the happiest of men. Mademoiselle de Guerchi, who was desirous of being
prepared for every peril, asked him in a coaxing tone--

"Who can have put it into your head to be jealous of the commander? Has
he been base enough to boast that I ever gave him my love?"

"No, he never said anything about you; but someway I was afraid."

She renewed her assurances. The conversation continued some time in a
sentimental tone. A thousand oaths, a thousand protestations of love
were, exchanged. Jeannin feared that the suddenness of their journey
would inconvenience his mistress, and offered to put it off for some
days; but to this she would not consent, and it was arranged that the
next day at noon a carriage should call at the house and take Angelique
out of town to an appointed place at which the treasurer was to join her.

Maitre Quennebert, eye and ear on the alert, had not lost a word of this
conversation, and the last proposition of the treasurer changed his
ideas.

"Pardieu!" he said to himself, "it looks as if this good man were really
going to let himself be taken in and done for. It is singular how very
clear-sighted we can be about things that don't touch us. This poor fly
is going to let himself be caught by a very clever spider, or I'm much
mistaken. Very likely my widow is quite of my opinion, and yet in what
concerns herself she will remain stone-blind. Well, such is life! We
have only two parts to choose between: we must be either knave or fool.
What's Madame Rapally doing, I wonder?"

At this moment he heard a stifled whisper from the opposite corner of the