For my part, I saw nothing in any of these appearances worthy, in themselves, of a second thought; nothing could have destroyed the strong and strange interest which I had taken in the girl; and it would have required something more potent than a straw hat--however coquettish in crown, and audacious in brim--to have shaken my belief in her truth and goodness. Her presence, for the accustomed few minutes, in the afternoon or evening, became to me--I will not say a necessity, but certainly a habit; and a habit is sufficiently despotic when "A fair face and a tender voice have made me"-- I will not say "mad and blind," as the remainder of the line would insinuate--but most deliciously in my senses, and most luxuriously wide awake! But to come to the catastrophe-- "One morn we missed _her_ in the accustomed spot"-- Not only, indeed, from "accustomed" and probable spots, but from unaccustomed, improbable, and even impossible spots--all of which were duly searched--was she missed. In short, she was not to be found at all. All was amazement on the Boulevards. Hardened old _flaneurs_ turned pale under their rouge, and some of the younger ones went about with drooping moustaches, which, for want of the _cire_, had fallen into the "yellow leaf." A few days sufficed, however, for the cure of these sentimentalists. A clever little monkey at the Hippodrome, and a gentleman who stood on his head while he ate his dinner, became the immediate objects of interest, and Hermance seemed to be forgotten. I was one of the few who retained any hope of finding her, and my wanderings for that purpose, without any guide, clue, information, or indication, seem to me now something absurd. In the course of my walks, I met an old man, who was pointed out to me as her father--met him frequently, alone. The expression of his face was quite sufficient to assure me that he was on the same mission--and with about as much chance of success as myself. Once I tried to speak to him; but he turned aside, and avoided me with a manner that there could be no mistaking. This surprised me, for I had no reason to suppose that he had ever seen my face before.