"And, depend upon it, you'll get back to them some day," continued the American. "Only stay here a year or two until you've made your fortune, as you're certain to do now." "Yess, monsieur," agreed Pelletan, huskily. "T'anks to you!" "In the meantime," added Rushford, smiling, "keep the ladies, if you like to look at them. Your little foibles are no affair of mine. What I wanted to speak to you about was a matter of business. There's a blatant, detestable French spy in the house who has got to get out. He even had the impudence to ogle my girls at dinner this evening. Shall I kick him out, or will you attend to the matter?" Pelletan had grown paler at every word until he was fairly livid. "Iss eet Monsieur Tellier to whom monsieur refers?" he stammered. "I don't know his name, but he looks like a freak from the wax-works. He's got to go--he's nearly as bad as Zeit-Zeit." Pelletan mopped his shining forehead and groaned dismally. "What is it, man?" demanded the American. "Don't tell me that this rascal has a hold on you!" Pelletan groaned again, more dismally than before. "I was told this afternoon," added Rushford, grimly, "that he was probably staying here at my expense." "Eet iss not so!" cried Pelletan, his eyes flashing. "I pay for heem--efery tay I charge myself mit' twenty franc for hees account." "But what on earth for?" demanded Rushford. "What have you done--robbed a bank or committed murder?" Pelletan glanced around to assure himself that the door was tightly closed, then drew his chair nearer to his patron. "I haf a wife," he said, slowly, in a sepulchral tone. "Well, what of it? Is that a crime in France? I could almost believe it!" "I could not liff mit' her no longer," continued Pelletan. "She wass a teufel! I leafe her!" "Oh, that's it--so you ran away?" "Yess, monsieur, I ran avay--avay from Paris--avay from France--I t'ought efen of going to Amérique." "Was she so bad as all that?" asked Rushford, sympathetically. For answer, Pelletan went to the statue of Saint Geneviève, lifted it, and took from beneath it a photograph. "T'is iss she, monsieur," he said, and handed the photograph to Rushford. The latter took one look at it and passed it back. "Not guilty!" he said. "You have my profound sympathy, Pelletan. How did you happen to get caught? You must have been exceedingly young!" "I wass, monsieur," admitted Pelletan, with a sigh. "I wass just from t'e province--my head wass full of treams. Unt she wass petter-looking, t'en, monsieur; she wass almost slim. She wass a widow--unt besides she had a leetle pâtisserie which her man had left her." "I see--avarice was your undoing. And you caught a tartar!" "A teufel!" repeated Pelletan. "A fiend! Oh, what an end to t'e tream! I worked--oh, how hard I worked--sweating at t'e ovens, efery hour of t'e twenty-four--for t'e ovens must not pe allowed to cool. She sat at t'e money-drawer unt grows fat; I wass soon so weak t'at she tid not hesitate to--to--"