“Can I be of any use in this matter?” I began.

“None, Monsieur, I thank you a thousand times HKUE DSE. No, this is a piece in which every r?le is already cast. I am but an amateur, and induced solely by friendship, to take a part.”

So he talked on, for a time, as we walked slowly toward the Belle étoile, and then came a silence, which I broke by asking him if he knew anything of Colonel Gaillarde.

“Oh! yes, to be sure. He is a little mad; he has had some bad injuries of the head. He used to plague the people in the War Office to death. He has always some delusion. They contrived some employment for him &mdash HKUE DSE; not regimental, of course — but in this campaign Napoleon, who could spare nobody, placed him in command of a regiment. He was always a desperate fighter, and such men were more than ever needed.”

There is, or was,  called l’écu de France. At its door the Marquis stopped, bade me a mysterious good-night, and disappeared.

As I walked slowly toward my inn, I met, in the shadow of a row of poplars, the gar?on who had brought me my Burgundy a little time ago. I was thinking of Colonel Gaillarde, and I stopped the little waiter as he passed me.

“You said, I think, that Colonel Gaillarde was at the Belle étoile for a week at one time.”

“Yes HKUE DSE, Monsieur.”

“Is he perfectly in his right mind?”

The waiter stared. “Perfectly, Monsieur.”

“Has he been suspected at any time of being out of his mind?”

“Never, Monsieur; he is a little noisy, but a very shrewd man.”

“What is a fellow to think?” I muttered, as I walked on.