"Oh, pray do no such thing, or you will spoil all my fine schemes. Remember that I have a small apartment in the house; that for the sake of much good I hope to effect, I am anxious to preserve a strict incognito there. Recollect, also, that the Morels are now beyond the reach of further distress; and, finally, let me remind you that there are other claimants for your benevolence. And now for the subject of our present intrigue. I want your generous aid and assistance in behalf of a mother and daughter, who from former affluence are at this moment reduced to the most abject penury, in consequence of having been most villainously despoiled of their just rights."
"Poor things! And where do these unfortunate beings reside, my lord?"
"I do not know."
"Then how did you become acquainted with their misfortunes?"
"Yesterday I was at the Temple,—perhaps, Madame la Marquise, you do not know what sort of place the Temple is?"
"Indeed, my lord, I do not."
"It is a bazaar of the most amusing description. Well, I went there for the purpose of making several purchases in company with a female lodger who occupies an apartment adjoining my own—"
"Indeed! A female neighbour?"
"Yes, my next-door neighbour on the fourth floor. Don't you recollect I told you I had a chamber in the Rue du Temple?"
"Pardon me, my lord, I had quite forgotten that circumstance."