"I should say that he had some presentiment of his misfortune." "How?" "For some days past he seemed to have something on his mind." "Perhaps about Louise." "Louise?" "Why, I only repeat what Mother Seraphin said this morning." "What did she say?" "What? that he was Louise's lover, and the father of her child." "Sly dog! Do you think so?" "Why--why--why--" "Pooh! pooh!" "That's not the case." "How do you know, Master Jabulot?" "Because it is not a fortnight ago that Germain told me, in confidence, that he was over head and ears in love with a little needle-woman, a very correct lass, whom he had known in the house where he lived; and, when he talked of her, the tears came in his eyes." "Why, Jabulot, you are getting quite poetical." "He says Faublas is his hero, and he is not 'wide awake' enough to know that a man may be in love with one woman and a lover of another at the same time; for, as the tender Fenelon says, in his Instructions to the Duke of Burgundy: 'A spicy blade, of the right cock-feather, May love a blonde and brunette together.'" "I demand Chalamel's head!" "I tell you that Germain spoke in earnest." At this moment the head clerk entered the office. "Well, M. Jabulot," said he, "have you completed your rounds?" "Yes, M. Dubois; I have been to M. de Saint-Remy, and he will come and pay immediately." "And as to the Countess Macgregor?" "Here is her answer." "And the Countess d'Orbigny?" "She returns her compliments to our employer. She only arrived from Normandy yesterday morning, and did not know that her reply was required so soon; here is a note from her. I also called on the Marquis d'Harville's steward, as he desired me to receive the money for drawing up the contract which I witnessed at their house the other day." "You should have told him there was no hurry." "I did, but the steward insisted on paying. Here is the money. Oh! I had almost forgotten to say, M. Badinot said that M. Ferrand had better do as they had agreed; it was the best thing to do." "He did not write an answer?" "No, sir; he said he had not time." "Very well." "M. Charles Robert will come in the course of the morning to speak to our master. It seems that he fought a duel yesterday with the Duke de Lucenay." "And is he wounded?" "I think not, or else they would have told me so at the house." "Hark! there's a carriage stopping at the door." "Oh, what fine horses! how full of spirits they are!" "And that fat English coachman, with his white wig, and brown livery striped with silver, and his epaulettes like a colonel!" "It must be some ambassador's." "And the _chasseur_, look how he is bedizened all over with silver!" "And what moustachios!" "Oh," said Jabulot, "it is the Viscount de Saint-Remy's carriage!" "What! is that the way he does it? Oh, my!" Soon after the Viscount de Saint-Remy entered the office.