fee, adding the money necessary to pay the toll at the barriere, if
the baskets contained anything dutiable. These baskets, hampers, or
packages, were never directed to any one. On the first occasion, which
served for all others, the steward had given Madame Clapart's address
by word of mouth to the discreet Pierrotin, requesting him never to
deliver to others the precious packages. Pierrotin, impressed with the
idea of an intrigue between the steward and some pretty girl, had gone
as directed to number 7 rue de la Cerisaie, in the Arsenal quarter,
and had there found the Madame Clapart just portrayed, instead of the
young and beautiful creature he expected to find.

The drivers of public conveyances and carriers are called by their
business to enter many homes, and to be cognizant of many secrets; but
social accident, that sub-providence, having willed that they be
without education and devoid of the talent of observation, it follows
that they are not dangerous. Nevertheless, at the end of a few months,
Pierrotin was puzzled to explain the exact relations of Monsieur
Moreau and Madame Clapart from what he saw of the household in the rue
de la Cerisaie. Though lodgings were not dear at that time in the
Arsenal quarter, Madame Clapart lived on a third floor at the end of a
court-yard, in a house which was formerly that of a great family, in
the days when the higher nobility of the kingdom lived on the ancient
site of the Palais des Tournelles and the hotel Saint-Paul. Toward the
end of the sixteenth century, the great seigneurs divided among
themselves these vast spaces, once occupied by the gardens of the
kings of France, as indicated by the present names of the streets,
--Cerisaie, Beautreillis, des Lions, etc. Madame Clapart's apartment,
which was panelled throughout with ancient carvings, consisted of
three connecting rooms, a dining-room, salon, and bedroom. Above it
was the kitchen, and a bedroom for Oscar. Opposite to the entrance, on