"You, Adolphe, old fellow!" he cried. "Why, you gave me quite a start. Come in and have a bit of dinner. I want to talk to you. I was coming to find you as soon as I'd finished. Jean, another plate for Adolphe." So the man who had entered laid his hard-felt hat on the sideboard, as was his habit, and sat down at the table in the chair that his friend had placed for him. Then Ansell, having carefully closed the window, went back to the table and, bending towards his friend, said: "Listen. I'm going to tell you something important. I've got a good thing on for us both to-night. You know the Baron's out at Neuilly? Well, to-night, it quite----" "Hush, Ralph! Madame----" his companion cried, glancing at Jean, apprehensively. "Oh, she may just as well know the truth at first as at last," laughed Ansell roughly. Then, turning to his wife, he exclaimed, with a sinister grin: "Perhaps, Jean, you may wonder how we live--how I have got my money in the past. Well, I may as well tell you, for one day you will surely discover our secret. We are burglars." The girl started, staring blankly at her husband, and uttered a low scream. "Burglars!" she gasped, astounded. "Yes. And now you know the truth, take care that you never blab out a word to anyone, or, by Heaven, it will be the worse for you! If you say a word," he added, fiercely, with knit brows and glaring eyes, "if you let drop a hint to anybody, I'll break every bone in your body." "Ralph!" she cried, starting up in horror. "Have you taken leave of your senses?" "Enough!" protested Adolphe, angrily. "I won't stand by and hear such threats, Ralph." "What, pray, is it to do with you?" asked Ansell, fiercely. "She's my wife, and I can speak to her. I can tell her what home-truths I like without your interference." "I should have deemed it more prudent to have said nothing, Ralph," answered the other quietly. Though Carlier was dressed also in a striped jacket and waistcoat and black trousers, he wore no collar, and looked even a greater blackguard than his friend. His eyes met Jean's, and in them he saw an expression of silent thanks for taking her part. Then she turned and, covering her face with her hands, burst into bitter, blinding tears, and disappeared into the little kitchen. "Sit down," Ansell urged. "Now that little fool has gone, we can talk." "You are a perfect idiot," declared the other, in disgust. "That's my affair. She'll have to be brought to her senses and know the truth." "It has upset her." "I can't help that," he laughed. "She must get over it. If she wants fine dresses and a good time she must help us. And I mean that she shall before long. Look at Tavernier's wife." "She is of a different type to madame." "Rubbish!" he laughed. "Wait and see what I'll do. She'll be a valuable asset to us before long." Adolphe leaned his elbows upon the table and shrugged his shoulders. "_Bien!_" he said. "Let me hear the proposition."