It had been slipped into his hand in the gallery before he saw Mademoiselle to her lodging; it had been in his possession barely an hour.

But brief as its contents were, and easily committed to memory, he had perused it thrice already.
"At the house next the Golden Maid, Rue Cinq Diamants, an hour before midnight, you may find the door open should you desire to talk farther with C.St.L." As he read it for the fourth time the light of the lamp fell athwart his face; and even as his fine clothes had never seemed to fit him worse than when he faintly denied the imputations of gallantry launched at him by Nancay, so his features had never looked less handsome than they did now.
The glow of vanity which warmed his cheek as he read the message, the smile of conceit which wreathed his lips, bespoke a nature not of the most noble; or the lamp did him less than justice.

Presently he kissed the note, and hid it.

He waited until the clock of St.Jacques struck the hour before midnight; and then moving forward, he turned to the right by way of the narrow neck leading to the Rue Lombard.

He walked in the kennel here, his sword in his hand and his eyes looking to right and left; for the place was notorious for robberies.