Benedicite!" said the new-comer, lightly signing the cross in air
with a sociable smile--"Do not disturb yourselves, my children! You
have with you in this house the eminent Cardinal Bonpre?"

"Ah, yes, Monseigneur!" replied Madame Patoux--"Only just now he has
finished his little supper. Shall I show Monseigneur to his room?"

"If you please," returned the Archbishop, still smiling
benevolently--"And permit my secretary to wait with you here till I
return."

With this, and an introductory wave of his hand in the direction of
the attenuated and sallow-faced personage who had accompanied him,
he graciously permitted Madame Patoux to humbly precede him by a few
steps, and then followed her with a soft, even tread, and a sound as
of rustling silk in his garments, from which a faint odour of some
delicate perfume seemed wafted as he moved.

Left to entertain the Archbishop's secretary, Jean Patoux was for a
minute or two somewhat embarrassed. Henri and Babette stared at the
stranger with undisguised curiosity, and were apparently not
favourably impressed by his appearance.

"He has white eyelashes!" whispered Henri.

"And yellow teeth," responded Babette.

Meanwhile Patoux, having scratched his bullet-head sufficiently over
the matter, offered his visitor a chair.