abode in the rue Chanoinesse. Nevertheless, a prudent thought, or, if
you prefer to say so, a distrustful thought, occurred to him. Two days
before his installation, he went again to see Monsieur Mongenod to
obtain some more definite information about the house he was to enter.

During the few moments he had spent in his future lodgings overlooking
the changes that were being made in them, he had noticed the coming
and going of several persons whose appearance and behavior, without
being exactly mysterious, excited a belief that some secret occupation
or profession was being carried on in that house. At that particular
period there was much talk of attempts by the elder branch of the
Bourbons to recover the throne, and Godefroid suspected some
conspiracy. When he found himself in the banker's counting-room held
by the scrutinizing eye of Frederic Mongenod while he made his
inquiry, he felt ashamed as he saw a derisive smile on the lips of the
listener.

"Madame la Baronne de la Chanterie," replied the banker, "is one of
the most obscure persons in Paris, but she is also one of the most
honorable. Have you any object in asking for information?"

Godefroid retreated into generalities: he was going to live among
strangers; he naturally wished to know something of those with whom he
should be intimately thrown. But the banker's smile became more and
more sarcastic; and Godefroid, more and more embarrassed, was ashamed
of the step he had taken, and which bore no fruit, for he dared not
continue his questions about Madame de la Chanterie and her inmates.