bad condition, but seeing that I was determined she followed me, though with visible reluctance. The rooms on this floor were very like those below, only they were not so damp; the windows and the floor, too, were in a better state of preservation. In the room that I entered last there was a large fauteuil in black leather, which, strange to say, was not covered with dust. I seated myself in it, and finding the place a comfortable one to listen to a story in, requested the old crone to tell me that of Madame Lucrèce; but first, in order to refresh her memory, I made her a present of a few pauls. She coughed, wiped her nose, and started off after this fashion:
"In the time of the pagans, Alexander being emperor, there was a girl who was as beautiful as the day and whom they called Madame Lucrèce. See, there she is!"
I turned about quickly. The hag pointed to a carved bracket that sustained the main beam of the apartment. It was a siren of very, clumsy execution.
"Dame" the old woman went on, "she liked to enjoy herself, she did, and as her father might have seen fit to make a fuss about it she had this house built for herself where we are now.
"Every night she would hasten down from the Quirinal and come here to have a good time. She would seat herself by that window, and whenever there passed along the street a handsome cavalier, like yourself, monsieur, she would call him in; you can imagine whether he was well received. But men are talkative, some of them are, at least, and they might have done her harm with their babbling. So, she took steps to make that all right. When she had said good-night
