Tantaine took three visiting cards from a china ornament on the mantelshelf. “Here are three pupils of yours,” said he, “who can pay you one hundred francs per month for two lessons a week, and two of them will assure you that you have taught them for some time. The third, Madame Grandorge, a widow, will vow that she owes all her success, which is very great, to your lessons. You will go and give these pupils their lessons at the hours noted on their cards, and you will be received as if you had often been to the house before; and remember to be perfectly at your ease.” “I will do my best to follow your instructions.” “One last piece of information. In addition to your lessons, you are in the habit of copying for certain wealthy amateurs the fragments of old and almost obsolete operas, and on the piano lies the work that you are engaged on for the Marquis de Croisenois, a charming composition by Valserra. You see,” continued Tantaine, taking Paul by the arm, and showing him round the room, “that nothing has been forgotten, and that you have lived here for years past. You have always been a steady young man, and have saved up a little money. In this drawer you will find eight certificates of scrip from the Bank of France.” Paul would have put many more questions, but the visitor was already on the threshold, and only paused to add these words,-- “I will call here to-morrow with Dr. Hortebise.” Then, with a strange smile playing on his lips, he added, as Mascarin had before, “You will be a duke yet.” The old portress was waiting for Tantaine, and as soon as she saw him coming down the stairs immersed in deep thought, out she ran toward him with as much alacrity as her corpulency would admit. “Did I do it all right?” asked she. “Hush!” answered he, pushing her quickly into her lodge, the door of which stood open. “Hush! are you mad or drunk, to talk like this, when you do not know who is listening?” “I hope you were pleased with my success,” continued the woman, aghast at his sudden anger. “You did well--very well; you piled up the evidence perfectly. I shall have an excellent report to make of you to M. Mascarin.” “I am so glad; and now my husband and I are quite safe?” The old man shook his head with an air of doubt. “Well, I can hardly say that yet; the master’s arm is long and strong; but you have numerous enemies. All the servants in the house hate you, and would be glad to see you come to grief.” “Is that really so, sir? How can that be, for both I and my husband have been very kind to all of them?” “Yes, perhaps you have been lately, but how about the times before? You and your husband both acted very foolishly. Article 386 cannot be got now, and two women can swear that they saw you and your husband, with a bunch of keys in your hand, on the second floor.” The fat woman’s face turned a sickly yellow, she clasped her hands, and whined in tones of piteous entreaty,-- “Don’t speak so loud, sir, I beg of you.”