that I lost that imperturbable sang-froid which is the 賞賛 of all my friends, and with a 本物の 誓い I flung the 事例／患者 over the railings in the wake of the milor’s hair and whiskers. Then I hurried home.

Theodore had not returned. He did not come in until the small hours of the morning, and then he was in a 明言する／公表する that I can only 述べる, with your 許可, as hoggish. He could hardly speak. I had him at my mercy. Neither tact nor wariness was 要求するd for the moment. I stripped him to his 肌; he only laughed like an imbecile. His 注目する，もくろむs had a horrid squint in them; he was hideous. I 設立する five フランs in one of his pockets, but neither in his 着せる／賦与するs nor on his person did I find the bracelet.

“What have you done with it?” I cried, for by this time I was maddened with 激怒（する）.

“I don’t know what you are talking about!” he stammered thickly, as he tottered に向かって his bed. “Give me 支援する my five フランs, you どろぼう!” the brutish creature finally blurted out ere he fell into a hog-like sleep.

4

Desperate evils need desperate 治療（薬）s. I spent the 残り／休憩（する） of the night thinking hard. By the time that 夜明け was breaking my mind was made up. Theodore’s stertorous breathing 保証するd me that he was still insentient. I was muscular in those days, and he a meagre, attenuated, drink-sodden creature. I 解除するd him out of his bed in the antechamber and carried him into 地雷 in the office. I 設立する a coil of rope, and strapped him tightly in the 議長，司会を務める-bedstead so that he could not move. I tied a scarf 一連の会議、交渉／完成する his mouth so that he could not 叫び声をあげる. Then, at six o’clock, when the humbler eating-houses begin to take 負かす／撃墜する their shutters, I went out.

I had Theodore’s five フランs in my pocket, and I was 猛烈に hungry. I spent ten sous on a cup of coffee and a plate of fried onions and haricot beans, and three フランs on a savoury pie, 高度に flavoured with garlic, and a ４半期/4分の1-瓶／封じ込める of excellent cognac. I drank the coffee and ate the onions and the beans, and I took the pie and cognac home.

I placed a （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する の近くに to the 議長，司会を務める-bedstead and on it I 性質の／したい気がして the pie and the cognac in such a manner that the moment Theodore woke his 注目する，もくろむs were bound to alight on them. Then I waited. I 絶対 ached to have a taste of that pie myself, it smelt so good, but I waited.

Theodore woke at nine o’clock. He struggled like a fool, but he still appeared half dazed. No 疑問 he thought that he was dreaming. Then I sat 負かす／撃墜する on the 辛勝する／優位 of the bed and 削減（する） myself off a large piece of the pie. I ate it with 示すd relish in 前線 of Theodore, whose 注目する，もくろむs nearly started out of their sockets. Then I brewed myself a cup of coffee. The mingled odour of coffee and garlic filled the room. It was delicious. I thought that Theodore would have a fit. The veins stood out on his forehead and a 肉親，親類d of gurgle （機の）カム from behind the scarf 一連の会議、交渉／完成する his mouth. Then I told him he could partake of the pie and coffee if he told me what he had done with the bracelet. He shook his 長，率いる furiously, and I left the pie, the cognac and the coffee on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する before him and went into the antechamber, の近くにing the office door behind me, and leaving him to meditate on his treachery.

What I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to 避ける above everything was the 反逆者 会合 M. ジーンズ Duval. He had the bracelet—of that I was as 納得させるd as that I was alive. But what could he do with a piece of 誤った jewellery? He could not 配置する／処分する／したい気持ちにさせる of it, save to a vendor of theatrical 所有物／資産／財産s, who no 疑問 was 井戸／弁護士席 熟知させるd with the trinket and would not give more than a couple of フランs for what was 明白に stolen 所有物／資産／財産. After all, I had 約束d Theodore twenty フランs; he would not be such a fool as to sell that birthright for a mess of pottage and the 単独の 楽しみ of doing me a bad turn.

There was no 疑問 in my mind that he had put the thing away somewhere in what he considered a 安全な place 未解決の a reward 存在 申し込む／申し出d by Mlle. 火星 for the 回復 of the bracelet. The more I thought of this the more 納得させるd I was that that was, indeed, his 提案するd 計画（する） of 活動／戦闘—oh, how I loathed the blackleg!—and 地雷 henceforth would be to dog his every footstep and never let him out of my sight until I 軍隊d him to disgorge his ill-gotten booty.

At ten o’clock M. ジーンズ Duval arrived, as was his wont, supercilious and brusque as usual. I was just explaining to him that I hoped to have excellent news for him after the next 業績／成果 of Le Rêve when there was a peremptory （犯罪の）一味 at the bell. I went to open the door, and there stood a police 視察官 in uniform with a sheaf of papers in his 手渡す.

Now, I am not over-fond of our Paris police; they poke their noses in where they are least 手配中の，お尋ね者. Their 無資格／無能力 favours the machinations of rogues and 失望させるs the innocent ambitions of the just. However, in this instance the 視察官 looked amiable enough, though his manner, I must say, was, as usual, unpleasantly curt.

“Here, Ratichon,” he said, “there has been an impudent 窃盗 of a 価値のある bracelet out of Mademoiselle 火星’ dressing-room at the Theatre 王室の last night. You and your mate たびたび（訪れる） all sorts of places of ill-fame; you may hear something of the 事件／事情／状勢.”

I chose to ignore the 侮辱, and the 視察官 detached a paper from the sheaf which he held and threw it across the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する to me.

“There is a reward of two thousand five hundred フランs,” he said, “for the 回復 of the bracelet. You will find on that paper an 正確な description of the jewel. It 含む／封じ込めるs the celebrated Maroni emerald, 現在のd to the ex-Emperor by the 暴君, and given by him to Mlle. 火星.”

その結果 he turned 無作法に on his heel and went, leaving me 直面する to 直面する with the man who had so shamefully tried to 搾取する me. I turned, and 残り／休憩（する）ing my 肘 on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する and my chin in my 手渡す, I looked mutely on the soi-disant ジーンズ Duval and 平等に mutely pointed with an 告発する／非難するing finger to the description of the famous bracelet which he had 宣言するd to me was 単に strass and base metal.

But he had the impudence to turn on me before I could utter a syllable.

“Where is the bracelet?” he 需要・要求するd. “You consummate liar, you! Where is it? You stole it last night! What have you done with it?”

“I 抽出するd, at your request,” I replied with as much dignity as I could 命令（する）, “a piece of theatrical jewellery, which you 明言する／公表するd to me to be worthless, out of an アイロンをかける chest, the 重要な of which you placed in my 手渡すs. I . . .”

“Enough of this rubbish!” he broke in 概略で. “You have the bracelet. Give it me now, or . . .”

He broke off and looked somewhat alarmed in the direction of the office door, from the other 味方する of which there had just come a loud 衝突，墜落, followed by loud, if unintelligible, vituperation. What had happened I could not guess; all that I could do was to carry off the 状況／情勢 as boldly as I dared.

“You shall have the bracelet, Sir,” I said in my most suave manner. “You shall have it, but not unless you will 支払う／賃金 me three thousand フランs for it. I can get two thousand five hundred by taking it straight to Mlle. 火星.”

“And be taken up by the police for stealing it,” he retorted. “How will you explain its 存在 in your 所有／入手?”

I did not blanch.

“That is my 事件／事情／状勢,” I replied. “Will you give me three thousand フランs for it? It is 価値（がある） sixty thousand フランs to a clever どろぼう like you.”

“You hound!” he cried, livid with 激怒（する）, and raised his 茎 as if he would strike me.

“Aye, it was cleverly done, M. ジーンズ Duval, whoever you may be. I know that the gentleman-どろぼう is a modern 製品 of the old 政権, but I did not know that the fraternity could show such a 罰金 見本／標本 as yourself. 支払う／賃金 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon a thousand フランs for stealing a bracelet for you 価値（がある） sixty! Indeed, M. ジーンズ Duval, you deserved to 後継する!”

Again he shook his 茎 at me.

“If you touch me,” I 宣言するd boldly, “I shall take the bracelet at once to Mlle. 火星.”

He bit his lip and made a 広大な／多数の／重要な 成果／努力 to pull himself together.

“I 港／避難所’t three thousand フランs by me,” he said.

“Go, fetch the money,” I retorted, “and I’ll fetch the bracelet.”

He demurred for a while, but I was 会社／堅い, and after he had 脅すd to thrash me, to knock me 負かす／撃墜する, and to 公然と非難する me to the police, he gave in and went to fetch the money.

5

When I remembered Theodore—Theodore, whom only a thin partition 塀で囲む had separated from the 十分な knowledge of the value of his ill-gotten treasure!—I could have torn my hair out by the roots with the magnitude of my 激怒（する）. He, the 反逆者, the blackleg, was about to 勝利, where I, 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon, had failed! He had but to take the bracelet to Mlle. 火星 himself and 得る the munificent reward whilst I, after I had taken so many 危険s and used all the brains and tact wherewith Nature had endowed me, would be left with the meagre 残余s of the fifty フランs which M. ジーンズ Duval had so grudgingly thrown to me. Twenty-five フランs for a gold locket, ten フランs for a bouquet, another ten for bonbons, and five for gratuities to the 行う／開催する／段階-doorkeeper! Make the 計算／見積り, my good Sir, and see what I had left. If it had not been for the five フランs which I had 設立する in Theodore’s pocket last night, I would at this moment not only have been breakfastless, but also 絶対 penniless.

As it was, my final hope—and that a meagre one—was to 誘発する one 誘発する of honesty in the breast of the arch-反逆者, and either by cajolery or 脅しs, to induce him to 株 his ill-gotten spoils with me.

I had left him snoring and strapped to the 議長，司会を務める-bedstead, and when I opened the office door I was marvelling in my mind whether I could really 耐える to see him dying slowly of 餓死 with that savoury pie tantalizingly under his nose. The 衝突，墜落 which I had heard a few minutes ago 用意が出来ている me for a change of scene. Even so, I 自白する that the sight which I beheld glued me to the threshold. There sat Theodore at the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, finishing the last morsel of pie, whilst the 議長，司会を務める-bedstead lay in a 絡まるd heap upon the 床に打ち倒す.

I cannot tell you how 汚い he was to me about the whole thing, although I showed myself at once ready to 許す him all his lies and his treachery, and was at 広大な／多数の／重要な 苦痛s to explain to him how I had given up my own bed and strapped him into it 単独で for the 利益 of his health, seeing that at the moment he was 脅すd with delirium tremens.

He would not listen to 推論する／理由 or to the most elementary dictates of friendship. Having 注ぐd the vials of his bilious temper over my 充てるd 長，率いる, he became as perverse and as obstinate as a mule. With the most consummate impudence I ever beheld in any human 存在, he きっぱりと 否定するd all knowledge of the bracelet.

Whilst I talked he stalked past me into the 賭け金-議会, where he at once busied himself in collecting all his goods and chattels. These he stuffed into his pockets until he appeared to be bulging all over his ugly-団体／死体; then he went to the door ready to go out. On the threshold he turned and gave me a supercilious ちらりと見ること over his shoulder.

“Take 公式文書，認める, my good Ratichon,” he said, “that our 共同 is 解散させるd as from to-morrow, the twentieth day of September.”

“As from this moment, you infernal scoundrel!” I cried.

But he did not pause to listen, and slammed the door in my 直面する.

For two or three minutes I remained やめる still, whilst I heard the shuffling footsteps slowly descending the 回廊（地帯）. Then I followed him, 静かに, surreptitiously, as a fox will follow its prey. He never turned 一連の会議、交渉／完成する once, but 明白に he knew that he was 存在 followed.

I will not 疲れた／うんざりした you, my dear Sir, with the 詳細（に述べる）s of the dance which he led me in and about Paris during the whole of that memorable day. Never a morsel passed my lips from breakfast to long after sundown. He tried every trick known to the profession to throw me off the scent. But I stuck to him like a leech. When he sauntered I sauntered; when he ran I ran; when he glued his nose to the window of an eating house I 停止（させる）d under a doorway の近くに by; when he went to sleep on a （法廷の）裁判 in the Luxembourg Gardens I watched over him as a mother over a babe.

に向かって evening—it was an hour after sunset and the street-lamps were just 存在 lighted—he must have thought that he had at last got rid of me; for, after looking carefully behind him, he suddenly started to walk much faster and with an 量 of 決意 which he had 欠如（する）d hitherto. I marvelled if he was not making for the Rue Daunou, where was 据えるd the squalid tavern of ill-fame which he was wont to たびたび（訪れる）. I was not mistaken.

I 跡をつけるd the 反逆者 to the corner of the street, and saw him disappear beneath the doorway of the Taverne des Trois Tigres. I 解決するd to follow. I had money in my pocket—about twenty-five sous—and I was mightily thirsty. I started to run 負かす／撃墜する the street, when suddenly Theodore （機の）カム 急ぐing 支援する out of the tavern, hatless and breathless, and before I 後継するd in dodging him he fell into my 武器.

“My money!” he said hoarsely. “I must have my money at once! You どろぼう! You . . .”

Once again my presence of mind stood me in good stead.

“Pull yourself together, Theodore,” I said with much dignity, “and do not make a scene in the open street.”

But Theodore was not at all 用意が出来ている to pull himself together. He was livid with 激怒（する）.

“I had five フランs in my pocket last night!” he cried. “You have stolen them, you abominable rascal!”

“And you stole from me a bracelet 価値（がある） three thousand フランs to the 会社／堅い,” I retorted. “Give me that bracelet and you shall have your money 支援する.”

“I can’t,” he blurted out 猛烈に.

“How do you mean, you can’t?” I exclaimed, whilst a horrible 恐れる like an icy claw suddenly gripped at my heart. “You 港／避難所’t lost it, have you?”

“Worse!” he cried, and fell up against me in 半分-unconsciousness.

I shook him violently. I bellowed in his ear, and suddenly, after that one moment of 明らかな unconsciousness, he became, not only wide awake, but as strong as a lion and as furious as a bull. We の近くにd in on one another. He 大打撃を与えるd at me with his 握りこぶしs, calling me every 肉親，親類d of injurious 指名する he could think of, and I had need of all my strength to 区 off his attacks.

For a few moments no one took much notice of us. Fracas and quarrels outside the drinking-houses in the mean streets of Paris were so たびたび（訪れる） these days that the police did not trouble much about them. But after a while Theodore became so violent that I was 軍隊d to call vigorously for help. I thought he meant to 殺人 me. People （機の）カム 急ぐing out of the tavern, and someone very officiously started whistling for the gendarmes. This had the 影響 of bringing Theodore to his senses. He 静めるd 負かす／撃墜する visibly, and before the （人が）群がる had had time to collect 一連の会議、交渉／完成する us we had both sauntered off, walking in 明らかな 友好 味方する by 味方する 負かす／撃墜する the street.

But at the first corner Theodore 停止（させる）d, and this time he 限定するd himself to gripping me by the arm with one 手渡す whilst with the other he しっかり掴むd one of the buttons of my coat.

“That five フランs,” he said in a hoarse, half-choked 発言する／表明する. “I must have that five フランs! Can’t you see that I can’t have that bracelet till I have my five フランs wherewith to redeem it?”

“To redeem it!” I gasped. I was indeed glad then that he held me by the arm, for it seemed to me as if I was 落ちるing 負かす／撃墜する a yawning abyss which had opened at my feet.

“Yes,” said Theodore, and his 発言する／表明する sounded as if it （機の）カム from a 広大な／多数の／重要な distance and through cotton-wool,

“I knew that you would be after that bracelet like a famished hyena after a bone, so I tied it securely inside the pocket of the blouse I was wearing, and left this with Legros, the landlord of the Trois Tigres. It was a good blouse; he lent me five フランs on it. Of course, he knew nothing about the bracelet then. But he only lends money to （弁護士の）依頼人s in this manner on the 条件 that it is repaid within twenty-four hours. I have got to 支払う／賃金 him 支援する before eight o’clock this evening or he will 配置する／処分する／したい気持ちにさせる of the blouse as he thinks best. It is の近くに on eight o’clock now. Give me 支援する my five フランs, you confounded どろぼう, before Legros has time to discover the bracelet! We’ll 株 the reward, I 約束 you. 約束 of an honest man. You liar, you cheat, you—”

What was the use of talking? I had not got five フランs. I had spent ten sous in getting myself some breakfast, and three フランs in a savoury pie flavoured with garlic and in a ４半期/4分の1 of a 瓶／封じ込める of cognac. I groaned aloud. I had 正確に／まさに twenty-five sous left.

We went 支援する to the tavern hoping against hope that Legros had not yet turned out the pockets of the blouse, and that we might induce him, by 脅し or cajolery or the usurious 利益／興味 of twenty-five sous, to 認める his （弁護士の）依頼人 a その上の twenty-four hours wherein to redeem the 誓約（する）.

One ちらりと見ること at the 内部の of the tavern, however, told us that all our hopes were in vain. Legros, the landlord, was even then turning the blouse over and over, whilst his hideous hag of a wife was talking to the police 視察官, who was showing her the paper that 発表するd the 申し込む／申し出 of two thousand five hundred フランs for the 回復 of a 価値のある bracelet, the 所有物／資産／財産 of Mlle. 火星, the distinguished tragedienne.

We only waited one minute with our noses glued against the windows of the Trois Tigres, just long enough to see Legros 抽出するing the leather 事例／患者 from the pocket of the blouse, just long enough to hear the police 視察官 説 peremptorily:

“You, Legros, せねばならない be able to let the police know who stole the bracelet. You must know who left that blouse with you last night.”

Then we both fled incontinently 負かす／撃墜する the street.

Now, Sir, was I not 権利 when I said that honour and 忠義 are the 必須の 質s in our profession? If Theodore had not been such a liar and such a 反逆者, he and I, between us, would have been richer by three thousand フランs that day.

一時期／支部 7
An Over-極度の慎重さを要する Heart

1

No 疑問, Sir, that you have noticed during the course of our conversations that Nature has endowed me with an over-極度の慎重さを要する heart. I feel 熱心に, Sir, very 熱心に. Blows dealt me by 運命／宿命, or, as has been more often the 事例／患者, by the cruel and 背信の 手渡す of man, touch me on the raw. I 苦しむ acutely. I am 高度に strung. I am one of those rare 存在s whom Nature pre-任命するd for love and for happiness. I am an ideal family man.

What? You did not know that I was married? Indeed, Sir, I am. And though Madame Ratichon does not perhaps fulfil all my ideals of exquisite womanhood, にもかかわらず she has been an able and willing helpmate during these last years of comparative 繁栄. Yes, you see me 公正に／かなり 繁栄する now. My 産業, my genius—if I may so 表明する myself—設立する their reward at last. You will be the first to 認める—you, the confidant of my life’s history—that that reward was fully deserved. I worked for it, toiled and thought and struggled, up to the last; and had 運命／宿命 been just, rather than grudging, I should have 達成するd that ideal which would have filled my cup of happiness to the brim.

But, anyway, the episode connected with my marriage did 示す the の近くに of my professional career, and is therefore worthy of 記録，記録的な／記録する. Since that day, Sir—a happy one for me, a blissful one for Mme. Ratichon—I have been able, thanks to the foresight of an all-wise Providence, to gratify my bucolic tastes. I live now, Sir, まっただ中に my flowers, with my dog and my canary and Mme. Ratichon, smiling with kindly indulgence on the struggles and the 失敗s of my younger 同僚s, oft 協議するd by them in 事柄s that 要求する special tact and discretion. I sit and dream now beneath the shade of a vine-覆う？ arbour of those glorious days of long ago, when kings and emperors placed the 運命 of their 相続物件 in my 手渡すs, when autocrats and 独裁者s （機の）カム to me for 援助 and advice, and the 指名する of 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon stood for everything that was most astute and most 控えめの. And if at times a gentle sigh of 悔いる escapes my lips, Mme. Ratichon—whose thinness is ever my despair, for I admire comeliness, Sir, as 存在 more womanly—Mme. Ratichon, I say, comes to me with the gladsome news that dinner is served; and though she is not all that I could wish in the 事柄 of the culinary arts, yet she can fry a cutlet passably, and one of her brothers is a 卸売 ワイン merchant of excellent 評判.

It was soon after my connexion with that abominable Marquis de Firmin-Latour that I first made the 知識 of the 現在の Mme. Ratichon, under somewhat peculiar circumstances.

I remember it was on the first day of April in the year 1817 that M. Rochez—Fernand Rochez was his exact 指名する—（機の）カム to see me at my office in the Rue Daunou, and the date 証明するd propitious, as you will presently see. How M. Rochez （機の）カム to know of my gifts and 力／強力にするs, I cannot tell you. He never would say. He had heard of me through a friend, was all that he vouchsafed to say.

Theodore had shown him in. Ah! have I not について言及するd the fact that I had forgiven Theodore his lies and his treachery, and taken him 支援する to my bosom and to my board? My 極度の慎重さを要する heart had again got the better of my prudence, and Theodore was 任命する／導入するd once more in the antechamber of my apartments in the Rue Daunou, and was, as heretofore, 株ing with me all the good things that I could afford. So there he was on 義務 on that fateful first of April which was 運命にあるd to be the turning-point of my 運命. And he showed M. de Rochez in.

At once I knew my man—the type, I mean. Immaculately dressed, scented and befrilled, haughty of manner and nonchalant of speech, M. Rochez had the word “adventurer” 令状 all over his 井戸／弁護士席-groomed person. He was young, good-looking, his nails were beautifully polished, his pantaloons fitted him without a wrinkle. These were of a soft putty shade; his coat was 瓶／封じ込める-green, and his hat of the 最新の modish 形態／調整. A perfect exquisite, in fact.

And he （機の）カム to the point without much preamble.

“M.—er—Ratichon,” he said, “I have heard of you through a friend, who tells me that you are the most unscrupulous scoundrel he has ever come across.”

“Sir—!” I began, rising from my seat in indignant 抗議する at the coarse 侮辱. But with an 権威のある gesture he checked the flow of my indignation.

“No comedy, I pray you, Sir,” he said. “We are not at the Theatre Molière, but, I 推定する, in an office where 商売／仕事 is transacted both 簡潔に and with discretion.”

“At your service, Monsieur,” I replied.

“Then listen, will you?” he went on curtly, “and pray do not interrupt. Only speak in answer to a question from me.”

I 屈服するd my 長，率いる in silence. Thus must the proud 苦しむ when they happen to be sparsely endowed with riches.

“You have no 疑問 heard of Mlle. Goldberg,” M. Rochez continued after a moment’s pause, “the lovely daughter of the rich usurer in the Rue des Médecins.”

I had heard of Mlle. Goldberg. Her beauty and her father’s wealth were 報告（する）／憶測d to be fabulous. I 示すd my knowledge of the beautiful lady by a mute inclination of the 長，率いる.

“I love Mlle. Goldberg,” my （弁護士の）依頼人 再開するd, “and I have 推論する／理由 for the belief that I am not altogether indifferent to her. ちらりと見ることs, you understand, from 注目する，もくろむs as expressive as those of the exquisite Jewess speak more eloquently than words.”

He had forbidden me to speak, so I could only 表明する concurrence in the 感情s which he 表明するd by a slight elevation of my left eyebrow.

“I am 決定するd to 勝利，勝つ the affections of Mlle. Goldberg,” M. Rochez went on glibly, “and 平等に am I 決定するd to make her my wife.”

“A very natural 決意,” I 発言／述べるd involuntarily.

“My only trouble with regard to 圧力（をかける）ing my 法廷，裁判所 is the fact that my lovely Leah is never 許すd outside her father’s house, save in his company or that of his sister—an old maid of dour mien and sour disposition, who 行為／法令／行動するs the part of a duenna with dog-like tenacity. Over and over again have I tried to approach the lady of my heart, only to be repelled or 概略で rebuked for my insolence by her irascible old aunt.”

“You are not the first lover, Sir,” I 発言／述べるd drily, “who hath seen 障害s thus thrown in his way, and—”

“One moment, M.—er—Ratichon,” he broke in はっきりと. “I have not finished. I will not 試みる／企てる to 述べる my feelings to you. I have been writhing—yes, writhing!—in 直面する of those 障害s of which you speak so lightly, and for a long time I have been cudgelling my brains as to the possible means whereby I might approach my divinity unchecked. Then one day I bethought me of you—”

“Of me, Sir?” I ejaculated, sorely puzzled. “Why of me?”

“非，不，無 of my friends,” he replied nonchalantly, “would care to 請け負う so scrubby a 仕事 as I would 割り当てる to you.”

“I pray you to be more explicit,” I retorted with unimpaired dignity.

Once more he paused. 明白に he was a born mountebank, and he calculated all his 影響s to a nicety.

“You, M.—er—Ratichon,” he said curtly at last, “will have to take the duenna off my 手渡すs.”

I was beginning to understand. So I let him prattle on the while my busy brain was already at work 発展させるing the means to （判決などを）下す this man service, which in its turn I 推定する／予想するd to be amply repaid. Thus I cannot repeat 正確に／まさに all that he said, for I was only listening with half an ear. But the 実体 of it all was this: I was to 提起する／ポーズをとる as the friend of M. Fernand Rochez, and engage the attention of Mlle. Goldberg 上級の the while he paid his 法廷，裁判所 to the lovely Leah. It was not a repellent 仕事 altogether, because M. Rochez’s suggestion opened a vista of pleasant parties at open-空気／公表する cafés, with 泡，激怒することing tankards of beer, on warm afternoons the while the young people sipped sirops and fed on love. My newly 設立する friend was pleased to 収容する／認める that my personality and 外見 would （判決などを）下す my courtship of the 年輩の duenna a comparatively 平易な one. She would soon, he 宣言するd, 落ちる a 犠牲者 to my charms.

After which the question of remuneration （機の）カム in, and over this we did not altogether agree. 最終的に I decided to 受託する an 前進する of two hundred フランs and a new 控訴 of 着せる／賦与するs, which I at once 宣言するd was 不可欠の under the circumstances, seeing that in my 井戸／弁護士席-worn coat I might have the 外見 of a fortune-hunter in the 注目する，もくろむs of the 怪しげな old dame.

Within my mind I 想像するd the 可能性 of touching M. Rochez for a その上の two hundred フランs if and when 適切な時期 arose.

2

The formal introduction took place on the boulevards one 罰金 afternoon すぐに after that. Mlle. Leah was walking under the trees with her duenna when we—M. Rochez and I—（機の）カム 直面する to 直面する with them. My friend raised his hat, and I did likewise. Mademoiselle Leah blushed and the ogre frowned. Sir, she was an ogre!—bony and angular and hook-nosed, with thin lips that の近くにd with a snap, and 冷淡な grey 注目する，もくろむs that sent a shiver 負かす／撃墜する your spine! Rochez introduced me to her, and I made myself exceedingly agreeable to her, while my friend 後継するd in 交流ing two or three whispered words with his inamorata.

But we did not get very far that day. Mlle. Goldberg 上級の soon marched her lovely 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 away.

Ah, Sir, she was lovely indeed! And in my heart I not only envied Rochez his good fortune but I also felt how 完全に unworthy he was of it. Nor did the beautiful Leah give me the impression of 存在 やめる so 深く，強烈に struck with his charms as he would have had me believe. Indeed, it struck me during those few minutes that I stood dutifully talking to her duenna that the fair young Jewess cast more than one 認可するing ちらりと見ること in my direction.

Be that as it may, the 進歩 of our 各々の courtships, now that the ice was broken, took on a more decided turn. At first it only 量d to 会合s on the boulevards and a cursory 迎える／歓迎するing, but soon Mlle. Goldberg 上級の, delighted with my conversation, would deliberately turn to walk with me under the trees the while Fernand Rochez followed by the 味方する of his adored. A week later the ladies 受託するd my friend’s 申し込む／申し出 to sit under the awning of the Café Bourbon and to sip sirops, whilst we indulged in tankards of 泡，激怒することing “blondes.”

Within a fortnight, Sir—I may say it without 誇るing—I had Mlle. Goldberg 上級の in the hollow of my 手渡す. On the boulevards, as soon as she caught sight of me, her dour 直面する would be 花冠d in smiles, a 列／漕ぐ／騒動 of large yellow teeth would appear between her thin lips, and her 冷淡な, grey 注目する，もくろむs would 軟化する with a ちらりと見ること of welcome which more than ever sent a 冷淡な shudder 負かす／撃墜する my spine. While we four were together, either promenading or sitting at open-空気／公表する cafés in the 冷静な／正味の of the evening, the old duenna had 注目する，もくろむs and ears only for me, and if my friend Rochez did not get on with his own courtship as 急速な／放蕩な as he would have wished the fault 残り／休憩（する）d 完全に with him.

For he did not get on with his courtship, and that was a fact. The fair Leah was very 甘い, very coy, 大いに amused, I fancy, at her aunt’s obvious infatuation for me, and not a little flattered at the handsome M. Rochez’s attentions to herself. But there it all ended. And whenever I questioned Rochez on the 支配する, he flew into a temper and consigned all middle-老年の Jewesses to perdition, and all the lovely and young ones to a comfortable 肉親，親類d of Hades to which he alone amongst the male sex would have 接近. From which I gathered that I was not wrong in my surmises, that the fair Leah had been smitten by my personality and my 外見 rather than by those of my friend, and that he was 苦しむing the pangs of an insane jealousy.

This, of course, he never would 収容する／認める. All that he told me one day was that Leah, with the characteristic timidity of her race, 辞退するd to marry him unless she could 得る her father’s 同意 to the union. Old Goldberg, duly approached on the 事柄, きっぱりと forbade his daughter to have anything その上の to do with that fortune-hunter, that parasite, that beggarly 選ぶ-thank—such, Sir, were but a few complimentary epithets which he 投げつけるd with 広大な／多数の／重要な volubility at his daughter’s absent suitor.

It was from Mlle. Goldberg, 上級の, that my friend and I had the 詳細（に述べる）s of that 嵐の interview between father and daughter; after which, she 宣言するd that interviews between the lovers would やむを得ず become very difficult of 協定. From which you will gather that the worthy soul, though she was as ugly as sin, was by this time on the 味方する of the angels. Indeed, she was more than that. She professed herself willing to 援助（する） and 扇動する them in every way she could. This Rochez confided to me, together with his 保証／確信 that he was 決定するd to take his 運命／宿命 into his own 手渡すs and, since the beautiful Leah would not come to him of her own （許可，名誉などを）与える, to carry her off by 軍隊.

Ah, my dear Sir, those were romantic days, you must remember! Days when men placed the 所有／入手 of the woman they loved above every treasure, every consideration upon earth. Ah, romance! Romance, Sir, was the breath of our nostrils, the 血 in our veins! Imagine how readily we all fell in with my friend’s 計画（する）s. I, of course, was the moving spirit in it all; 地雷 was the genius which was 運命にあるd to turn gilded romance into grim reality. Yes, grim! For you shall see! . . .

Mlle. Goldberg, 上級の, who 適切な enough was 指名するd Sarah, gave us the 手がかり（を与える） how to proceed, after which my genius worked alone.

You must know that old Goldberg’s house in the Rue des Médecins—a large apartment house in which he 占領するd a few rooms on the ground 床に打ち倒す behind his shop—支援するd on to a small uncultivated garden which ended in a tall brick 塀で囲む, the 会合-place of all the felines in the neighbourhood, and in which there was a small postern gate, now disused. This gate gave on a 狭くする cul-de-sac—grandiloquently 指名するd Passage Corneille—which was 側面に位置するd on the opposite 味方する by the tall 境界 塀で囲む of an 隣接する convent.

That cul-de-sac was 示すd out from the very first in my mind as our 客観的な. Around and about it, as it were, did I build the edifice of my 計画／陰謀s, 補佐官d by the ever-willing Sarah. The old maid threw herself into the 事件／事情／状勢 with zest, planning and contriving like a veritable strategist; and I must 収容する／認める that she was 十分な of 資源 and 発明. We were now in 中央の-May and enjoying a （一定の）期間 of hot summer 天候. This gave the inventive Sarah the excuse for using the 支援する garden as a place wherein to sit in the 冷静な／正味の of the evening in the company of her niece.

Ah, you see the whole thing now at a ちらりと見ること, do you not? The postern gate, the murky night, the daring lover, the struggling maiden, the willing 共犯者s. The actors were all there, ready for the curtain to be rung up on the palpitating 演劇.

Then it was that a brilliant idea （機の）カム into my brain. It was born on the very day that I realized with indisputable certainty that the lovely Leah was not in reality in love with Rochez. He fatuously believed that she was ready to 落ちる into his 武器, that only maidenly timidity held her 支援する, and that the moment she had been snatched from her father’s house and 設立する herself in the 武器 of her adoring lover, she would turn to him in the very fullness of love and 信用／信任.

But I knew better. I had caught a look now and again—an undefinable ちらりと見ること, which told me the whole pitiable tale. She did not love Rochez; and in the 演劇 which we were 準備するing to 制定する the curtain would 落ちる on his rapture and her unhappiness.

Ah, Sir! imagine what my feelings were when I realized this! This fair girl, against whom we were all conspiring like so many 反逆者s, was still ignorant of the 致命的な brink on which she stood. She chatted and coquetted and smiled, little dreaming that in a very few days her happiness would be 難破させるd and she would be linked for life to a man whom she could never love. Rochez’s idea, of course, was まず第一に／本来 to get 持つ／拘留する of her fortune. I had already ascertained for him, through the ever-willing Sarah, that this fortune （機の）カム from Leah’s grandfather, who had left a sum of two hundred thousand フランs on 信用 for her children, she to enjoy the income for her life. There certainly was a 条項 in the will whereby the girl would 没収される that fortune if she married without her father’s 同意; but によれば Rochez’s 計画（する）s this could scarcely be withheld once she had been taken 強制的に away from home, held in durance, and with her 評判 hopelessly 妥協d. She could then 提起する／ポーズをとる as an 負傷させるd 犠牲者, throw herself at her father’s feet, and beg him to give that 同意 without which she would for ever remain an outcast of society, a pariah amongst her 肉親，親類d.

A pretty piece of villainous combination, you will own! And I, Sir, was to lend a 手渡す in this abomination!—nay, I was to be the 長，指導者 villain in the 演劇! It was I who, even now, was spending the hours of the night, when I might have been dreaming sentimental dreams, in oiling the lock of the postern gate which was to give us 接近 into papa Goldberg’s garden. It was I who, under cover of 不明瞭 and guided by that old jade Sarah, was to こそこそ動く into that garden on the 任命するd night and 強制的に 掴む the unsuspecting maiden and carry her to the carriage which Rochez would have in 準備完了 for her.

You see what a coward he was! It was a 犯罪の offence in those days, 罰せられるべき with 国外追放 to New Caledonia, to 誘拐する a young lady from her parents’ house; and Rochez left me the dirty work to do in 事例／患者 the girl 叫び声をあげるd and attracted the police. Now you will tell me if I was not 正当化するd in doing what I did, and I will がまんする by your judgment.

I was to take all the 危険s, remember!—New Caledonia, the police, the odium 大（公）使館員d to so foul a 行為; and do you know for what? For a paltry thousand フランs, which with much difficulty I had induced Rochez—nay, 軍隊d him!—to を引き渡す to me in 予期 of what I was about to 遂行する for his sake. A thousand フランs! Did this miserliness not characterize the man? Was it to such a scrubby knave that I, at 危険 of my life and of my honour, would を引き渡す that jewel amongst women, that pearl above price?—a lady with a personal fortune 量ing to two hundred thousand フランs?

No, Sir; I would not! Then and there I 公約するd that I would not! 地雷 were to be all the 危険s; then 地雷 should be the reward! What Rochez meant to do, that I could too, and with far greater 推論する／理由. The lovely Leah did at times frown on Fernand; but she invariably smiled on me. She would 落ちる into my 武器 far more readily than into his, and papa Goldberg would be 平等に 軍隊d to give his 同意 to her marriage with me as with that self-捜し出すing carpet-knight whom he abhorred.

Needless to say, I kept my own counsel, and did not speak of my 事業／計画（する） even to Sarah. To all 外見s I was to be the mere 道具 in this 事件／事情／状勢, the unfortunate cat 雇うd to snatch the roast chestnuts out of the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 for the gratification of a mealy-mouthed monkey.

3

The 任命するd day and hour were at 手渡す. Fernand Rochez had engaged a barouche which was to take him and his lovely 犠牲者 to a little house at Auteuil, which he had rented for the 目的. There the lovers were to 嘘（をつく） perdu until such time as papa Goldberg had relented and the marriage could be duly solemnized in the synagogue of the Rue des Halles. Sarah had 申し込む／申し出d in the 一方／合間 to do all that in her 力／強力にする lay to 軟化する the old man’s heart and to bring about the happy 結論 of the romantic adventure.

For the latter we had chosen the night of May 23rd. It was a moonless night, and the Passage Corneille, from whence I was to operate, was most usefully dark. Sarah Goldberg had, によれば 条約, left the postern gate on the latch, and at ten o’clock 正確に I made my way up the cul-de-sac and 慎重に turned the 扱う of the door. I 自白する that my heart （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 somewhat uncomfortably in my bosom.

I had left Rochez and his barouche in the Rue des Pipots, about a hundred metres from the angle of the Passage Corneille, and it was along those hundred metres of a not altogether unfrequented street that he 推定する／予想するd me presently to carry a かもしれない 叫び声をあげるing and struggling 重荷（を負わせる） in the very teeth of a gendarmerie always on the look-out for exciting 逮捕（する）s.

No, Sir; that was not to be! And it was with a resolute if （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing heart that I presently felt the postern gate 産する／生じるing to the 圧力 of my 手渡す. The 隣人ing church clock of St. Sulpice had just finished striking ten. I 押し進めるd open the gate and tip-toed across the threshold.

In the garden the boughs of a dilapidated old ash tree were soughing in the 勝利，勝つd above my 長，率いる, whilst from the 最高の，を越す of the 境界 塀で囲む the yarring and yowling of beasts of the feline 種類 grated unpleasantly on my ear. I could not see my 手渡す before my 注目する，もくろむs, and had just stretched it out in order to guide my footsteps when it was 掴むd with a kindly yet 会社／堅い 圧力, whilst a 発言する／表明する murmured softly:

“Hush!”

“Who is it?” I whispered in 返答.

“It is I—Sarah!” the 発言する／表明する replied. “Everything is all 権利, but Leah is unsuspecting. I am sure that if she 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd anything she would not 始める，決める foot outside the door.”

“What shall we do?” I asked.

“Wait here a moment 静かに,” Sarah 再結合させるd, speaking in a 早い whisper, “under cover of this 塀で囲む. Within the next few minutes Leah will come out of the house. I have left my knitting upon a garden 議長，司会を務める, and I will ask her to run out and fetch it. That will be your 適切な時期. The 議長，司会を務める is in the angle of the 塀で囲む, there,” she 追加するd, pointing to her 権利, “not three paces from where you are standing now. Leah has a white dress on. She will have to stoop ーするために 選ぶ up the knitting. I have taken the 警戒 to entangle the wool in the 脚 of the 議長，司会を務める, so she will be some few seconds 完全に at your mercy. Have you a shawl?”

I had, of course, 供給するd myself with one. A shawl is always a necessary adjunct to such adventures. Breathlessly, silently, I intimated to my 肉親，親類d 共犯者 that I would obey her 命令s and that I was 用意が出来ている for every eventuality. The next moment her 持つ／拘留する upon my 手渡す relaxed, she gave another quickly-whispered “Hush!” and disappeared into the night.

For a second or two after that my ear caught the soft sound of her 退却／保養地ing footsteps, then nothing more. To say that I felt anxious and ill at 緩和する was but to put it mildly. I was 直面する to 直面する with an adventure which might cost me at least five years’ 激烈な／緊急の 不快 in New Caledonia, but which might also bring me as rich a reward as could 生じる any man of modest ambitions: a lovely wife and a comfortable fortune. My whole life seemed to be hanging on a thread, and my overwrought senses seemed almost to catch the sound of the spinning-wheel of 運命／宿命 weaving the web of my 運命.

A moment or two later I again caught the 際立った sound of a gentle footfall upon the soft earth. My 注目する，もくろむs by now were somewhat accustomed to the gloom. It was very dark, you understand; but through the 不明瞭 I saw something white moving slowly toward me. Then my heart 強くたたくd more furiously than ever before. I dared not breathe. I saw the lovely Leah approaching, or, rather, I felt her approach, for it was too dark to see. She moved in the direction which Sarah had 示すd to me as 存在 the place where stood the garden 議長，司会を務める with the knitting upon it. I しっかり掴むd the shawl. I was ready.

Another few seconds of agonising suspense went by. The fair Leah had 中止するd to move. Undoubtedly she was engaged in disentangling the wool from the 脚 of the 議長，司会を務める. That was my 適切な時期. More stealthy than any cat, I tiptoed toward the 議長，司会を務める—and, indeed, at that moment I blessed the sudden yowl 始める，決める up by some feline in its wrath which rent the still night 空気／公表する and effectually 溺死するd any sound which I might make.

There, not three paces away from me, was the 薄暗い 輪郭（を描く） of the young girl’s form ばく然と discernible in the gloom—a white 集まり, almost motionless, against a background of inky blackness. With a quick intaking of my breath I sprang 今後, the shawl outspread in my 手渡す, and with a quick dexterous gesture I threw it over her 長，率いる, and the next second had her, faintly struggling, in my 武器. She was as light as a feather, and I was as strong as a 巨大（な）. Think of it, Sir! There was I, alone in the 不明瞭, 持つ／拘留するing in my 武器, together with a lovely form, a fortune of two hundred thousand フランs!

Of that fool Fernand Rochez I did not trouble to think. He had a barouche waiting up the Rue des Pipots, a hundred metres from the corner of the Passage Corneille, but I had a chaise and pair of horses waiting 負かす／撃墜する that same street, and that now was my 客観的な. Yes, Sir! I had arranged the whole thing! But I had done it for 地雷 own advantage, not for that of the miserly friend who had been too 広大な／多数の／重要な a coward to 危険 his own 肌 for the sake of his beloved.

The guerdon was 地雷, and I was 決定するd this time that no 反逆者 or ingrate should filch from me the reward of my 労働s. With the thousand フランs which Rochez had given me for my services I had engaged the chaise and horses, paid the coachman lavishly, and 安全な・保証するd a cosy little apartment for my 未来 wife in a pleasant hostelry I knew of at Suresnes.

I had taken the 警戒 to leave the wicket-gate on the latch. With my foot I 押し進めるd it open, and, keeping 井戸／弁護士席 under the cover of the tall convent 塀で囲む, I ran 速く to the corner of the Rue des Pipots. Here I paused a moment. Through the silence of the night my ear caught the faint sound of horses snorting and harness jingling in the distance, both 味方するs from where I stood; but of gendarmes or passers-by there was no 調印する. 集会 up the 十分な 手段 of my courage and 持つ／拘留するing my precious 重荷（を負わせる） closer to my heart, I ran quickly 負かす／撃墜する the street.

Within the next few seconds I had the seemingly inanimate maiden 安全に deposited in the inside of the barouche and myself sitting by her 味方する. The driver 割れ目d his whip, and whilst I, happy but exhausted, was mopping my streaming forehead the chaise 動揺させるd gaily along the uneven pavements of the 広大な／多数の／重要な city in the direction of Suresnes.

What that fool Rochez was doing I could not definitely ascertain. I looked through the vasistas of the coach, but could see nothing in 追跡 of us. Then I turned my 十分な attention to my lovely companion. It was pitch dark inside the carriage, you understand; only from time to time, as we drove past an overhanging street lanthorn, I caught a glimpse of that priceless bundle beside me, which lay there so still and so snug, still wrapped up in the shawl.

With 用心深い, loving fingers I undid its 倍のs. Under cover of the 不明瞭 the 甘い and modest creature, 解放（する）d of her 社債s, turned for an instant to me, and for a few, very few, happy seconds I held her in my 武器.

“Have no 恐れる, fair one,” I murmured in her ear. “It is I, 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon, who adores you and who cannot live without you! 許す me for this seeming 暴力／激しさ, which was 誘発するd by an undying passion, and remember that to me you are as sacred as a divinity until the happy hour when I can 布告する you to the world as my beloved wife!”

I 圧力（をかける）d her against my heart, and my lips imprinted a delicate kiss upon her forehead. After which, with chaste decorum, she once more turned away from me, covered her 直面する and 長，率いる with the shawl, and drew 支援する into the remote corner of the carriage, where she remained, silent and 吸収するd, no 疑問, in the contemplation of her happiness.

I 尊敬（する）・点d her silence, and I, too, fell to meditating upon my good fortune. Here was I, Sir, within sight of a 港／避難所 wherein I could live through the twilight of my days in 慰安 and in peace, a beautiful young wife, a modest fortune! I had never in my wildest dreams 想像するd a 運命／宿命 more fair. The little house at Chantilly which I coveted, the 陰謀（を企てる） of garden, the espalier peaches—all, all would be 地雷 now! It seemed indeed too good to be true!

The very next moment I was rudely awakened from those golden dreams by a loud clatter, and 厳しい 発言する／表明するs shouting the ominous word, “停止（させる）!” The carriage drew up with such a jerk that I was flung off my seat against the 前線 window and my nose 本気で bruised. A faint cry of terror （機の）カム from the precious bundle beside me.

“Have no 恐れる, my beloved,” I whispered hurriedly. “Your own 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） will 保護する you!”

Already the door of the carriage had been violently torn open; the next moment a gruff 発言する／表明する called out peremptorily:

“By order of the 長，指導者 Commissary of Police!”

I was dumbfounded. In what manner had the 長，指導者 Commissary of Police been already apprised of this 事件／事情／状勢? The whole thing was, of course, a swift and vengeful blow dealt to me by that 臆病な／卑劣な Rochez. But how, in the 指名する of 雷鳴, had he got to work so quickly? But, of course, there was no time now for reflection. The gruff 発言する／表明する was going on more peremptorily and more insistently:

“Is 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon here?”

I was dumb. My throat had の近くにd up, and I could not have uttered a sound to save my life. The police had even got my 指名する やめる straight!

“Now then, Ratichon,” that same irascible 発言する／表明する continued, “get out of there! In the 指名する of the 法律 I 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 you with the 誘拐 of a defenceless 女性（の）, and my orders are to bring you forthwith before the 長，指導者 Commissary of Police.”

Then it was, Sir, that bliss once more re-entered my soul. I had just felt a small 手渡す 圧力（をかける）ing something crisp into 地雷, whilst a soft 発言する／表明する whispered in my ear:

“Give him this, and tell him to let you go in peace. Say that I am Mademoiselle Goldberg, your 約束d wife.”

The feel of that crackling 公式文書，認める in my 手渡す at once 回復するd my courage. Covering the lovely creature beside me with a 保護するing arm, I replied boldly to the minion of the 法律.

“This lady,” I said, “is my affianced wife. You, Sir Gendarme, are overstepping your 力／強力にするs. I 需要・要求する that you let us proceed in peace.”

“My orders are—” the gendarme 再開するd; but already my 極度の慎重さを要する ear had （悪事，秘密などを）発見するd a faint wavering in the gruffness of his 発言する／表明する. The 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます）ing トン had gone out of it. I could not see him, of course, but somehow I felt that his 態度 had become いっそう少なく arrogant and his ちらりと見ること more shifty.

“This gentleman has spoken the truth,” now （機の）カム in soft, dulcet トンs from under the shawl that wrapped the 長，率いる of my beloved. “I am Mlle. Goldberg, M. le Gendarme, and I am travelling with M. 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon 完全に of my own 解放する／自由な will, since I have 約束d him that I would be his wife.”

“Ah!” the gendarme ejaculated, 明白に mollified.

“If Mademoiselle is the fiancée of Monsieur, and is 事実上の／代理 of her own 解放する／自由な will—”

“It is not for you to 干渉する, eh, my friend?” I broke in jocosely. “You will now let us proceed in peace, and for your trouble you will no 疑問 受託する this 記念品 of my consideration.” And, groping in the 不明瞭, I 設立する the rough 手渡す of the gendarme, and speedily 圧力（をかける）d into it the crisp 公式文書，認める which my adored one had given to me.

“Ah!” he said, with very obvious gratification. “If Monsieur Ratichon will 保証する me that Mademoiselle here is indeed his affianced wife, then indeed it is not a 事例／患者 of 誘拐, and—”

“誘拐!” I retorted, ゆらめくing up in righteous indignation. “Who dares to use the word in connexion with this lovely lady? Mademoiselle Goldberg, I 断言する, will be Madame Ratichon within the next four and twenty hours. And the sooner you, Sir Gendarme, 許す us to proceed on our way the いっそう少なく 苦痛 will you 原因（となる） to this 苦しめるd and virtuous damsel.”

This settled the whole 事件／事情／状勢 やめる comfortably. The gendarme shut the carriage door with a bang, and at my request gave the order to the driver to proceed. The latter once again 割れ目d his whip, and once again the cumbrous 乗り物, after an ぎこちない lurch, 動揺させるd on its way along the cobblestones of the sleeping city.

Once more I was alone with the priceless treasure by my 味方する—alone and happy—more happy, I might say, than I had been before. Had not my adored one 率直に 定評のある her love for me and her 願望（する） to stand with me at the hymeneal altar? To put it vulgarly—though vulgarity in every form is repellent to me—she had burnt her boats. She had 許すd her 指名する to be coupled with 地雷 in the presence of the minions of the 法律. What, after that, could her father do but give his 同意 to a union which alone would save his only child’s 評判 from the cruelty of waggish tongues?

No 疑問, Sir, that I was happy. True, that when the uncouth gendarme finally slammed to the door of our carriage and we 再開するd on our way, my ears had been unpleasantly tickled by the sound of 長引かせるd and ribald laughter—laughter which sounded strangely and unpleasantly familiar. But after a few seconds’ serious reflection I 解任するd the 事柄 from my thoughts. If, as indeed I 厳粛に 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd, it was Fernand Rochez who had striven thus to put a spoke in the wheel of my good fortune, he would certainly not have laughed when I drove triumphantly away with my 征服する／打ち勝つd bride by my 味方する. And, of course, my ears must have deceived me when they caught the sound of a girl’s merry laugh mingling with the more ribald one of the man.

4

I have paused purposely, Sir, ere I 乗る，着手する upon the narration of the final 行う／開催する／段階 of this, my life’s adventure.

The chaise was bowling along the banks of the river toward Suresnes. Presently the driver struck to his 権利 and 急落（する），激減（する）d into the fastnesses of the Bois de Boulogne. For a while, therefore, we were in utter 不明瞭. My lovely companion neither moved nor spoke. Somewhere in the far distance a church clock struck eleven. One whole hour had gone by since first I had 乗る，着手するd on this 広大な／多数の／重要な 請け負うing.

I was excited, feverish. The beautiful Leah’s silence and tranquillity grated upon my 神経s. I could not understand how she could remain there so placid when her whole life’s happiness had so suddenly, so 突然に, been 保証するd. I became more and more fidgety as time went on. Soon I felt that I could no longer 持つ／拘留する myself in proper 支配（する）／統制する. 存在 of an impulsive disposition, this tranquil 受託 of so 広大な／多数の／重要な a joy became presently intolerable, and, unable to 抑制する my ardour any longer, I 掴むd that passive bundle of loveliness in my 武器.

“Have no 恐れる,” I murmured once again, as I 圧力（をかける）d her to my heart.

But my admonition was 明白に unnecessary. The beautiful Leah showed not the slightest 調印する of 恐れる. She 残り／休憩（する）d her 長，率いる against my shoulder and put one arm around my neck. I was in raptures.

Just then the 乗り物 swung out of the Bois and once more 動揺させるd upon the cobblestones. This time we were 近づくing Suresnes. A vague light, emanating from the lanthorns at the 橋（渡しをする）-長，率いる, was already faintly 明白な ahead of us. Soon it grew brighter. The next moment we passed すぐに beneath the lanthorns. The 内部の of the carriage was flooded with light . . . and, Sir, I gave a gasp of unadulterated 狼狽! The 存在 whom I held in my 武器, whose 直面する was even at that moment raised up to my own, was not the lovely Leah! It was Sarah, Sir! Sarah Goldberg, the dour, angular aunt, whose yellow teeth gleamed for one 簡潔な／要約する moment through her thin lips as she threw me one of those ちらりと見ることs of amorous welcome which invariably sent a 冷淡な shiver 負かす／撃墜する my spine. Sarah Goldberg! I 不十分な could believe my 注目する，もくろむs, and for a moment did indeed think that the elusive, 速く-消えるd light of the 橋（渡しをする）-長，率いる lanthorns had played my excited senses a weird and cruel trick. But no! The very next second 証明するd my disillusionment. Sarah spoke to me!

She spoke to me and laughed! Ah, she was happy, Sir! Happy in that she had 完全に and irrevocably tricked me! That 反逆者 Fernand Rochez was up to the neck in the 陰謀（を企てる） which had saddled me for ever with an ugly, 年輩の wife of dour mien and no fortune, while he and the lovely Leah were spinning the threads of perfect love at the other end of Paris and laughing their fill at my discomfiture. Think, Sir, what I 苦しむd during those few 簡潔な／要約する minutes while the coach lurched through the 狭くする streets of Suresnes, and I had perforce to listen to the protestations of undying love from this unprepossessing 女性（の）!

That love, she 公約するd, was her excuse, and everything, she 主張するd, was fair in love and war. She knew that after Rochez had 達成するd his heart’s 願望（する） and carried off the lady of his choice—which he had 首尾よく done half an hour before I myself made my way up the Passage Corneille—I would pass out of her life for ever. This she could not 耐える. Life at once would become intolerable. And, 補佐官d and abetted by Rochez and Leah, she had planned and contrived my mystification and won me by foul means, since she could not do so by fair; and it seemed as if her volubility then was the 予測（する） of what my life with her would be in the 未来. Talk! Talk! Talk! She never 中止するd!

She told me the whole story of the abominable 共謀 against my liberty. Her brother, M. Goldberg, she explained, had 決定するd upon remarriage. She, Sarah, felt that henceforth she would be in the way of everybody; she would have no home. Leah married to Rochez; a new and young Mme. Goldberg 判決，裁定 in the old house of the Rue des Médecins! Ah, it was 考えられない!

And I, Sir—I, 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon—had, it appears, by my polite manners and prepossessing ways, induced this dour old maid to believe that she was not altogether indifferent to me. Ah, how I 悪口を言う／悪態d my own charms, when I realised whither they had led me! It seems that it was that fickle jade Leah who first imagined the whole execrable 陰謀（を企てる）. Rochez was to ゆだねる me with the 仕事 of carrying off his beloved, and thus I would be tricked in the 不明瞭 into 誘拐するing Mlle. Goldberg 上級の from her home. Then some friends of Rochez arranged to play the comedy of 誤った gendarmes, and again I was tricked into 認めるing Sarah as my affianced wife before 独立した・無所属 証言，証人／目撃するs. After that I could no longer repudiate 地雷 honourable 意向s, for if I did, then I should be arraigned before the 法律 on a 犯罪の 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 of 誘拐. In this comedy of 誤った gendarmes Rochez himself and the heartless Leah had joined with zest and laughed over my discomfiture, whilst the friends who played their rôles to such perfection had a paltry hundred フランs each as the price of this 悪名高い trick. Now my doom was 調印（する）d, and all that was left for me to do was to think disconsolately over my 未来.

I did 激しく reproach Sarah for her treachery and tried to still her protestations of love by pointing out to her that I had 絶対 no fortune, and could only 申し込む／申し出 her a life of squalor, not to say of what. But this she knew, and 公約するd that penury by my 味方する would make her happier than 高級な beside any other man. Ah, Sir, ’tis given to few men to 誘発する such selfless passion in a woman’s heart, and it hath oft been my dream in the past one day thus to be adored for myself alone!

But for the moment I was too 深く，強烈に 怒り／怒るd to listen placidly to Sarah’s 公約するs of undying affection. My 神経s were irritated by her fulsome adulation; indeed, I could not 耐える the sight of her nor yet the sound of her 発言する／表明する. You may imagine how thankful I was when the chaise （機の）カム at last to a 停止（させる） outside the humble little hostelry where I had engaged the room which I had so 情愛深く hoped would have been 占領するd by the lovely and fickle Leah.

I bundled Mlle. Goldberg 上級の into the house, and here again I had to 耐える galling mortification in the 形態／調整 of sidelong ちらりと見ることs cast at me and my 未来 bride by the landlord of the hostelry and his ill-bred daughter. When I engaged the room I had very foolishly told them that it would be 占領するd by a lovely lady who had 同意d to be my wife, and that she would remain here in happy seclusion until such time as all 手はず／準備 for our wedding were 完全にする. The humiliation of these vulgar people’s irony seemed like the last straw which overweighed my forbearance. The room and 年金 I had already paid two days in 前進する, so I had nothing more to say either to the ribald landlord or to Mlle. Goldberg 上級の. I was 激しく 怒り／怒るd against her, and 辞退するd her the solace of a kindly look or of an encouraging 圧力 from my 手渡す, even though she waited for both with the pathetic patience of an old spaniel.

I re-entered the coach, which was to take me 支援する to 地雷 own humble lodgings in Passy. Here at least I was alone—alone with my 暗い／優うつな thoughts. My heart was 十分な of wrath against the woman who had so basely tricked me, and I 見解（をとる）d with 狼狽 量ing almost to despair the prospect of spending the 残り／休憩（する） of my life in her company. That night I slept but little, nor yet the に引き続いて night, or the night after that. Those days I spent in seclusion, thankful for my 孤独.

Twice each day did Mlle. Goldberg come to my lodgings. In the foolish past I had somewhat injudiciously 熟知させるd her of where I lived. Now she （機の）カム and asked to be 許すd to see me, but invariably did I 辞退する thus to gratify her. I felt that time alone would perhaps 軟化する my feelings a little に向かって her. In the 一方／合間 I must commend her discretion and delicacy of 手続き. She did not in any way 試みる／企てる to （性的に）いたずらする me. When she was told by Theodore—whom I 雇うd during the day to guard me against unwelcome 訪問者s—that I 辞退するd to see her, she invariably went away without demur, nor did she 言及する in any way, either with adjurations or 脅しs, to the 差し迫った wedding. Indeed, Sir, she was a lady of 広大な discretion.

On the third day, however, I received a visit from M. Goldberg himself. I could not 辞退する to see him. Indeed, he would not be 否定するd, but 概略で 押し進めるd Theodore aside, who tried to 妨げる him. He had come 武装した with a riding-whip, and nothing but 地雷 own innate dignity saved me from 乱暴／暴力を加える. He （機の）カム, Sir, with a marriage licence for his sister and me in one pocket and with a denunciation to the police against me for 誘拐 in another. He gave me the choice. What could I do, Sir? I was like a helpless babe in the 手渡すs of unscrupulous brigands!

The marriage licence was for the に引き続いて day—at the mairie of the eighth arrondissement first, and in the synagogue of the Rue des Halles afterwards. I chose the marriage licence. What could I do, Sir? I was helpless!

Of my wedding day I have but a 薄暗い recollection. It was all hustle and bustle; from the mairie to the synagogue, and thence to the house of M. Goldberg in the Rue des Médecins. I must say that the old usurer received me and my bride with 示すd amiability. He was, I gathered, genuinely pleased that his sister had 設立する happiness and a home by the 味方する of an honourable man, seeing that he himself was on the point of 契約ing a fresh 同盟 with a ユダヤ人の lady of unsurpassed loveliness.

Of Rochez and Leah we saw nothing that day, and from one or two words which M. Goldberg let 落ちる I 結論するd that he was 大いに 怒り／怒るd against his daughter because of her marriage with a fortune-追跡（する）ing adventurer, who, he weirdly hinted, had already 設立する quick and 模範的な 罰 for his 罪，犯罪. I was 心から glad to hear this, even though I could not get M. Goldberg to explain in what that 模範的な 罰 consisted.

The 最高潮 （機の）カム at six o’clock of that eventful afternoon, at the hour when I, with the newly-enthroned Mme. Ratichon on my arm, was about to take leave of M. Goldberg. I must 収容する／認める that at that moment my heart was 洪水ing with bitterness. I had been led like a lamb to the 虐殺（する）; I had been made to look foolish and absurd in the 中央 of this Israelite community which I despised; I was saddled for the 残り／休憩（する） of my life with an unprepossessing 年輩の wife, who could do naught for me but 株 the penury, the hard crusts, the onion pies with me and Theodore. The only advantage I might ever derive from her was that she would darn my stockings, sew the buttons on my vests, and goffer the frills of my shirts!

Was this not enough to turn any man’s 自然に 甘い disposition to gall? No 疑問 my 動きやすい 直面する betrayed something of the bitterness of my thoughts, for M. Goldberg at one moment slapped me vigorously on the 支援する and bade me be of good 元気づける, as things were not so bad as I imagined. I was on the point of asking him what he meant when I saw another gentleman 前進するing toward me. His 直面する, which was sallow and oily, bore a 肉親，親類d of obsequious smile; his 着せる／賦与するs were of rusty 黒人／ボイコット, and his features were markedly ユダヤ人の in character. He had some 法律 papers under his arm, and he was perpetually rubbing his thin, bony 手渡すs together as if he were for ever washing them.

“Monsieur 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon,” he said unctuously, “it is with much gratification that I bring you the joyful news.”

Joyful news!—to me! Ah, Sir, the words struck at first with cruel irony upon 地雷 ear. But not so a second later, for the ユダヤ人の gentleman went on speaking, and what he said appeared to my reeling senses like songs of angels from 楽園.

At first I could not しっかり掴む his 十分な meaning. A moment ago I had been in the depths of despair, and now—now—a whole vista of beatitude opened out before me! What the worthy Israelite said was that, by the 条件 of Grandpapa Goldberg’s will, if Leah married without her father’s 同意, one-half of the fortune 運命にあるd for her would 逆戻りする to her aunt, Sarah Goldberg, now Madame 圧力をかけて脅す（悩ます） Ratichon.

Can you wonder that I could 不十分な believe my ears? One-half that fortune meant that a hundred thousand フランs would now become 地雷! M. Goldberg had already made it very （疑いを）晴らす to his daughter and to Rochez that he would never give his 同意 to their marriage, and, as this was now consummated, they had already 没収されるd one-half of the grandfather’s fortune in favour of my Sarah. That was the 模範的な 罰 which they were to 苦しむ for their folly.

But their folly—aye! and their treachery—had become my joy. In this moment of heavenly rapture I was speechless, but I turned to Sarah with loving 武器 outstretched, and the next instant she nestled against my heart like a joyful if 年輩の bird.

What is said of a people, Sir, is also true of the individual. Happy he who hath no history. Since that never-to-be-forgotten hour my life has run its simple, uneventful course here in this 静かな corner of our beautiful フラン, with my pony and my dog and my chickens, and Mme. Ratichon to 大臣 to my creature 慰安s.

I bought this little 所有物／資産／財産, Sir, soon after my marriage, and my office in the Rue Daunou knows me no more. You like the house, Sir? Ah, yes! And the garden? . . . After déjeuner you must see my prize chickens. Theodore will show them to you. You did not know Theodore was here? 井戸／弁護士席, yes! He lives with us. Madame Ratichon finds him useful about the house, and, not 存在 used to 高級なs, he is on the whole pleasantly contented.

Ah, here comes Madame Ratichon to tell us that the déjeuner is served! This way, Sir, under the porch. . . . After you!

THE END

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