That night the evening paper in which the first mention of the
mysterious French nobleman had been made contained an article cleverly
contrived to give point to the mystery in its commercial aspect. The
fact had been observed, the article declared, that the nobleman's
promenade began and ended at a prominent clothing establishment on
Broadway; and then followed, in the guise of a contribution toward the
clearing up of the mystery, an interview with the proprietor of the
establishment in question. However, the interview left the mystery just
where it found it, for all that the tailor told was that the Marquis
had bought several suits of clothes from him; that he had shown himself
to be an exceptionally critical person in the matter of his wearing
apparel; that he had expressed repeatedly his entire satisfaction with
his purchases. In another portion of the paper was a glaring
advertisement, in which the clothing man set forth, in an animated
fashion, the cheapness and desirability of "The Marquis Suit"--a suit
that "might be seen to advantage on the person of the afflicted French
nobleman now in our midst who had honored it with his approval, and in
whose honor it had been named." Upon reading the newspaper narrative
and its advertisement pendant, Jaune groaned aloud. He was oppressed by
a horror of discovery, and here, as it seemed to him in his morbidly
nervous condition, was a clew to his duplex identity sufficiently
obvious to be apparent even to a detective.
The Count Siccatif de Courtray, as has been intimated, went so far as
to fidget while listening to Mademoiselle Carthame's vivacious
description of her encounter with the handsome Marquis. Being regaled
during the ensuing evening with a very similar narrative--a materially
modified version of the events which had aroused in so lively a manner
the passion of jealousy in the breast of Jaune d'Antimoine--the Count
ceased merely to fidget and became the prey to a serious anxiety. He
determined that the next day, quite unobtrusively, he would observe
Mademoiselle Carthame in her relations with this unknown but
dangerously fascinating nobleman; and also that he would give some
attention to the nobleman himself. This secondary purpose was
strengthened the next morning, while the Count was engaged with his
coffee and newspaper, by his finding in the "Courrier des Etats-Unis" a
translation of the paragraph stating the curious fact that the daily
walk of the Marquis began and ended at the Broadway tailor shop.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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