Then, returning to her own room, she removed every trace of her having gone out, and also of having written the letter.

Amid the investigations she was so diligently pursuing she perceived on the table the mask which belonged to Madame, and which, according to her mistress's directions, she had brought back, but had forgotten to restore to her.

"Oh! oh!" she said, "I must not forget to do to-morrow what I have forgotten to do to-day." And she took hold of the velvet mask by that part of it which covered the cheeks, and feeling that her thumb was wet, she looked at it.

It was not only wet, but reddened.

The mask had fallen upon one of the spots of blood which, we have already said, stained the floor, and from the black velvet outside, which had accidentally come into contact with it, the blood had passed through to the inside and stained the white cambric lining.