M. Ferrand for a moment."

"He is always with him in his cabinet; they eat together; one does not move
without the other."

"I think I have seen the man before."

"I think not."

"Tell me, gents, have you not also remarked that for some days past, there
comes regularly almost every two hours a man with great light mustaches and
a military air, who asks the porter for the intruder? The intruder comes
down, talks for a moment with the man with mustaches, after which the
latter makes a half turn like an automaton, to come again in two hours
after."

"It is true; I have remarked him. It seems to me, also, that I meet some
men when I go into the street who appear to be watching the house."

"Seriously, there is something extraordinary going on here."

"Who lives long enough will see."

"On this subject the head clerk, perhaps, knows more than we do. But he
plays the diplomatist."

"Exactly; and where is he, then, for so long a time?"

"He has gone to the house of the countess who was stabbed; it appears that
she is now out of danger."