“Pray reassure yourself; I know how perfectly innocent you are, and I shall give a good account of you. Manicamp, do you follow me: the hedge, the cross-paths, and labyrinth, I am well acquainted with them all; I will be your Ariadne. There now, your mythological name is found at last.” “Perfectly true, comte.” “And take M. Malicorne away with you at the same time,” said Montalais. “No, indeed,” said Malicorne; “M. Manicamp has conversed with you as long as he liked, and now it is my turn, if you please; I have a multitude of things to tell you about our future prospects.” “You hear,” said the comte, laughing; “stay with him, Mademoiselle Montalais. This is, indeed, a night for secrets.” And, taking Manicamp’s arm, the comte led him rapidly away in the direction of the road Montalais knew so well, and indicated so badly. Montalais followed them with her eyes as long as she could perceive them. Chapter L: How Malicorne Had Been Turned Out of the Hotel of the Beau Paon. While Montalais was engaged in looking after the comte and Manicamp, Malicorne had taken advantage of the young girl’s attention being drawn away to render his position somewhat more tolerable, and when she turned round, she immediately noticed the change which had taken place; for he had seated himself, like a monkey, upon the wall, the foliage of the wild vine and honeysuckle curled around his head like a faun, while the twisted ivy branches represented tolerably enough his cloven feet. Montalais required nothing to make her resemblance to a dryad as complete as possible. “Well,” she said, ascending another round of the ladder, “are you resolved to render me unhappy? have you not persecuted me enough, tyrant that you are?” “I a tyrant?” said Malicorne. “Yes, you are always compromising me, Monsieur Malicorne; you are a perfect monster of wickedness.” “I?” “What have you to do with Fontainebleau? Is not Orleans your place of residence?” “Do you ask me what I have to do here? I wanted to see you.” “Ah, great need of that.” “Not as far as concerns yourself, perhaps, but as far as I am concerned, Mademoiselle Montalais, you know very well that I have left my home, and that, for the future, I have no other place of residence than that which you may happen to have. As you, therefore, are staying at Fontainebleau at the present moment, I have come to Fontainebleau.” Montalais shrugged her shoulders. “You wished to see me, did you not?” she said. “Of course.” “Very well, you have seen me,--you are satisfied; so now go away.” “Oh, no,” said Malicorne; “I came to talk with you as well as to see you.” “Very well, we will talk by and by, and in another place than this.” “By and by! Heaven only knows if I shall meet you by and by in another place. We shall never find a more favorable one than this.” “But I cannot this evening, nor at the present moment.” “Why not?” “Because a thousand things have happened to-night.”