Were the events of this nether sphere governed by the calculus of probabilities, Count Abel Larinski and Mlle.

Antoinette Moriaz would almost unquestionably have arrived at the end of their respective careers without ever having met.

Count Larinski lived in Vienna, Austria; Mlle.

Moriaz never had been farther from Paris than Cormeilles, where she went every spring to remain throughout the fine weather.
Neither at Cormeilles nor at Paris had she ever heard of Count Larinski; and he, on his part, was wholly unaware of the existence of Mlle.
Moriaz.

His mind was occupied with a gun of his own invention, which should have made his fortune, and which had not made it.