man again ? What for ? with what aim? I could not give myself a clear answer, but to find him . . . find him — that had become a question of life and death for me ! The next morning my mother, at last, grew calmer . . . the fever left her . . . she fell asleep. Confiding her to the care of the servants and people of the house, I set out on my quest.
XI
First of all I made my way, of course, to the café where I had met the baron ; but no one in the café knew him or had even noticed him ; he had been a chance customer there. The negro the people there had observed, his figure was so striking ; but who he was, and where he was staying, no one knew. Leaving my address in any case at the café, I fell to wandering about the streets and sea front by the harbour, along the boulevards, peeped into all places of public resort, but could find no one like the baron or his companion ! . . . Not having caught the baron's surname, I was deprived of the resource of applying to the police ; I did, however, privately let two or three guardians of the public safety know — they stared at me in
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