I plucked up courage, sent for a cab, and was driven to the de Commarin mansion." The old amateur detective here allowed a sigh of satisfaction to escape him.
"It is one of the most magnificent houses, in the Faubourg St.Germain, my friend, a princely dwelling, worthy a great noble twenty times millionaire; almost a palace in fact.

One enters at first a vast courtyard, to the right and left of which are the stables, containing twenty most valuable horses, and the coach-houses.

At the end rises the grand facade of the main building, majestic and severe, with its immense windows, and its double flight of marble steps.

Behind the house is a magnificent garden, I should say a park, shaded by the oldest trees which perhaps exist in all Paris." This enthusiastic description was not at all what M.Tabaret wanted.

But what could he do, how could he press Noel for the result of his visit! An indiscreet word might awaken the advocate's suspicions, and reveal to him that he was speaking not to a friend, but to a detective.
"Were you then shown over the house and grounds ?" asked the old fellow.
"No, but I have examined them alone.