he added, more softly:

"I have my reasons for expressing myself thus; and I do not
hesitate to do so before men whose profession and character will
justify my discretion. Sauvresy, when living, did me a great
service--when I was forced to take the mayoralty. As for Hector,
I knew well that he had departed--from the dissipations of his
youth, and thought I discerned that he was not indifferent to my
eldest daughter, Laurence; and I dreamed of a marriage all the more
proper, as, if the Count Hector had a great name, I would give to
my daughter a dowry large enough to gild any escutcheon. Only
events modified my projects."

The mayor would have gone on singing the praises of the Tremorels,
and his own family, if the judge of instruction had not interposed.

"Here I am fixed," he commenced, "now, it seems to me--"

He was interrupted by a loud noise in the vestibule. It seemed
like a struggle, and cries and shouts reached the drawing-room.
Everybody rose.

"I know what it is," said the mayor, "only too well. They have
just found the body of the Count de Tremorel."



IV

The mayor was mistaken. The drawing-room door opened suddenly,