should of course come in contact with my old acquaintance Louvier; and
the name of Louise was necessarily associated with us. I called on him,
and made myself known. The slight information I gave you as to my
niece was gleaned from him.

"I may now say more. It appears that when he arrived at Aix-la-Chapelle
he found that Louise Duval had left it a day or two previously, and
according to scandal had been for some time courted by a wealthy and
noble lover, whom she had gone to Munich to meet. Louvier believed this
tale: quitted Aix indignantly, and never heard more of her. The
probability is, M. Vane, that she must have been long dead. But if
living still, I feel quite sure that she will communicate with me some
day or other. Now that I have reappeared in Paris in my own name--
entered into a career that, for good or for evil, must ere long bring my
name very noisily before the public--Louise cannot fail to hear of my
existence and my whereabouts; and unless I am utterly mistaken as to her
character, she will assuredly inform me of her own. Oblige me with your
address, and in that case I will let you know. Of course I take for
granted the assurance you gave me last year, that you only desire to
discover her in order to render her some benefit, not to injure or molest
her?"

"Certainly. To that assurance I pledge my honour. Any letter with which
you may favour me had better be directed to my London address; here is my
card. But, M. le Vicomte, there is one point on which pray pardon me if
I question you still. Had you no suspicion that there was one reason why
this lady might have quitted Paris so hastily, and have so shrunk from
the thought of a marriage so advantageous, in a worldly point of view, as
that with M. Louvier,--namely, that she anticipated the probability of
becoming the mother of a child by the man whom she refused to acknowledge