"Why, I have just told you; I saw him last night at the Salon." "And you could not be mistaken?" "Impossible! Besides, he wrote to me a note which I received this morning--here it is." "Hem--ha. Well, are you satisfied that this is his handwriting?" said Trevanion, as he perused the note slowly twice over. "Why, of course--but stop--you are right; it is not his hand, nor do I know the writing, now that you direct my attention to it. But what can that mean? You, surely, do not suppose that I have mistaken any one for him; for, independent of all else, his knowledge of my family, and my uncle's affairs, would quite disprove that." "This is really a complex affair," said Trevanion, musingly. "How long may it be since you saw your cousin--before last night, I mean?" "Several years; above six, certainly." "Oh, it is quite possible, then," said Trevanion, musingly; "do you know, Mr. Lorrequer, this affair seems much more puzzling to me than to you, and for this plain reason--I am disposed to think you never saw your cousin last night." "Why, confound it, there is one circumstance that I think may satisfy you on that head. You will not deny that I saw some one, who very much resembled him; and certainly, as he lent me above three thousand franks to play with at the table, it looks rather more like his act than that of a perfect stranger." "Have you got the money?" asked Trevanion dryly. "Yes," said I; "but certainly you are the most unbelieving of mortals, and I am quite happy that I have yet in my possession two of the billets de banque, for, I suppose, without them, you would scarcely credit me." I here opened my pocket-book, and produced the notes. He took them, examined them attentively for an instant, held them between him and the light, refolded them, and, having placed them in my pocket-book, said--"I thought as much--they are forgeries." "Hold!" said I, "my cousin Guy, whatever wildness he may have committed, is yet totally incapable of--" "I never said the contrary, replied Trevanion, in the same dry tone as before. "Then what can you mean, for I see no alternative between that and totally discrediting the evidence of my senses?"