Castles in the Air

mides. Yes, I! Even I, who had sat in the private ro

sand francs as my goal I would have worked in a

e. He had rendered Estelle quite helpless by keeping all her papers of identification and by withholding from her all the letters which, no doubt, the English lawyers wrote to her from time to time. Thus she was entirely in his power. But, thank heaven! only momentarily, for I, Hector Ratichon, argus-eyed, was on the watch. Now and then the mon

a lump of wax ready for use in my pocket. On the fifth day I was very nearly caught trying to take an impression of the lock of the bureau drawer. On the seventh

l Estelle with his unwelcome attentions. At times I feared that he meant to abduct her; his was a powerful personality and she seemed like a little bird fighting against the fascination of a serpent. Latterly, too, an air of discouragement seemed to dwell upon her lovely face. I was half distraught with anxiety, and once or twice, whilst I knelt upon the ha

ays now Madame Dupont, Farewell's housekeeper, had been exceedingly affable to me. Every morning now, when I came to work,

t sight of her small, piggy eyes leering at me with an unmistakable ex

ied in the middle-and had imprinted a kiss upon her glossy cheek. What that love-making cost me I cannot attempt to describe. Once Estelle came into the kitch

dear sake; working that

for me. I had brought a couple of bottles of champagne with me and, what with the unaccustomed drink and the ogling and love-making to which I treated her, a hundred kilos of foolish woman

tudy and with a steady hand was opening the drawers of the bure

mation of triumph

a number of letters written in English, which language I only partially understand, but they all bore the same signature, "John Pike and Sons, solicitors," and the

e in the next room roused me from my trance and brought up vividly to my mind the awful risks which I was running at

pered. "Have you

y. She, excited and adorable,

" she murmur

ned by success

compensation for all tha

ensat

shape of

mstances; but she was adorable, coy and tender in turns, pouting and coaxing, and playing like a kitten till she had taken the papers fr

when I was on the point of snatching the kiss which she had so tanta

ing-room, which in its turn had no other egress but the door leading into the very pas