chance brings her to you, you let her slip through your fingers and
vanish again."

"She'll be back again, sir; never fear. She won't fling away the money
that she had paid for fees."

"And what do you think that she cares for ten sous or ten francs? She'll
be back when she thinks she will; but a woman who drinks and is off her
head nearly all the year round----"

Inspired by a sudden thought, Beaumarchef made a clutch at his hat.

"She has only just gone," said he; "I can easily overtake her."

But Mascarin arrested his progress.

"You are not a good bloodhound. Take Toto Chupin with you; he is outside
with his chestnuts, and is as fly as they make them. If you catch her
up, don't say a word, but follow her up, and see where she goes. I want
to know her whole daily life. Remember that no item, however unimportant
it may seem, is not of consequence."

Beaumarchef disappeared in an instant, and Mascarin continued to
grumble.

"What a fool!" he murmured. "If I could only do everything myself. I
worried my life out for months, trying to find the clue to the mystery
which this woman holds, and now she has again escaped me."

Paul, who saw that his presence was not remarked, coughed to draw