“Why, you are as bad as Madame de Serizy; you laugh justice to scorn,” said Camusot, who was incapable of flouting his profession. “Madame de Serizy seized the minutes and threw them into the fire.” “That is the right sort of woman! Bravo!” cried Madame Camusot. “Madame de Serizy declared she would sooner see the Palais blown up than leave a young man who had enjoyed the favors of the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse and her own to stand at the bar of a Criminal court by the side of a convict!” “But, Camusot,” said Amelie, unable to suppress a superior smile, “your position is splendid----” “Ah! yes, splendid!” “You did your duty.” “But all wrong; and in spite of the jesuitical advice of Monsieur de Granville, who met me on the Quai Malaquais.” “This morning!” “This morning.” “At what hour?” “At nine o’clock.” “Oh, Camusot!” cried Amelie, clasping and wringing her hands, “and I am always imploring you to be constantly on the alert.--Good heavens! it is not a man, but a barrow-load of stones that I have to drag on!--Why, Camusot, your public prosecutor was waiting for you.--He must have given you some warning.” “Yes, indeed----” “And you failed to understand him! If you are so deaf, you will indeed be an examining judge all your life without any knowledge whatever of the question.--At any rate, have sense enough to listen to me,” she went on, silencing her husband, who was about to speak. “You think the matter is done for?” she asked. Camusot looked at his wife as a country bumpkin looks at a conjurer. “If the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse and Madame de Serizy are compromised, you will find them both ready to patronize you,” said Amelie. “Madame de Serizy will get you admission to the Keeper of the Seals, and you will tell him the secret history of the affair; then he will amuse the King with the story, for sovereigns always wish to see the wrong side of the tapestry and to know the real meaning of the events the public stare at open-mouthed. Henceforth there will be no cause to fear either the public prosecutor or Monsieur de Serizy.” “What a treasure such a wife is!” cried the lawyer, plucking up courage. “After all, I have unearthed Jacques Collin; I shall send him to his account at the Assize Court and unmask his crimes. Such a trial is a triumph in the career of an examining judge!” “Camusot,” Amelie began, pleased to see her husband rally from the moral and physical prostration into which he had been thrown by Lucien’s suicide, “the President told you that you had blundered to the wrong side. Now you are blundering as much to the other--you are losing your way again, my dear.” The magistrate stood up, looking at his wife with a stupid stare.