"If you please, madame, it is the rule to be very careful about
fastening up, since you went away."

"Oh, on the principle of locking the stable-door when the steed--"

"Oh! they fear the loss of something which, without offense, I may say,
they esteem more highly than you."

Hedwig answered without even a little impertinence and the other did not
resent what sounded discourteous.

"Then they do not lock up to keep me out?" she questioned.

"It might be a little bit that way, too."

"It is a new habit. Did the master suggest it?"

"Not the master altogether, madame, but his partner."

"Eh! do you mean Antonino? Monsieur had already lifted him up to be his
associate, his confidant, his friend, to the exclusion of his lawful
friend and confidant, his wife--and now, does he make him his partner?"

"No, madame; though he has a good fat share in the enterprise. It is M.
Daniels who found the funds for the new company in which the master is
engaged, and he manages the house to leave the master all his time to go
on inventing and entertaining the grand folks we have to dinner."

"Mr. Daniels! not the old Jew who played that queer straight trumpet at
Munich--"