The old man, however, lingered until he had seen the lad go off toward
the Jardin des Plantes, and then, turning round, went back by the way
he had come. "I have not lost my day," murmured he. "All the
improbabilities have turned out certainties, and matters are going
straight. Won't Flavia be awfully pleased?"



CHAPTER II.

A REGISTRY OFFICE.

The establishment of the influential friend of Daddy Tantaine was
situated in the Rue Montorgeuil, not far from the Passage de la Reine
Hortense. M. B. Mascarin has a registry office for the engagement of
both male and female servants. Two boards fastened upon each side of the
door announce the hours of opening and closing, and give a list of those
whose names are on the books; they further inform the public that the
establishment was founded in 1844, and is still in the same hands. It
was the long existence of M. Mascarin in a business which is usually
very short-lived that had obtained for him a great amount of confidence,
not only in the quarter in which he resided, but throughout the whole
of Paris. Employers say that he sends them the best of servants, and
the domestics in their turn assert that he only despatches them to good
places. But M. Mascarin has still further claims on the public esteem;
for it was he who, in 1845, founded and carried out a project which had
for its aim and end the securing of a shelter for servants out of place.
The better to carry out this, Mascarin took a partner, and gave him
the charge of a furnished house close to the office. Worthy as these
projects were, Mascarin contrived to draw considerable profit from them,