“‘But let us return to the original topic of conversation. How is it that you expect a mere dream will aid you in researches of a nature so profound as these? How do you suppose that a mere idle dream, even supposing you to have one on the subject, could furnish you with the key? There might be fifty persons, or fifty thousand, for that matter, each one of whom might feel an interest and have a dream about it, and, like yourself, discover a fancied key, and yet upon comparing notes no two dreams and no two keys would be found alike amongst the whole fifty or fifty thousand!’ “Vulgarly, this was a ‘poser;’ still, an answer was expected, and so I said: ‘Very true, there might; but the true key would be that which, whenever and wherever it was applied, would yield uniform and concordant results.’ “This reply appeared satisfactory to the old gentleman, who, after a little further conversation, invited me to attend him to his residence and partake of a dinner with him at his own table. ‘’Tis but a short and pleasant walk,’ said he; ‘my house is situated in the Rue Michel le Compte, close to the grand Rue du Temple, and we shall reach it in a very little time.’ Cheerfully accepting the invitation, I took the old gentleman’s arm, and together we proceeded to his residence--which I found to be one of those stately old mansions built by the nobless of the times of Louis le Grande. We entered, and in due time sat down to a repast at once rich, liberal and friendly, and which gave me a very high notion of the man who presided over it. Wine of the rarest graced his board; plate of the richest adorned it; servants most attentive served it; coffee of the best followed, and tobacco of the finest finished it; all of which strengthened Ravalette in my esteem. After partaking of his elegant hospitality, he proposed a walk, and accordingly we withdrew from the house together, and arm in arm strolled into the Rue du Temple, and kept that route until we reached the limit of Paris in that direction, and entered one of its suburbs known as Belleville. “Before quitting the street where I dined, I had taken the precaution to mark well the locality of the house, and to note its number on my ivory tablets, which I invariably carried with me.