If the manner of its delivery was mysterious, however, its contents were brief and sufficiently explicit; for it; ran thus: 'SIR, BY MEETING ME THREE HOURS AFTER NOON IN THE SQUARE BEFORE THE HOUSE OF THE LITTLE SISTERS YOU WILL DO A SERVICE AT ONCE TO YOURSELF AND TO THE UNDERSIGNED, MARIE DE BRUHL.' That was all, written in a feminine character, yet it was enough to perplex me.

Simon, who had manifested the liveliest joy at my escape, would have had me treat it as I had treated the invitation to the Parvis of the Cathedral; ignore it altogether I mean.

But I was of a different mind, and this for three reasons, among others: that the request was straightforward, the time early, and the place sufficiently public to be an unlikely theatre for violence, though well fitted for an interview to which the world at large was not invited.

Then, too, the square lay little more than a bowshot from my lodging, though on the farther side of the Rue St.Denys.
Besides, I could conceive many grounds which Madame de Bruhl might have for seeing me; of which some touched me nearly.

I disregarded Simon's warnings, therefore, and repaired at the time appointed to the place--a clean, paved square a little off the Rue St.Denys, and entered from the latter by a narrow passage.