Causes Célèbres. with one hand. As they left the chamber, Desrües said : " I will not ask you to stay to supper, my boy; we have only a picked-up meal, but come on Sunday. To morrow your mother and I are going to Versailles on a matter of business which concerns you." The youth returned to his school; Bertin remained to supper. From time to time Desrües went softly to Madame de la Mottc's chamber. About ten o'clock, after a visit longer than the others, he returned with his face wreathed with smiles. " Ah!" he said, " the medicine is working like a charm. Ah! I flatter myself I know how to care for the sick." The next morning, Saturday, Desrües was up early. He intrusted his wife with a number of commissions, and remained alone with the sick woman, as he had done the day before. About eleven o'clock he left the house, and ran to the corner of the Rue Saint-Martin, where he found a porter whom he took back with him. Entering the kitchen, he pointed out a large heavy trunk, which he assisted the porter to place upon his back. " I want it taken to the Louvre," he said to the man; and leading the way, he left the house, fol lowed by the porter. On reaching the Louvre, he met his wife, who was coming from the Place des Victoires, and was going to visit the Mouchys. " Ah, wife," he said to her, " since you are going to the Mouchys, ask M. Mouchy if he will allow me to leave this trunk in his studio for twenty-four hours." Madame Desrües obeyed; and the trunk having been left, she rejoined her husband. She asked for news of Madame de la Motte. "She has gone to Versailles," replied Desrües. "Without even bidding me adieu; that was unkind." "Oh, she was in a great hurry to depart; I have settled everything with her, and we are now absolutely and incontestably the owners of Buisson-Soiicf. The gold I counted
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out to her did her more good even than the medicine." Bertin supped at the house, and learned with joy that he could return to his cham ber. Desrües told him of the departure of Madame de la Motte and the settlement of the affair of Buisson-Soiief. Madame de la Motte had received a portion of the pur chase-money, and in a few days a new con tract would be signed. " Ah, you should have seen the good lady!" he said. "She had wings on her feet as she went with me to the coach for Versailles. She said : ' I do not wish M. de la Motte to get hold of this money; he will dissipate it, as he has the rest.'" "So," exclaimed Bertin, " you have re ceived the money from M. Prevost?" "No," replied Desrües, carelessly; " but I concluded a loan with M. Duclos for a hun dred thousand livres." Madame Desrües gazed at her husband in astonishment, but did not utter a word. As they were about to rise from the table, young La Motte arrived. He was informed of his mother's departure, and Desrües added that she would write to him shortly, as she had expressed the intention of having him meet her at Versailles. After the boy had gone out, Desrües remarked that he believed that young La Motte was not well; he thought he looked as if he were suffering. On the 3d of February Desrües made prep arations for an early expedition. His wife and Bertin asked what business took him out at such an unusual hour. He smiled mysteriously, asked for his lilac coat, d fanglaise, his gold-headed cane, and his little hat trimmed with braid; and in this irreproacha ble attire, he departed, with the air of a wellto-do bourgeois who goes to make a call. For several days he went out in this man ner, answering the questions of his wife only with an enigmatical smile, or by these words spoken in a jovial tone : " Madame, mis tress of Buisson-Soiief, I am occupying my self with our little affairs." One morning, as he returned from one of
