" ' Perhaps he is gone away with Flecher,'
said Gustaire's eldest brother, ' for he lived in
the Rue aux Juifs too, and he has run off no
one knows where, and so has father too for
that matter.'

"Excited by this account, Gustaire set
out with her brothers and the curé's bonne,
curious to know if anything new had been
discovered, as an event of the kind was too
unusual not to excite great interest. They
soon reached the Palais de Justice, where a
crowd was assembled, and on the countenances
of many might be observed an alarmed
expression which told that some new feature
had appeared in the case.

"'The body of poor Marceau the jeweller
has been found,' said a person, addressing
the curé's bonne, 'in the well of the old
convent garden, tied up in a sack; it is
thought that this will lead to discovery, for
the sack has two or three chestnuts in it, and
has a round hole in one side which has been
sewn up.'

"' Blessed Mary!' exclaimed Gustaire, with
a sudden start. ' Why, that is the sack my
father brought home, and which has just
been stolen from me!'

" This exclamation of the young girl
excited instant attention, and led, in fact, to the
discovery of the whole affair. She was obliged
to appear in evidence to prove that the sack
had belonged to her father, which she was
able to do without difficulty, and entirely
unsuspicious that she was thus casting suspicion
upon him. It was found that Ivan Braye
and Flecher had been seen in company with
Marceau, who appeared intoxicated, and that
he had entered the lodging of the latter in
the Rue aux Juifs; that the two had left early
in the following morning without the jeweller,
who was not afterwards seen. As Flecher
had not returned, the proprietor of the tenement
he occupied had resolved to re-let the
room; and, on the visit of the police, a search
was made, which disclosed the marks of what
might have been a scuffle, in several pieces of
broken furniture, and a torn curtain in the
recess where the bed stood; but the police
only picked up a chestnut on the floor. They
searched among the tangled shrubs in a half-
choked bit of garden to which from the room
of Flecher a flight of stone steps led, and
there, in the centre, found an old dried-up
well, where the murdered man's body was
discovered in the sack.

"Of course the suspicion which had fallen
on the two absent men was confirmed by
Gustaire's identification; and the vigilance
of the police, after some delay, succeeded in
discovering the route of both Flecher and
Braye. They were taken at Saint Malo, just
as they were about to embark for California.
Flecher confessed to having counselled the
deed; but asserted that the murder was
committed by Braye, who, having premeditated
it, had brought the sack from his own
house; and he it was who had placed the
body in it and then dragged it to the spot
where it was found. He stated that they had
made Marceau drink to excess, and that
Braye had strangled him when in a state of
insensibility ; that they had robbed him, and
then fled ; that they had spent a great part
of their booty, and with the remainder had
intended to cross the seas in search of gold ;
that a quarrel had delayed them, and thus
they had been overtaken.

"It is enough," continued Madame Gournay,
" to tell you that both met their deserved
fate; but, poor Gustaire's evidence having
gone so far to condemn her worthless father,
the circumstance preyed on her mind and
almost destroyed her. By the kind care of
the curé and his good bonne she recovered,
and her young lover, who remained true
throughout, did not object to take her as his
wife in spite of the opposition of his family.
The curé, however, managed it, and has
always continued her friend. You observed
her child — he is dumb and much afflicted,
and it is to be hoped will be mercifully
taken from her. But she is a good young
woman, has quite recovered her health,
her husband works hard and is a pattern
of kindness to her, and we really saw no
reason why she should not nurse our little
Albert.

I thanked Madame Gournay for her story,
and ventured to inquire the exact locality of
the murder. She informed me that most of
the houses in the neighbourhood had been
taken down.

"You may, however," she added, " still
find the spot, oddly enough, in the back part
of the Hôtel des Carmes; the late proprietor
bought the ground and built quite a new
wing; he laid out the garden and put a
fountain over the well. For a time, as it
was pretty, nothing was said; but the
servants began to fancy strange things — noises
and ghosts and such nonsense — particularly
in a certain room, which they insist is part
of the original building, once the Convent,
against the strong walls of which (too strong
to take down), many of the old houses in the
Rue aux Juifs were erected in former days.
There is a flight of steps from what is called
the chapel, but it is so changed that it would
be ridiculous to say that it positively was so,
except that there is still a window that looks
like it. I believe the whole place, garden,
fountain and all, is left now to neglect, as no
one would care to inhabit so gloomy a room.
The present mistress of the hotel, however,
is capable of putting a stranger there in fair
time when she is over full, and I think," said
Madame Gournay, laughing, "you are lucky
to have secured a room in the front that looks
into the street."

I did not undeceive my acquaintance, nor
did I say a word about the strange vision I
had seen; but, on the same day, after my
return from our walk, I removed to the
Hôtel de Bordeaux on the Quai de Paris,