"At eight o'clock; we had dinner early."

"You went away all together?"

"Yes, sir."

"You did not leave each other?"

"Not a minute."

"And you returned all together?"

The servants exchanged a significant look.

"All," responded a chambermaid--"that is to say, no. One left us
on reaching the Lyons station at Paris; it was Guespin."

"Yes, sir; he went away, saying that he would rejoin us at Wepler's,
in the Batignolles, where the wedding took place." The mayor
nudged the justice with his elbow, as if to attract his attention,
and continued to question the chambermaid.

"And this Guespin, as you call him--did you see him again?"

"No, sir. I asked several times during the evening in vain, what
had become of him; his absence seemed to me suspicious." Evidently
the chambermaid tried to show superior perspicacity. A little more,
and she would have talked of presentiments.

"Has this Guespin been long in the house?"