"I was sitting at my table, with the door just ajar, when I heard, at six o'clock, a rustle of silk skirts on the stairs. I peeped out. I saw a tall lady, thickly veiled, following our landlord, Dunton, across the landing. She caught sight of me, and started violently." "Was it Mrs. Parflete?" "I could _swear_" he answered slowly, "that it was Mrs. Parflete.... She reached Orange's door; Dunton tapped; Orange came out; the lady and he exchanged glances; they entered the room together, and he closed the door. Three-quarters of an hour later they came down the stairs and left the house." "You followed them?" "Alas! I couldn't. I was not alone. Parflete himself was with me. I dared not trust him out of my sight. He, following his custom, grew faint at the sight of Madame----" "Then he, too, recognised her? This is excellent." "He recognised her height and her figure. Besides, whom else could it have been--if not Mrs. Parflete? M. de Hausée has no sister, and we know his character. The caprice of fortune has honoured him with many faults, but gallantry is not among them. I have that from those who knew him when he was too young to disguise his true nature. He would not have been an _abbé malgré lui_, and he has, on the contrary, the most ecclesiastical soul I know. Rest assured, your Excellency, that this _canaille_ of a woman is determined to be his ruin, for she is a baptized serpent,--one of those creatures more dangerous to men than the devil himself." The Ambassador smiled agreeably, put his tongue in his cheek, and nodded his head with a movement which might have passed equally well for a sympathetic reproof or sorrowful acquiescence. "What will Parflete do?" he asked. Mudara threw up his dark, sinewy, and powerful hands in genuine despair. "He is the vice of the situation," he exclaimed; "at the very mention of divorce his teeth chatter, he gets a spasm of the heart, and he begins to gabble like a sick monk about his soul and his conscience. Believe me, we are dealing with a madman. How can any end be attained in his present state of irresolution?" "Happily it is not my business either to arrange or propose the means." The sly glance of the Prince encountered the sly glance of the Agent. "That is well understood, your Excellency," said Mudara, with the inimitable accent of respect. "Let good be done and let evil be avoided, is the sum total of the Government's desires. But whenever I can see clearly, I shall know how to act. When right and truth are plain, time and experience are the best allies. We have at least sufficient evidence to institute divorce proceedings. If Parflete will not file a petition----" "You can do nothing. Unless you can be perfectly sure that he will follow some reasonable course, he ought to be saved from himself." "Yes, he ought to be saved from himself. Something in my nature makes me follow a certain kind of man as hounds track game. What is now to be done is to meet force with force."