“ ‘Thank you,’ replied the jeweller, ‘it must be getting late, and I must return to Beaucaire⁠—my wife will be getting uneasy.’ He drew out his watch, and exclaimed, ‘ Morbleu! nearly nine o’clock⁠—why, I shall not get back to Beaucaire before midnight! Good night, my friends. If the Abbé Busoni should by any accident return, think of me.’

“ ‘In another week you will have left Beaucaire,’ remarked Caderousse, ‘for the fair ends in a few days.’

“ ‘True, but that makes no difference. Write to me at Paris, to M. Joannes, in the Palais Royal, arcade Pierre, No. 45. I will make the journey on purpose to see him, if it is worth while.’

“At this moment there was a tremendous clap of thunder, accompanied by a flash of lightning so vivid, that it quite eclipsed the light of the lamp.