"Come, monseigneur, I was wrong; I forgot you were fasting; let us hear the end of this story." "The end is that I promised to ask this favor from the regent, and that the regent will grant it." "The regent will commit a folly." "No, he will only repair a fault." "Ah, now you find you have a reparation to make to M. de Chanlay." "Not to him, but to his brother." "Still better. What have you done to his brother?" "I took from him the woman he loved." "Who?"----"Helene's mother." "Well, that time you were wrong; for if you had let her alone we should not have had all this tiresome affair on our hands." "But we have it, and must now get out of it as well as possible." "Just what I am working at: and when is the marriage to take place?" "To-morrow." "In the chapel of the Palais Royal? You shall dress in the costume of a knight of the order; you shall extend both hands over your son-in-law's head--one more than he meant to have held over you--it will be very affecting." "No, abbe, it shall not be thus; they shall be married in the Bastille, and I shall be in the chapel where they cannot see me." "Well, monseigneur, I should like to be with you. I should like to see the ceremony; I believe these kind of things are very touching." "No, you would be in the way, and your ugly face would betray my incognito." "Your handsome face is still more easy to recognize, monseigneur," said Dubois, bowing; "there are portraits of Henry the Fourth and Louis the Fourteenth in the Bastille." "You flatter me." "Are you going away, monseigneur?" "Yes, I have an appointment with De Launay." "The governor of the Bastille?" "Yes." "Go, monseigneur, go." "Shall I see you to-night at Morceaux?" "Perhaps." "Have you a disguise?" "I have La Jonquière's dress." "Oh! that is only fit for the Rue du Bac." "Monseigneur forgets the Bastille, where it has had some success." "Well, adieu, abbe." "Adieu, monseigneur." When Dubois was left alone he appeared to take some sudden resolution. He rang the bell, and a servant entered. "M. de Launay is coming to the regent, watch him, and bring him here afterward." The servant retired without a reply, and Dubois resumed his work. Half an hour afterward the door opened, and the servant announced De Launay. Dubois gave him a note. "Read that," said he; "I give you written instructions, that there may be no pretext for neglecting them." "Ah, monseigneur," said De Launay, "you would ruin me.". "How so?" "To-morrow when it becomes known." "Who will tell it? will you?" "No, but monseigneur--" "Will be enchanted; I answer for him." "A governor of the Bastille!" "Do you care to retain the title?" "Certainly." "Then do as I tell you." "'Tis hard, however, to close one's eyes and ears." "My dear De Launay, go and pay a visit to Dumesnil's chimney and Pompadour's ceiling." "Is it possible? You tell me of things I was not at all aware of."