"You have nothing more encouraging than
that to say to me?"

The old man smiled a quiet, slightly
contemptuous smile.

"Patience, belle dame; this is not an
affair of yes or no in the first five minutes.
I must consider it."

She was obviously annoyed.

"How long a time do you require for
consideration ?"

"I require until the day after to-morrow, at
this same hour."

"And you will tell me nothing till then?
You do not know what it is to me to
come to this place. If you doubt my
possessing the means to reward your
services, here is only a small portion of what
I have both the power and the will to
bestow, in the event of your aiding me
effectually;" and she held the purse out to him.
He waved it back quietly.

"Keep your money for the present. You
have on your hand a jewel, which, if you choose
to confide it to me, shall, in the event of my
deciding to accept this task, be made the
instrument of accomplishing your wishes, and
shall, in any case, be restored to you in
safety."

His eye was fixed on a ring she wore—a
serpent studded with diamonds and bearing
on the head an opal of singular fire and
splendour.

"This ring ? It belonged to my mother
and grandmother, and I promised never to
let it out of my possession. There is a
family superstition attached to it."

"As you will, madame. I have no wish to
undertake the affair, and can only consent
to do so on my own conditions."

With fiery impatience she tore rather than
drew the ring from her finger, and held it out
to him. The opal and the emerald eyes of the
serpent shot forth prismatic gleams, and the
folds seemed to undulate as he turned it about
in the light of the lamp.

"No common jewel this," he said,
contemplating it; "the opal is a stone of peculiar
influence in the occult sciences, and I can see
that this opal is more than usually gifted with
such virtues. You did well to bring it; it
may aid the accomplishment of your desires
more than anything else."

"Then you promise me——"

"Nothing. Understand fully that to-day I
in no way bind myself to anything in the
affair. The day after to-morrow you shall
have my final decision."

He rose. The lady following his example,
he rang a hand-bell, and the dwarf
again made her appearance to lead her
through the intricacies of the house. When
she got into the street it was almost dark,
and as yet the few lanterns that at distant
intervals were suspended across the alley by
lines stretched from house to house, were
not lighted. With uncertain steps, therefore,
she made her way over the slippery filthy
pavement, not unfrequently disturbing a
huge rat that was ferreting among the
garbage flung from the doors, for some nauseous
morsel, the refuse of some wretched meal.

More than once she was nervously
conscious of attracting the suspicious attention
of a denizen of this iniquitous haunt; despite
her resolute nature, her heart beat high at
the sensation of encountering a very real
danger; and when she emerged on the broad
open thoroughfares, still only in the light, a
load of alarm and anxiety was removed from
her breast. As she turned a corner she
suddenly came on a group of three persons, an
old and young man, with a girl of about
seventeen. She recoiled at the sight, as if
something had stung her, and the young
man, fancying she was startled at finding
herself in such immediate contact with them,
drew back with a "Pardon, madame! " standing
out of the way, hat in hand, to let her
pass. She rushed past him, and her dark
veiled figure was soon lost in the dim light.

Meanwhile the little party strolled on,
talking cheerily by the way. That Gaston
de Montrouge and Geneviève Rouvières were
lovers, was a most unmistakable fact. They
were, moreover, affianced. The elderly man
on whom the girl leaned, was her father,
He belonged to a family of the bourgeoise
and had made a considerable fortune in
commerce, from which he had not retired. His
sister had married the Chevalier de
Montrouge, and, by virtue of a family compact, it
was agreed that her only son should gild the
somewhat threadbare nobility of his father's
race with the louis d'or of his uncle's only
daughter, when both should arrive at years
of discretion. At an early age, Gaston,
through the influence of his paternal
relations, entered one of the most brilliant
regiments of the guard. Soon after, his parents
died, and from thence his uncle's house
became his established home, when away
from his duties, — an arrangement which the
worthy man in nowise objected to, as bringing
the young people together, and tending
to cement the contract already entered into
between the senior members of the family,
by engaging the inclinations of the parties
more especially concerned.

The result was eminently successful.
Gaston found his pretty, gentle cousin, with
her nut-brown hair and hazel eyes entirely to
his taste, and Geneviève thought — and not,
perhaps, without reason—that the beau
cousin was by far the most accomplished
cavalier she had ever encountered.
Unfortunately, though, other and more experienced
judges were of little Geneviève's opinion.

At a grand gathering of the great folks of
the Faubourg St. Germain, the Marquise de
Vaucrasson, a lofty lady who had just cast off
the weeds she had put on and put off with
nearly equal satisfaction, particularly
distinguished the handsome young garde, and
took every means, short of declaring the fact,