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270 in Valentine's company; and, one day, when on some pretext or another she was lounging in the office, a little commissionaire entered, and gave the young clerk a note, on opening which she observed him to blush and look confused.

"'Fort bien,' said he to the messenger, whom he seemed anxious to get rid of'c'est assezyou may go;' and, conscious of his own embarrassment, and that Julie's eye was upon him, he threw the note with an air of affected indifference amongst other papers on the desk at which he was writing, intending the moment she left the room to destroy it. But she had seen enough in his manner to awaken her suspicions, and she resolved not to quit her ground till she had satisfied them: so drawing a chair to a part of the room where she had full view of Valentine and the papers, she took down a volume of the Causes Célébres, that with other law books stood upon the shelves, and seating herself began to read, or at least to pretend to do so; her whole attention, in effect, being fixed on the young clerk and the note.

"In this way they had sat some time, he wishing her away, and she plotting how to get a sight of the billet, when a footman opened the door to say that Monsieur le Comte