"'The Bettina Mignon, Captain Mignon, arrived October 6'; it is now the 17th, and the colonel is sure to be in Paris." Dumay requested Gobenheim to do without him in future, and then went back to the Chalet, which he reached just as Modeste was sealing her two letters, to her father and Canalis.

Except for the address the letters were precisely alike both in weight and appearance.

Modeste thought she had laid that to her father over that to her Melchior, but had, in fact, done exactly the reverse.

This mistake, so often made in the little things of life, occasioned the discovery of her secret by Dumay and her mother.

The former was talking vehemently to Madame Mignon in the salon, and revealing to her his fresh fears caused by Modeste's duplicity and Butscha's connivance.
"Madame," he cried, "he is a serpent whom we have warmed in our bosoms; there's no place in his contorted little body for a soul!" Modeste put the letter for her father into the pocket of her apron, supposing it to be that for Canalis, and came downstairs with the letter for her lover in her hand, to see Dumay before he started for Paris.
"What has happened to my Black Dwarf?
why are you talking so loud!" she said, appearing at the door.
"Mademoiselle, Butscha has gone to Paris, and you, no doubt, know why,--to carry on that affair of the little architect with the sulphur waistcoat, who, unluckily for the hunchback's lies, has never been here." Modeste was struck dumb; feeling sure that the dwarf had departed on a mission of inquiry as to her poet's morals, she turned pale, and sat down.
"I'm going after him; I shall find him," continued Dumay.