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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Clique of Gold, by Emile Gaboriau
+#13 in our series by Emile Gaboriau
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+Title: The Clique of Gold
+
+Author: Emile Gaboriau
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
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+                          THE CLIQUE OF GOLD
+
+                                  BY
+
+                            EMILE GABORIAU
+
+
+
+
+
+                          THE CLIQUE OF GOLD
+
+
+
+                                  I.
+
+There is not in all Paris a house better kept or more inviting-looking
+than No. 23 in Grange Street. As soon as you enter, you are struck by
+a minute, extreme neatness, which reminds you of Holland, and almost
+sets you a-laughing. The neighbors might use the brass plate on the
+door as a mirror to shave in; the stone floor is polished till it
+shines; and the woodwork of the staircase is varnished to perfection.
+
+In the entrance-hall a number of notices, written in the peculiar
+style which owners of houses affect, request the tenants to respect
+the property of others, without regard to the high price they pay for
+their share. "Clean your feet, if you please," they say to all who
+come in or go out. "No spitting allowed on the stairs." "Dogs are not
+allowed in the house."
+
+Nevertheless, this admirably-kept house "enjoyed" but a sorry
+reputation in the neighborhood. Was it worse than other houses,--No.
+21, for instance, or No. 25? Probably not; but there is a fate for
+houses as well as for men.
+
+The first story was occupied by the families of two independent
+gentlemen, whose simplicity of mind was only equalled by that of their
+mode of life. A collector, who occasionally acted as broker, lived in
+the second story, and had his offices there. The third story was
+rented to a very rich man, a baron as people said, who only appeared
+there at long intervals, preferring, according to his own account, to
+live on his estates near Saintonge. The whole fourth story was
+occupied by a man familiarly known as Papa Ravinet, although he was
+barely fifty years old. He dealt in second-hand merchandise,
+furniture, curiosities, and toilet articles; and his rooms were filled
+to overflowing with a medley collection of things which he was in the
+habit of buying at auctions. The fifth story, finally, was cut up in
+numerous small rooms and closets, which were occupied by poor families
+or clerks, who, almost without exception, disappeared early in the
+morning, and returned only as late as possible at night.
+
+An addition to the house in the rear had its own staircase, and was
+probably in the hands of still humbler tenants; but then it is so
+difficult to rent out small lodgings!
+
+However this may have been, the house had a bad reputation; and the
+lodgers had to bear the consequences. Not one of them would have been
+trusted with a dollar's worth of goods in any of the neighboring
+shops. No one, however, stood, rightly or wrongly, in as bad repute as
+the doorkeeper, or concierge, who lived in a little hole near the
+great double entrance-door, and watched over the safety of the whole
+house. Master Chevassat and his wife were severely "cut" by their
+colleagues of adjoining houses; and the most atrocious stories were
+told of both husband and wife.
+
+Master Chevassat was reputed to be well off; but the story went that
+he lent out money, and did not hesitate to charge a hundred per cent a
+month. He acted, besides, it was said, as agent for two of his
+tenants,--the broker, and the dealer in second-hand goods, and
+undertook the executions, when poor debtors were unable to pay. Mrs.
+Chevassat, however, had even graver charges to bear. People said she
+would do anything for money, and had aided and encouraged many a poor
+girl in the house in her evil career.
+
+It was also asserted that the estimable couple had formerly lived in
+the fashionable Faubourg St. Honore, but had been compelled to leave
+there on account of several ugly occurrences. They were, finally,
+reported to have a son called Justin, a handsome fellow, thirty-five
+years old, who lived in the best society, and whom they nearly
+worshipped; while he was ashamed of them, and despised them, although
+he came often at night to ask them for money. No one, it must,
+however, be confessed, had ever seen this son; and no one knew him.
+
+The two Chevassats shrugged their shoulders, and said it would be
+absurd if they should trouble themselves about public opinion, as long
+as their consciences were clear, and they owed nobody anything.
+
+Towards the end of last December, however, on a Saturday afternoon,
+towards five o'clock, husband and wife were just sitting down to
+dinner, when the dealer in old clothes, Papa Ravinet, rushed like a
+tempest into their room.
+
+He was a man of middle size, clean shaven, with small, bright,
+yellowish eyes, which shone with restless eagerness from under thick,
+bushy brows. Although he had lived for years in Paris, he was dressed
+like a man from the country, wearing a flowered silk vest, and a long
+frock-coat with an immense collar.
+
+"Quick, Chevassat!" he cried, with a voice full of trouble. "Take your
+lamp, and follow me; an accident has happened upstairs."
+
+He was so seriously disturbed, although generally very calm and cool,
+that the two Chevassats were thoroughly frightened.
+
+"An accident!" exclaimed the woman; "that was all that was wanting.
+But pray, what has happened, dear M. Ravinet?"
+
+"How do I know? This very moment, as I was just coming out of my room,
+I thought I heard the death-rattle of a dying person. It was in the
+fifth story. Of course I ran up a few steps, I listened. All was
+silent. I went down again, thinking I had been mistaken; and at once I
+heard again a sighing, a sobbing--I can't tell you exactly what; but
+it sounded exactly like the last sigh of a person in agony, and at the
+point of death."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Then I ran down to tell you, and ask you to come up. I am not sure,
+you understand; but I think I could swear it was the voice of Miss
+Henrietta,--that pretty young girl who lives up there. Well, are you
+coming?"
+
+But they did not stir.
+
+"Miss Henrietta is not in her room," said Mrs. Chevassat coldly. "She
+went out just now, and told me she would not be back till nine
+o'clock. My dear M. Ravinet, you must have been mistaken; you had a
+ringing in your ears, or"--
+
+"No, I am sure I was not mistaken! But never mind; we must see what it
+is."
+
+During this conversation, the door of the room had been open; and
+several of the lodgers, hearing the voice of the merchant and the
+exclamations of the woman as they crossed the hall, had stopped and
+listened.
+
+"Yes, we must see what it is," they repeated.
+
+Master Chevassat dared no longer oppose the general desire so
+peremptorily expressed,--
+
+"Let us go then, since you will have it /so/," he sighed.
+
+And, taking up his lamp, he began to ascend the stairs, followed by
+the merchant, his wife, and five or six other persons.
+
+The steps of all these people were heard all over the house; and from
+story to story the lodgers opened their doors to see what was going
+on. And, when they heard that something was likely to happen, they
+almost all left their rooms, and followed the others.
+
+So that Master Chevassat had nearly a dozen curious persons behind
+him, when he stopped on the fifth floor to take breath.
+
+The door to Miss Henrietta's room was the first on the left in the
+passage. He knocked at first gently, then harder, and at last with all
+his energy, till his heavy fists shook the thin partition-walls of all
+the rooms.
+
+Between each blow he cried,--
+
+"Miss Henrietta, Miss Henrietta, they want you!"
+
+No reply came.
+
+"Well!" he said triumphantly, "you see!"
+
+But, whilst the man was knocking at the door, M. Ravinet had knelt
+down, and tried to open the door a little, putting now his eye, and
+now his ear, to the keyhole and to the slight opening between the door
+and the frame.
+
+Suddenly he rose deadly pale.
+
+"It is all over; we are too late!"
+
+And, as the neighbors expressed some doubts, he cried furiously,--
+
+"Have you no noses? Don't you smell that abominable charcoal?"
+
+Everybody tried to perceive the odor; and soon all agreed that he was
+right. As the door had given way a little, the passage had gradually
+become filled with a sickening vapor.
+
+The people shuddered; and a woman's voice exclaimed,--
+
+"She has killed herself!"
+
+As it happens strangely enough, but too frequently, in such cases, all
+hesitated.
+
+"I am going for the police," said at last Master Chevassat.
+
+"That's right!" replied the merchant. "Now there is, perhaps, a chance
+yet to save the poor girl; and, when you come back, it will of course
+be too late."
+
+"What's to be done, then?"
+
+"Break in the door."
+
+"I dare not."
+
+"Well, I will."
+
+The kind-hearted man put his shoulder to the worm-eaten door, and in a
+moment the lock gave way. The bystanders shrank instinctively back;
+they were frightened. The door was wide open, and masses of vapors
+rolled out. Soon, however, curiosity triumphed over fear. No one
+doubted any longer that the poor girl was lying in there dead; and
+each one tried his best to see where she was.
+
+In vain. The feeble light of the lamp had gone out in the foul air;
+and the darkness was frightful.
+
+Nothing could be seen but the reddish glow of the charcoal, which was
+slowly going out under a little heap of white ashes in two small
+stoves. No one ventured to enter.
+
+But Papa Ravinet had not gone so far to stop now, and remain in the
+passage.
+
+"Where is the window?" he asked the concierge.
+
+"On the right there."
+
+"Very well; I'll open it."
+
+And boldly the strange man plunged into the dark room; and almost
+instantly the noise of breaking glass was heard. A moment later, and
+the air in the room had become once more fit for breathing, and
+everybody rushed in.
+
+Alas! it was the death-rattle which M. Ravinet had heard.
+
+On the bed, on a thin mattress, without blankets or bedclothes, lay a
+young girl about twenty years old, dressed in a wretched black merino
+dress, stretched out at full-length, stiff, lifeless.
+
+The women sobbed aloud.
+
+"To die so young!" they said over and over again, "and to die thus."
+
+In the meantime the merchant had gone up to the bed, and examined the
+poor girl.
+
+"She is not dead yet!" he cried. "No, she cannot be dead! Come,
+ladies, come here and help the poor child, till the doctor comes."
+
+And then, with strange self-possession, he told them what to do for
+the purpose of recalling her to life.
+
+"Give her air," he said, "plenty of air; try to get some air into her
+lungs. Cut open her dress; pour some vinegar on her face; rub her with
+some woollen stuff."
+
+He issued his orders, and they obeyed him readily, although they had
+no hope of success.
+
+"Poor child!" said one of the women. "No doubt she was crossed in
+love."
+
+"Or she was starving," whispered another.
+
+There was no doubt that poverty, extreme poverty, had ruled in that
+miserable chamber: the traces were easily seen all around. The whole
+furniture consisted of a bed, a chest of drawers, and two chairs.
+There were no curtains at the window, no dresses in the trunk, not a
+ribbon in the drawers. Evidently everything that could be sold had
+been sold, piece by piece, little by little. The mattresses had
+followed the dresses,--first the wool, handful by handful, then the
+covering.
+
+Too proud to complain, and cut off from society by bashfulness, the
+poor girl who was lying there had evidently gone through all the
+stages of suffering which the shipwrecked mariner endures, who floats,
+resting on a stray spar in the great ocean.
+
+Papa Ravinet was thinking of all this, when a paper lying on the
+bureau attracted his eye. He took it up. It was the last will of the
+poor girl, and ran thus:--
+
+
+ "Let no one be accused; I die voluntarily. I beg Mrs. Chevassat
+  will carry the two letters which I enclose to their addresses. She
+  will be paid whatever I may owe her. Henrietta."
+
+
+There were the two letters. On the first he read,--
+
+Count Ville-Handry, Rue de Varennest 115. And, on the other,--
+
+M. Maxime de Brevan, 62 Rue Laffitte.
+
+A sudden light seemed to brighten up the small yellowish eye of the
+dealer in old clothes; a wicked smile played on his lips; and he
+uttered a very peculiar, "Ah!"
+
+But all this passed away in a moment.
+
+His brow grew as dark as ever; and he looked around anxiously and
+suspiciously to see if anybody had caught the impression produced upon
+him by the letters.
+
+No, nobody had noticed him, nobody was thinking of him; for everybody
+was occupied with Miss Henrietta.
+
+Thereupon he slipped the paper and the two letters into the vast
+pocket of his huge frock-coat with a dexterity and a rapidity which
+would have excited the envy of an accomplished pickpocket. It was high
+time; for the women who were bending over the bed of the young girl
+were exhibiting signs of intense excitement. One of them said she was
+sure the body had trembled under her hand, and the others insisted
+upon it that she was mistaken. The matter was soon to be decided,
+however.
+
+After, perhaps, twenty seconds of unspeakable anguish, during which
+all held their breath, and solemn stillness reigned in the room, a cry
+of hope and joy broke forth suddenly.
+
+"/She/ has trembled, she has moved!"
+
+This time there was no doubt, no denial possible. The unfortunate girl
+had certainly moved, very faintly and feebly; but still she had
+stirred.
+
+A slight color returned to her pallid cheeks; her bosom rose
+painfully, and sank again; her teeth, closely shut, opened; and with
+parted lips she stretched forth her neck as if to draw in the fresh
+air instinctively.
+
+"She is alive!" exclaimed the women, almost frightened, and as if they
+had seen a miracle performed,--"she is alive!"
+
+In an instant, M. Ravinet was by her side.
+
+One of the women, the wife of the gentleman in the first story, held
+the head of the girl on her arm, and the poor child looked around with
+that blank, unmeaning eye which we see in mad-houses. They spoke to
+her; but she did not answer; evidently she did not hear.
+
+"Never mind!" said the merchant, "she is saved; and, /when/ the doctor
+comes, he will have little else to do. But she must be attended to,
+the poor child, and we cannot leave her here alone."
+
+The bystanders knew very well what that meant; and yet hardly any one
+ventured timidly to assent, and say, "Oh, of course!"
+
+This reluctance did not deter the good man.
+
+"We must put her to bed," he went on; "and, of course, she must have a
+mattress, bedclothes and blankets. We want wood also (for it is
+terribly cold here), and sugar for her tea, and a candle."
+
+He did not mention all that was needed, but nearly so, and a great
+deal too much for the people who stood by. As a proof of this, the
+wife of the broker put grandly a five-franc piece on the mantlepiece,
+and quietly slipped out. Some of the others followed her example; but
+they left nothing. When Papa Ravinet had finished his little speech,
+there was nobody left but the two ladies who lived on the first floor,
+and the concierge and his wife. The two ladies, moreover, looked at
+each other in great embarrassment, as if they did not know what their
+curiosity might cost them. Had the shrewd man foreseen this noble
+abandonment of the poor girl? One would have fancied so; for he smiled
+bitterly, and said,--
+
+"Excellent hearts--pshaw!"
+
+Then, shrugging his shoulders, he added,--
+
+"Luckily, I deal in all possible things. Wait a minute. I'll run down
+stairs, and I'll be back in a moment with all that is needed. After
+that, we shall see what can be done."
+
+The face of the concierge's wife was a picture. Never in her life had
+she been so much astonished.
+
+"They have changed Papa Ravinet, or I am mad."
+
+The fact is, that the man was not exactly considered a benevolent and
+generous mortal. They told stories of him that would have made
+Harpagon envious, and touched the heart of a constable.
+
+Nevertheless, he re-appeared soon after, almost succumbing under the
+weight of two excellent mattresses; and, when he came back a second
+time, he brought much more than he had mentioned.
+
+Miss Henrietta was breathing more freely, but her face was still
+painfully rigid. Life had come back before the mind had recovered; and
+it was evident that she was utterly unconscious of her situation, and
+of what was going on around her. This troubled the two ladies not a
+little, although they felt very much relieved, and disposed to do
+everything, now that they were no longer expected to open their
+purses.
+
+"Well, that is always the way," said Papa Ravinet boldly. "However,
+the doctor will bleed her, if there is any necessity."
+
+And, turning to Master Chevassat, he added,--
+
+"But we are in the way of these ladies; suppose we go down and take
+something? We can come back when the child is comfortably put to bed."
+
+The good man lived, to tell the truth, in the same rooms in which the
+thousand and one things he was continually buying were piled up in
+vast heaps. There was no fixed place for his bed even. He slept where
+he could, or, rather, wherever an accidental sale had cleared a space
+for the time,--one night in a costly bed of the days of Louis XIV.,
+and the next night on a lounge that he would have sold for a few
+francs. Just now he occupied a little closet not more than three-
+quarters full; and here he asked the concierge to enter.
+
+He poured some brandy into two small wineglasses, put a teakettle on
+the fire, and sank into an arm-chair; then he said,--
+
+"Well, M. Chevassat, what a terrible thing this is!"
+
+His visitor had been well drilled by his wife, and said neither yes
+nor no; but the old merchant was a man of experience, and knew how to
+loosen his tongue.
+
+"The most disagreeable thing about it," he said with an absent air,
+"is, that the doctor will report the matter to the police, and there
+will be an investigation."
+
+Master Chevassat nearly dropped his glass.
+
+"What? The police in the house? Well, good-by, then, to our lodgers;
+we are lost. Why did that stupid girl want to die, I wonder! But no
+doubt you are mistaken, my dear sir."
+
+"No, I am not. But you go too fast. They will simply ask you who that
+girl is, how she supports herself, and where she lived before she came
+here."
+
+"That is exactly what I cannot tell."
+
+The dealer in old clothes seemed to be amazed; he frowned and said,--
+
+"Halloo! that makes matters worse. How came it about that Miss
+Henrietta had rooms in your house?"
+
+The concierge was evidently ill at ease; something was troubling him
+sorely.
+
+"Oh! that is as clear as sunlight," he replied; "and, if you wish it,
+I'll tell you the story; you will see there is no harm done."
+
+"Well, let us hear."
+
+"Well, then, it was about a year ago this very day, when a gentleman
+came in, well dressed, an eyeglass stuck in his eye, impudent like a
+hangman's assistant, in fact a thoroughly fashionable young man. He
+said he had seen the notice that there was a room for rent up stairs,
+and wanted to see it. Of course I told him it was a wretched garret,
+unfit for people like him; but he insisted, and /I/ took him up."
+
+"To the room in which Miss Henrietta is now staying?"
+
+"Exactly. I thought he would be disgusted; but no. He looked out of
+the window, tried the door if it would shut, examined the partition-
+wall, and at last he said, 'This suits me; I take the room.' And
+thereupon he hands me a twenty-franc piece to make it a bargain. I was
+amazed."
+
+If M. Ravinet felt any interest in the story, he took pains not to
+show it; for his eyes wandered to and fro as if his thoughts were
+elsewhere, and he was heartily tired of the tedious account.
+
+"And who is that fashionable young man?" he asked.
+
+"Ah! that is more than I know, except that his name is Maxime."
+
+That name made the old merchant jump as if a shower-bath had suddenly
+fallen upon his head. He changed color; and his small yellowish eyes
+had a strange look in them.
+
+But he recovered promptly, so promptly, that his visitor saw nothing;
+and then he said in a tone of indifference,--
+
+"The young man did not give you his family name?"
+
+"No."
+
+"But ought you not to have inquired?"
+
+"Ah, there is the trouble! I did not do it."
+
+Gradually, and by a great effort, Master Chevassat began to master his
+embarrassment. It looked as if he were preparing himself for the
+assault, and to get ready for the police-officer.
+
+"I know it was wrong," he continued; "but you would not have acted
+differently in my place, my dear sir, I am sure. Just think! My room
+belonged to M. Maxime, for I had his money in my pocket. I asked him
+politely where he lived, and if there was any furniture to come. I
+caught it nicely. He laughed me in the face, and did not even let me
+finish my question. 'Do I look,' he said, 'like a man who lives in a
+place like this?' And when he saw I was puzzled, he went on to tell me
+that he took the room for a young person from the country, in whom he
+took an interest, and that the contract and the receipts for rent must
+all be made out in the name of Miss Henrietta. That was clear enough,
+wasn't it? Still it was my duty to know who Miss Henrietta was; so I
+asked him civilly. But he got angry, and told me that was none of my
+business, and that some furniture would be sent presently."
+
+He stopped, waiting for his host to express his approbation by a word
+or a sign; but, as nothing came, he went on,--
+
+"In fine, I did not dare to insist, and all was done as he wanted it
+done. That very day a dealer in second-hand furniture brought the
+pieces you have seen up stairs; and the day after, about eleven
+o'clock, Miss Henrietta herself appeared. She had not much baggage, I
+tell you; she brought every thing she owned in a little carpet-bag in
+her hand."
+
+The old merchant was stooping over the fire as if his whole attention
+was given to the teakettle, in which the water was beginning to boil.
+
+"It seems to me, my good friend," he said, "that you did not act very
+wisely. Still, if that is really all, I don't think they are likely to
+trouble you."
+
+"What else could there be?"
+
+"How do I know? But if that young damsel had been carried off by M.
+Maxime, if you were lending a hand in an elopement, I think you would
+be in a bad box. The law is pretty strict about it, in the case of a
+minor."
+
+The concierge protested with a solemn air.
+
+"I have told you the whole truth," he declared.
+
+But Papa Ravinet did not by any means seem so sure of that.
+
+"That is your lookout," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "Still, you
+may be sure they will ask you how it could happen that one of your
+tenants should fall into such a state of abject poverty without your
+giving notice to anybody."
+
+"Why, in the first place, I do not wait upon my lodgers. They are free
+to do what they choose in their rooms."
+
+"Quite right, Master Chevassat! quite right! So you did not know that
+M. Maxime no longer came to see Miss Henrietta?"
+
+"He still came to see her."
+
+In the most natural manner in the world, Papa Ravinet raised his arms
+to heaven, and exclaimed as if horror-struck,--
+
+"What! is it possible? That handsome young man knew how the poor girl
+suffered? he knew that she was dying of hunger?"
+
+Master Chevassat became more and more troubled. He began to see what
+the old merchant meant by his questions, and how unsatisfactory his
+answers were.
+
+"Ah! you ask too many questions," he said at last. "It was not my duty
+to watch over M. Maxime. As for Miss Henrietta, as soon as she is able
+to move, the serpent! I tell you I'll send her off pretty quickly!"
+
+The old merchant shook his head, and said in his softest voice,--
+
+"My dear sir, you won't do that, because from today I'll pay the rent
+for her room. And, more than that, if you wish to oblige me, you will
+be very kind to the poor girl, you hear, and even respectful, if you
+please."
+
+There was no misunderstanding the meaning of the word "oblige," from
+the manner in which he pronounced it; and yet he was about to enforce
+the recommendation, when a fretting voice exclaimed on the stairs,--
+
+"Chevassat! where are you, Chevassat?"
+
+"It's my wife," said the concierge.
+
+And, delighted to get away, he said to Papa Ravinet--
+
+"I understand; she shall be treated as politely as if she were the
+daughter of the owner of the house. But excuse me, I must attend to
+the door; they call me, and I must go down stairs."
+
+He slipped out without waiting for an answer, and utterly unable to
+guess why the old merchant should take such a sudden interest in the
+lodger on the fifth floor.
+
+"The rascal!" said Papa Ravinet to himself,--"the rascal!"
+
+But he had found out what he wanted to know. He was alone, and he knew
+he had no time to lose.
+
+Quickly he drew the teakettle from the fire; and, pulling out Miss
+Henrietta's two letters, he held the one that was addressed to M.
+Maxime de Brevan over the steam of the boiling water. In a moment the
+mucilage of the envelope was dissolved, and the letter could easily be
+opened without showing in any way that it had ever been broken open.
+And now the old man read the following words:--
+
+
+ "You are victorious, M. de Brevan. When you read this, I shall be
+  no longer alive.
+
+ "You may raise your head again; you are relieved of all fears.
+  Daniel can come back. I shall carry the secret of your infamy and
+  your cowardice into the grave with me.
+
+ "And yet, no!
+
+ "I can pardon you, having but a few moments longer to live; but God
+  will not pardon you. I--I shall be avenged. And, if it should
+  require a miracle, that miracle will be done, so as to inform that
+  honorable man who thought you were his friend, how and why the
+  poor girl died whom he had intrusted to your honor. H."
+
+
+The old man was furious.
+
+"The honor of Maxime de Brevan!" he growled with a voice of intense
+hatred,--"the honor of Maxime de Brevan!"
+
+But his terrible excitement did not keep him from manipulating the
+other letter, addressed to Count Ville-Handry, in the same manner. The
+operation was successful; and, without the slightest hesitation, he
+read:--
+
+
+ "Dear father,--Broken down with anxiety, and faint from exhaustion,
+  I have waited till this morning for an answer to my humble letter,
+  which I had written to you on my knees.
+
+ "You have never replied to it; you are inexorable. I see I must
+  die. I shall die. Alas! I can hardly say I die willingly.
+
+ "I must appear very guilty in your eyes, father, that you should
+  abandon me thus to the hatred of Sarah Brandon and her people. And
+  yet--ah! I have suffered terribly. I have struggled hard before I
+  could make up my mind to leave your house,--the house where my
+  mother had died, where I had been so happy, and so tenderly
+  beloved as a child by both of you. Ah, if you but knew!
+
+ "And yet it was so little I asked of you!--barely enough to bury my
+  undeserved disgrace in a convent.
+
+ "Yes, undeserved, father; for I tell you at this hour, when no one
+  utters a falsehood, if my reputation was lost, my honor was not
+  lost."
+
+
+Big tears rolled down the cheeks of the old man; and he said in a
+half-stifled voice,--
+
+"Poor, poor child! And to think that for a whole year I have lived
+under the same roof with her, without knowing it. But I am here. I am
+still in time. Oh, what a friend /chance/ can be when it chooses!"
+
+Most assuredly not one of the inmates of the house would have
+recognized Papa Ravinet at this moment; he was literally transfigured.
+He was no longer the cunning dealer in second-hand articles, the old
+scamp with the sharp, vulgar face, so well known at all public sales,
+where he sat in the front rank, watching for good bargains, and
+keeping cool when all around him were in a state of fervent
+excitement.
+
+The two letters he had just read had opened anew in his heart more
+than one badly-healed and badly-scarred wound. He was suffering
+intensely; and his pain, his wrath, and his hope of vengeance long
+delayed, gave to his features a strange expression of energy and
+nobility. With his elbows on the table, holding his head in his hands,
+and looking apparently into the far past, he seemed to call up the
+miseries of the past, and to trace out in the future the vague
+outlines of some great scheme. And as his thoughts began to overflow,
+so to say, he broke out in a strange, spasmodic monologue,--
+
+"Yes," he murmured, "yes, I recognize you, Sarah Brandon! Poor child,
+poor child! Overcome by such horrible intrigues! And that Daniel, who
+intrusted her to the care of Maxime de Brevan--who is he? Why did she
+not write to him when she suffered thus? Ah, if she had trusted me!
+What a sad fate! And how can I ever hope to make her confide in /me/?"
+
+An old clock struck seven, and the merchant was suddenly recalled to
+the present; he trembled in all his limbs.
+
+"Nonsense!" he growled. "I was falling asleep; and that is what I
+cannot afford to do. I must go up stairs, and hear the child's
+confession."
+
+Instantly, and with amazing dexterity, he replaced the letters in
+their envelopes, dried them, pasted them up again, and smoothed them
+down, till every trace of the steam had entirely disappeared. Then
+looking at his work with an air of satisfaction, he said,--
+
+"That was not so badly done. An expert in the post-office would not
+suspect it. I may risk it."
+
+And, thus re-assured, he rapidly mounted up to the fifth story; but
+there Mrs. Chevassat suddenly barred his way, coming down stairs in a
+manner which showed clearly that she had lain in wait for him.
+
+"Well, my dear sir," she said with her sweetest manner: "so you have
+become Miss Henrietta's banker?"
+
+"Yes; do you object to it?"
+
+"Oh, not at all! It is none of my business, only"--
+
+She stopped, smiling wickedly, and then added,--
+
+"Only she is a prodigiously pretty girl; and I was just saying to
+myself, 'Upon my word, M. Ravinet's taste is not bad.'"
+
+The merchant was on the point of giving her a pretty sharp, indignant
+reply; but he controlled himself, because he knew how important it was
+to mislead the woman; and, forcing himself to smile, he said,--
+
+"You know I count upon your being discreet."
+
+When he got up, he found that he ought, at least, to give credit to
+Mamma Chevassat and the two ladies from the first floor, for having
+employed their time well, and for having skilfully made use of the
+articles he had contributed. The room, a short time ago cold and bare,
+had an air of comfort about it now, which was delightful. On the
+bureau stood a lamp with a shade to prevent the light from hurting the
+patient's eyes; a bright fire blazed on the hearth; several old
+curtains had been hung before the window, one before the other, to
+replace for the time the missing panes; and on the table stood a
+teakettle, a china cup, and two small medicine-bottles.
+
+Evidently the doctor had been here during Ravinet's absence. He had
+bled the poor girl, prescribed some medicines, and left again, with
+the assurance that nothing more was needed but perfect quiet.
+
+In fact, there was no trace left of the sufferings and the terrible
+danger from which the patient had so marvellously escaped, except the
+deep pallor of her face. Stretched out at full-length on her
+comfortable bed with its thick mattresses and snow-white sheets, her
+head propped up high on a couple of pillows, she was breathing freely,
+as was easily seen by the steady, regular rising and falling of her
+bosom under the cover.
+
+But life and consciousness had also brought back to her a sense of the
+horror of her position, and of her capacity for suffering.
+
+Her brow resting on her arm, which was almost concealed by masses of
+golden hair, immovable, and her eyes fixed steadily upon infinite
+space, as if trying to pierce the darkness of the future, she would
+have looked like a statue of sorrow rather than of resignation, but
+for the big tears which were slowly dropping down her cheeks.
+
+Her exquisite beauty looked almost ethereal under the circumstances;
+and Papa Ravinet, when he saw her, remained fixed by admiration,
+standing upon the threshold of the open door. But it occurred to him
+at once that he might be looked upon as a spy, and that his feelings
+would be sure to be misinterpreted. He coughed, therefore, to give
+warning, and then stepped in.
+
+At the noise he made, Henrietta roused herself. When she saw the old
+merchant, she said in a faint, feeble voice,--
+
+"Ah! it is you, sir. These kind ladies have told me all. You have
+saved my life." Then, shaking her head, she added,--
+
+"You have rendered me a sad service, sir."
+
+She uttered these words so simply, but in a tone of such harrowing
+grief, that Papa Ravinet was overcome.
+
+"Unhappy child!" he exclaimed, "you do not think of trying it over
+again?"
+
+She made no answer. It was as good as if she had said, Yes.
+
+"Why, you must be mad!" said the old man, excited almost beyond
+control. "Only twenty years old, and give up life! That has never been
+done before. You are suffering now; but you can hardly imagine what
+compensation Providence may have in store for you hereafter"--
+
+She interrupted him by a gesture, and said,--
+
+"There was no future for me, sir, when I sought refuge in death."
+
+"But"--
+
+"Oh, don't try to convince me, sir! What I did, I had to do. I felt
+how life was leaving me, and I only wished to shorten the agony. I had
+not eaten any thing for three days when I lit that charcoal. Even to
+get the charcoal, I had to risk a falsehood, and cheat the woman who
+let me have it in credit. And yet God knows I was not wanting in
+courage. I would have done the coarsest, hardest work cheerfully,
+joyously. But how did I know how to get work? I asked Mrs. Chevassat a
+hundred times to obtain employment for me; but she always laughed at
+me; and, when I begged hard, she said"--
+
+She stopped; and her face became crimson with shame. She dared not
+repeat what the wife of the concierge had said. But she added in a
+voice trembling with womanly shame and deep indignation,--
+
+"Ah, that woman is a wicked creature!"
+
+The old merchant was probably fully aware of the character of Mrs.
+Chevassat. He guessed only too readily what kind of advice she had
+given this poor girl of twenty, who had turned to her for help in her
+great suffering. He uttered an oath which would have startled even
+that estimable woman, and then said warmly,--
+
+"I understand, Miss Henrietta, I understand. Do you think I don't know
+what you must have suffered? I know poverty, as well as you. I can
+understand your purpose but too well. Who would not give up life
+itself when everybody abandons us? But I do not understand your
+despair, now that circumstances have changed."
+
+"Alas, sir, how have they changed?"
+
+"How? What do you mean? Don't you see me? Do you think I would leave
+you, after having been just in time to save your life? That would be
+nice! No, my dear child, compose yourself; poverty shall not come near
+you again, I'll see to that. You want somebody to advise you, to
+defend you; and here I am; if you have enemies, let them beware! Come,
+smile again, and think of the good times a-coming."
+
+But she did not smile; she looked frightened, almost stupefied. Making
+a supreme effort, she looked fixedly at the old man to see if she
+could read in his face what were his real thoughts. He, on his part,
+was seriously troubled by his failure to inspire her with confidence.
+
+"Do you doubt my promises?" he asked her.
+
+She shook her head; and uttering her words one by one, as if to give
+them greater weight, she said,--
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir. I do not doubt you. But I cannot understand
+why you should offer me your kind protection."
+
+Papa Ravinet affected a greater surprise than he really felt, and
+said, raising his hands to heaven,--
+
+"Great God! she mistrusts my good will."
+
+"Sir!"
+
+"Pray what can you have to fear from me? I am an old man; you are
+almost a child. I come to help you. Is not that perfectly natural, and
+quite simple?"
+
+She said nothing; and he remained a few moments buried in thought, as
+if trying to find out her motive for refusing his help. Suddenly he
+cried out, beating his forehead,--
+
+"Ah, I have it. That woman Chevassat has talked to you about me, no
+doubt. Ah, the viper! I'll crush her one of these days! Come, let us
+be frank; what has she told you?"
+
+He hoped she would say a word at least. He waited; but nothing came.
+
+Then he broke forth, with a vehemence scarcely controlled, and in
+words very unexpected from a man like him,--
+
+"Well, I will tell you what the old thief has told you. She told you
+Papa Ravinet was a dangerous, ill-reputed man, who carried on in the
+dark all kind of suspicious trades. She told you the old scamp was a
+usurer, who knew no law, and kept no promise; whose only principle was
+profit; who dealt in every thing with everybody, selling to-day old
+iron in junk-shops, and to-morrow cashmere shawls to fashionable
+ladies; and who lent money on imaginary securities--the talent of men
+and the beauty of women. In fine, she told you that it was a piece of
+good-fortune for a woman to be under my protection, and you knew it
+was a disgrace."
+
+He stopped, as if to give the poor girl time to form her judgment, and
+then went on more calmly,--
+
+"Let us suppose there is such a Papa Ravinet as she has described. But
+there is another one, whom but few people know, who has been sorely
+tried by misfortune; and he is the one who now offers his aid to you."
+
+There is no surer way to make people believe in any virtue we have, or
+wish to appear to have, than to accuse ourselves of bad qualities, or
+even vices, which we do not have. But, if the old man had calculated
+upon this policy, he failed signally. Henrietta remained as icy as
+ever, and said,--
+
+"Believe me, sir, I am exceedingly obliged to you for all you have
+done for me, and for your effort to convince me."
+
+The poor man looked disappointed.
+
+"In fact, you reject my offers, because I do not explain them to you
+by any of the usual motives. But what can I tell you? Suppose I should
+say to you that I have a daughter who has secretly left me, so that I
+do not know what has become of her, and that her memory makes me
+anxious to serve you. May I not have said to myself, that perhaps she
+is struggling, just as you have done, with poverty; that she also has
+been abandoned by her lover?"
+
+The poor girl turned deadly pale as he spoke thus, and interrupted him
+eagerly, raising herself on her pillows,--
+
+"You are mistaken, sir. My position here may justify such suspicions,
+I know; but I have no lover."
+
+He replied,--
+
+"I believe you; I swear I believe you. But, if that is so, how did you
+get here? and how were you reduced to such extreme suffering?"
+
+At last Papa Ravinet had touched the right chord. The poor girl was
+deeply moved; and the tears started in her eyes. She said in a low
+voice,--
+
+"There are secrets which cannot be revealed."
+
+"Not even when life and honor depend on them?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But"--
+
+"Oh, pray do not insist!"
+
+If Henrietta had known the old merchant, she would have read in his
+eyes the satisfaction which he felt. A moment before he had despaired
+of ever gaining her confidence; now he felt almost sure of success.
+The time seemed to him to have come to strike a decisive blow.
+
+"I have tried my best to win your confidence, I confess; but it was
+solely in your own interest. If it had been otherwise, do you think I
+should have asked you these questions, instead of finding out every
+thing by simply tearing a piece of paper?"
+
+The poor girl could not retain a cry of terror.
+
+"You mean my letters?"
+
+"I have both."
+
+"Ah! That is why the ladies who nursed me looked for them everywhere
+in vain."
+
+Instead of any other answer, he drew them from his pocket, and laid
+them on the bed with an air of injured innocence. To all appearances,
+the envelopes had not been touched. Henrietta glanced at them, and
+then, holding out her hand to the old man, she said,--
+
+"I thank you, sir!"
+
+He did not stir; but he felt that this false evidence of honesty had
+helped him more than all his eloquence. He hastily added,--
+
+"After all, I could not resist the temptation to read the directions,
+and to draw my own conclusions. Who is Count Ville-Handry? I suppose
+he is your father. And M. Maxime de Brevan? No doubt he is the young
+man who called to see you so often. Ah, if you would but trust me! If
+you but knew how a little experience of the world often helps us to
+overcome the greatest difficulties!"
+
+He was evidently deeply moved.
+
+"However, wait till you are perfectly well again before you come to
+any decision. Consider the matter carefully. You need not tell me any
+thing else but what is absolutely necessary for me to know in order to
+advise you."
+
+"Yes, indeed! In that way I may"--
+
+"Well, I'll wait, why, as long as you want me to wait,--two days, ten
+days."
+
+"Very well."
+
+"Only, I pray you, promise me solemnly that you will give up all idea
+of suicide."
+
+"I promise you solemnly I will."
+
+Papa Ravinet's eyes shone with delight; and he exclaimed joyously,--
+
+"Done! I'll come up again to-morrow; for, to tell the truth, I am
+tired to death, and must go and lie down."
+
+But he told a fib; for he did not go back to his rooms. In spite of
+the wretched weather, he left the house; and, as soon as he was in the
+street, he hid himself in a dark corner, from which he could watch the
+front-door of the house. He remained there a long time, exposed to
+wind and rain, uttering now and then a low oath, and stamping with his
+feet to keep himself warm. At last, just as it struck eleven, a hack
+stopped at No. 23. A young man got out, rang the bell, and entered.
+
+"He is Maxime de Brevan," murmured the old man. Then he added in a
+savage voice,--
+
+"I knew he would come, the scoundrel! to see if the charcoal had done
+its work."
+
+But the same moment the young man came out again, and jumped into the
+carriage, which quickly drove off.
+
+"Aha!" laughed the merchant. "No chance for you, my fine fellow! You
+have lost your game, and you'll have to try your luck elsewhere; and
+this time I am on hand. I hold you fast; and, instead of one bill to
+pay, there will be two now."
+
+
+
+                                 II.
+
+Generally it is in novels only that unknown people suddenly take it
+into their heads to tell their whole private history, and to confide
+to their neighbors even their most important and most jealously-
+guarded secrets. In real life things do not go quite so fast.
+
+Long after the old merchant had left Henrietta, she lay pondering, and
+undecided as to what she should do on the next day. In the first
+place, she asked herself who this odd man could be, who had spoken of
+himself as a dangerous and suspicious person. Was he really what he
+appeared to be? The girl almost doubted it. Although wholly
+inexperienced, she still had been struck by certain astounding changes
+in Papa Ravinet. Thus, whenever he became animated, his carriage, his
+gestures, and his manners, contrasted with his country-fashioned
+costume, as if he had for the moment forgotten his lesson. At the same
+time his language, usually careless and incorrect, and full of slang
+terms belonging to his trade, became pure and almost elegant.
+
+What was his business? Had he been a dealer in second-hand articles
+before he became a tenant in No. 23 Grange Street, three years ago?
+One might very easily have imagined that Papa Ravinet (was that his
+real name?) had before that been in a very different position. And why
+not? Is not Paris the haven in which all shipwrecked sailors of
+society seek a refuge? Does not Paris alone offer to all wretched and
+guilty people a hiding-place, where they can begin a new life, lost
+and unknown in the vast multitude? What discoveries might be made
+there? How many persons, once brilliant lights in the great world, and
+then, of a sudden, sought for in vain by friend and foe, might be
+found there again, disguised in strange costumes, and earning a
+livelihood in most curious ways! Why should not the old merchant be
+one of this class?
+
+But, even if this were so, it would not have satisfactorily explained
+to Henrietta the eagerness of Papa Ravinet to serve her, nor his
+perseverance in offering her his advice. Was it merely from charity
+that he did all this? Alas! Christian charity is not often so
+pressing.
+
+Did he know who Henrietta was? Had he at any period of her life come
+in contact with her? or had his interests ever been mixed up with
+hers? Was he anxious to make a return for some kindness shown to him?
+or did he count upon some reward in the future? Who could tell?
+
+"Would it not be the height of imprudence to put myself in the power
+of this man?" thought the poor girl.
+
+If, on the other hand, she rejected his offers, she fell back into
+that state of forlorn wretchedness, from which she had only been able
+to save herself by suicide.
+
+This view was all the more urgent, as the poor child, like all persons
+who have been rescued from death only after having exhausted their
+sufferings, now began to cling to life with an almost desperate
+affection. It seemed as if the contact with death had wiped out at
+once all the memory of the past, and all the threats of the future.
+
+"O Daniel!" she said to herself, trembling all over,--"O Daniel! my
+only friend upon earth, what would you suffer if you knew that you
+lost me forever by the very means you chose to secure my safety!"
+
+To refuse the assistance offered her by Papa Ravinet would have
+required an amount of energy which she did not possess. The voice of
+reflection continually said to her,--
+
+"The old man is your only hope."
+
+It never occurred to her to conceal the truth from Papa Ravinet, or to
+deceive him by a fictitious story. She only thought how she could tell
+him the truth without telling him all; how she could confess enough to
+enable him to serve her, and yet not to betray a secret which she held
+more dear than her happiness, her reputation, and life itself.
+
+Unfortunately, she was the victim of one of those intrigues which are
+formed and carried out within the narrow circle of a family,--
+intrigues of the most abominable character, which people suspect, and
+often even know perfectly well, and which yet remain unpunished,
+because they cannot be reached by the law.
+
+Henrietta's father, Count Ville-Handry, was in 1845 one of the
+wealthiest land-owners of the province of Anjou. The good people near
+Rosiers and Saint Mathurin were fond of pointing out to strangers the
+massive towers of Ville-Handry, a magnificent castle half hid among
+noble old woods on the beautiful slopes of the bluffs which line the
+Loire.
+
+"There," they said, "lives a true gentleman, a little too proud,
+perhaps, but, nevertheless, a true gentleman."
+
+For contrary to the usual state of things in the country, where envy
+is apt to engender hatred, the count was quite popular, in spite of
+his title and his large fortune. He was at that time about forty years
+old, quite tall and good-looking, solemn and courteous, obliging,
+although reserved, and very good-natured as long as no one spoke in
+his presence of the church or the reigning family, the nobility or the
+clergy, of his hounds or the wines of his vineyards, or of various
+other subjects on which he had what he chose to consider his "own
+opinions."
+
+As he spoke but rarely, and said little at the time, he said fewer
+foolish things than most people, and thus obtained the reputation of
+being clever and well-informed, of which he was very proud and very
+careful. He lived freely, almost profusely, and thus put aside every
+year but little more than about half his income. He had all his
+clothes made in Paris, was proud of his foot, and always wore gloves.
+
+His house was kept handsomely; and his gardens cost him a good deal of
+money. He kept a pack of hounds, and six hunters. Finally, he kept
+half a dozen lazy servants in the house, whose gorgeous liveries, with
+the family coat-of-arms, were a source of perpetual wonder at Saint
+Mathurin.
+
+He would have been perfect, but for his passion for hunting.
+
+As soon as the season opened, he was sure to be found, on foot or on
+horseback, crossing the stubblefields, jumping over hedges, or
+floundering in the swamps. This he carried so far, that the ladies of
+the neighborhood, who had daughters, blamed him to his face for his
+imprudence, and scolded him for risking his precious health so
+recklessly.
+
+This nobleman, forty years old, and enjoying all that heart could
+desire, was unmarried. And yet he had not lacked opportunities to
+remedy the evil. There was not a good mother for twenty miles around
+who did not covet this prize for her daughter,--thirty thousand
+dollars a year, and a great man.
+
+He had only to appear at a ball in the provincial towns, and he was
+the hero. Mothers and daughters kept their sweetest smiles for him;
+and kind welcomes were offered on all sides. But all these manoeuvres
+had been fruitless; he had escaped from all snares, and resisted the
+most cunning devices.
+
+Why was he so much opposed to marriage? His friends found the
+explanation in a certain person, half housekeeper, half companion, who
+lived in the castle, and was very pretty and very designing. But there
+are malicious tongues everywhere.
+
+The next year, however, an event occurred which was calculated to give
+some ground to these idle, gossiping tales. One fine morning in the
+month of July, 1847, the lady died suddenly of apoplexy. Six weeks
+later, a report began to spread that Count Ville-Handry was going to
+be married.
+
+The report was well founded. The count did marry. The fact could not
+be doubted any longer, when the banns were read, and the announcement
+appeared in the official journal. And whom do you think he married?
+The daughter of a poor widow, the Baroness Rupert, who lived in great
+poverty at a place called Rosiers, having nothing but a small pension
+derived from her husband, who had been a colonel of artillery.
+
+If she had, at least, been of good and ancient family; if she had
+been, at least, a native of the province!
+
+But no. No one knew exactly who she was, or where she came from. Some
+people said the colonel had married her in Austria; others, in Sweden.
+Her husband, they added, had been made a baron after the fashion of
+others, who dubbed themselves such during the first empire, and had no
+right to call himself noble.
+
+On the other hand, Pauline de Rupert, then twenty-three years old, was
+in the full bloom of youth, and marvellously beautiful. Moreover, she
+had, up to this time, been looked upon as a sensible, modest girl,
+very bright and very sweet withal; in fact, possessed of every quality
+and virtue that can make life happy, and add to the fame of a great
+house.
+
+But now, not a cent, no dower, not even a trousseau!
+
+Everybody was amazed; and a perfect storm of indignation arose in the
+neighborhood. Was it possible, was it natural, that a great nobleman
+like the count should end thus miserably, ridiculously? that he should
+marry a penniless girl, an adventuress,--he who had had the pick and
+choice of the richest and greatest ladies of the land?
+
+Was Count Ville-Handry a fool? or was he only insane about Miss
+Rupert? Was she not perhaps, after all, a designing hypocrite, who had
+very quietly, in her retired home, woven the net in which the lion of
+Anjou was now held captive?
+
+People would have been less astonished, if they had known, that, for
+years, a great intimacy had existed between the mother of the bride
+and the housekeeper at the castle. But, on the other hand, this fact
+might have led to very different surmises still.
+
+However that might be, the count was not suffered long to remain in
+doubt as to the entire change of opinion in the neighborhood. He saw
+it as soon as he paid the usual visits in the town of Angers, and at
+the houses of the nobility near him. No more affectionate smiles, no
+tender welcomes, no little white hands stealthily seeking his. The
+doors that formerly seemed to fly open at his mere approach now turned
+but slowly on their hinges; some remained even closed, the owners
+being reported not at home, although the count knew perfectly well
+that they were in.
+
+One very noble and very pious old lady, who gave the keynote to
+society, had said in the most decided manner,--
+
+"For my part, I shall never receive at my house a damsel who used to
+give music-lessons to my nieces, even if she had caught and entrapped
+a Bourbon!"
+
+The charge was true. Pauline, in order to provide her mother with some
+of the comforts which are almost indispensable to old people, had
+given lessons on the piano in the neighborhood. Her terms had been low
+enough; now they blamed her for the sacrifice. They would have blamed
+her for the noblest of virtues; for all the blame was laid upon her.
+When people met her, they looked away, so as not to have to bow to
+her. Even when she was leaning on the count's arm, there were persons
+who spoke very kindly to him, and did not say a word to his wife, as
+if they had not seen her, or she had not existed at all. This
+impertinence went so far, that at last Count Ville-Handry, one day,
+almost beside himself with anger, seized one of his neighbors by the
+collar of his coat, shook him violently, and shouted out to him,--
+
+"Do you see the countess, my wife, sir? How shall I chastise you to
+cure you of your near-sightedness?"
+
+Foreseeing a duel, the impertinent man made his excuses; and his
+experience put the rest of them on their guard. But their opinions
+remained unchanged; open war only changed into secret opposition, that
+was all.
+
+Fate, however, always more kind than man, held a reward in store for
+Count Ville-Handry, which amply repaid him for his heroism in marrying
+a poor girl. An uncle of his wife's, a banker at Dresden, died, and
+left his "beloved niece Pauline" half a million dollars. This
+immensely wealthy man, who had never assisted his sister in her
+troubles, and who would have disinherited the daughter of a soldier of
+fortune, had been flattered by the idea of writing in his last will
+the name of his niece, the "high and mighty Countess Ville-Handry."
+
+This unexpected piece of good-fortune ought to have delighted the
+young wife. She might now have had her vengeance on all her miserable
+slanderers, and enjoyed a boundless popularity. But far from it. She
+had never appeared more sad than on the day when the great news
+reached her.
+
+For on that very day she for the first time cursed her marriage. A
+voice within her warned her that she ought never to have yielded to
+the entreaties and the orders of her mother. An excellent daughter, as
+she was to become the best of mothers, and the most faithful of wives,
+she had sacrificed herself. And now an accident made all her
+sacrifices useless, and punished her for having done her duty.
+
+Ah, why had she not resisted, at least for the purpose of gaining
+time?
+
+For when she was a girl she had dreamed of a very different future.
+Long before giving herself to the count, she had, of her own free
+will, given her heart to another. She had bestowed her first and
+warmest affections upon a young man who was only two or three years
+older than she,--Peter Champcey, the son of one of those marvellously
+rich farmers who live in the valley of the Loire.
+
+He worshipped her. Unfortunately one obstacle had risen between them
+from the beginning,--Pauline's poverty. It could not be expected that
+those keen, thrifty peasants, Champcey's father and mother, would ever
+permit one of their sons--they had two--to commit the folly of making
+a love-match.
+
+They had worked hard for their children. The oldest, Peter, was to be
+a lawyer; the other, Daniel, who wanted to become a sailor, was
+studying day and night to prepare for his examination. And the old
+couple were not a little proud of these "gentlemen," their sons. They
+told everybody who would listen, that, in return for the costly
+education they were giving them, they expected them to marry large
+fortunes.
+
+Peter knew his parents so well, that he never mentioned Pauline to
+them.
+
+"When I am of age," he said to himself, "it will be a different
+matter."
+
+Alas! Why had not Pauline's mother waited at least till then?
+
+Poor young girl! On the day on which she entered the castle of Ville-
+Handry, she had sworn she would bury this love of hers so deep in the
+innermost recesses of her heart, that it should never come up and
+trouble her thoughts. And she had kept her word.
+
+But now it suddenly broke forth, more ardent, more powerful, than
+ever, till it well-nigh overcame her, and crushed her--sweetly and
+sadly, like the memory of lost days, and at the same time cruel and
+heart-rending, like bitter remorse.
+
+What had become of him? When he had heard that she was going to marry
+the count, he had written to her a letter full of despair, in which he
+overwhelmed her with irony and contempt. Later, whether he had
+forgotten her or not, he also had married; and the two lovers who had
+once hoped to pursue their way through life leaning one upon the other
+now went each their own way.
+
+For long hours the poor young wife struggled in the solitude of her
+chamber against these ghosts of the past which crowded around her.
+But, if ever a guilty thought called up a blush on her brow, she
+quickly triumphed over it. Like a brave, loyal woman, she renewed her
+oath, and swore to devote herself entirely to her husband. He had
+rescued her from abject poverty, and bestowed upon her his fortune and
+his name; and she owed it to him in return to make him happy.
+
+She needed all her courage, all her energy, to fulfil her vows; for
+the count's character lay fully open before her now, after two years
+of married life. She knew precisely how narrow his mind was, how empty
+his thoughts, and how cold his heart. She had long since found out
+that the brilliant man of the world, whom everybody considered so
+clever, was in reality an absolute nullity, incapable of any thought
+that was not suggested to him by others, and at the same time full of
+overweening self-esteem, and absurdly obstinate.
+
+The worst, however, was, that the count was very near hating his wife.
+He had heard so many people say that she was not his equal, that he
+finally believed it himself. Besides, he blamed her for the prestige
+which he had lost.
+
+An ordinary woman would have shrunk from the difficult task which
+Pauline had assumed, and would have thought that nothing more could be
+expected of her than to keep sacred her marriage-vows. But the
+countess was not an ordinary woman. Full of resignation, she meant to
+do more than her duty.
+
+Fortunately, a cradle standing by her bedside made the task somewhat
+easier. She had a daughter, her Henrietta; and upon that darling curly
+head she built a thousand castles in the air. From that moment she
+roused herself from the languor to which she had given way for nearly
+two years, and set to work to study the count with that amazing
+sagacity which a high stake is apt to give.
+
+A remark accidentally made by her husband cast a new light upon her
+fate. One morning, when they had finished breakfast, he said,--
+
+"Ah! Nancy was very fond of you. The day before she died, when she
+knew she was going, she made me promise her to marry you."
+
+This Nancy was the count's former housekeeper.
+
+After this awkward speech, the poor countess saw clearly enough what
+position that woman had really held at the castle. She understood how,
+modestly keeping in the background, and sheltering herself under the
+very humility of her position, she had been in truth the intellect,
+the energy, and the strong will, of her master. Her influence over him
+had, besides, been so powerful, that it had survived her, and that she
+had been obeyed even in the grave.
+
+Although cruelly humiliated by this confession of her husband's, the
+countess had sufficient self-control not to blame him for his
+weakness. She said to herself,--
+
+"Well, be it so. For his happiness and for our peace, I will stoop to
+play the part Nancy played."
+
+This was more easily said than done; for the count was not the man to
+be led openly, nor was he willing to listen to good advice, simply
+because it was good. Irritable, jealous, and despotic, like all weak
+men, he dreaded nothing so much as what he called an insult to his
+authority. He meant to be master everywhere, in every thing, and
+forever. He was so sensitive on this point, that his wife had only to
+show the shadow of a purpose of her own, and he went instantly to work
+to oppose and prohibit it.
+
+"I am not a weather-cock!" was one of his favorite sayings.
+
+Poor fellow! He did not know that those who turn to the opposite side
+of the wind, nevertheless turn, as well as those who go with the wind.
+The countess knew it; and this knowledge made her strong. After
+working for many months patiently and cautiously, she thought she had
+learnt the secret of managing him, and that henceforth she would be
+able to control his will whenever she was in earnest.
+
+The opportunity to make the experiment came very soon. Although the
+great people of the neighborhood had generally come round and treated
+her quite fairly now, especially since she had become an heiress, the
+countess found her position unpleasant, and was anxious to leave the
+country. It recalled to her, besides, too many painful memories. There
+were certain roads and lanes which she could never pass without a pang
+at her heart. On the other hand, it was well known that the count had
+sworn he would end his life in the province. He hated large cities;
+and the mere idea of leaving his castle, where every thing was
+arranged to suit his habits, made him seriously angry.
+
+People would not believe it, therefore, when report first arose that
+he was going to leave Ville-Handry, that he had bought a town-house in
+Paris and that he would shortly go there to establish himself
+permanently in the capital.
+
+"It was much against the will of the countess," he said, full of
+delight at her disappointment. "She would not agree to it at all; but
+I am not a weather-cock. I insisted on having my way, and she yielded
+at last."
+
+So that in the latter part of October, in 1851, the Count and the
+Countess Ville-Handry moved into the magnificent house in Varennes
+Street, a princely mansion, which, however, did not cost them more
+than a third of its actual value, as they happened to buy at a time
+when real estate was very low.
+
+But it had been comparatively child's play to bring the count to
+Paris; the real difficulty was to keep him there. Nothing was more
+likely than that, deprived of the active exercise and the fresh air he
+enjoyed in the country, he should miss his many occupations and
+duties, and either succumb to weariness, or seek refuge in
+dissipation. His wife foresaw this difficulty, and looked for an
+object that might give the count abundant employment and amusement.
+
+Already before leaving home she had dropped in his mind the seed of
+that passion, which, in a man of fifty, can take the place of all
+others,--ambition. Thus he came to Paris with the secret desire and
+the hope of becoming a leader in politics, and making his mark in some
+great affair of state.
+
+The countess however, aware of the dangers which beset a man who
+ventures upon such slippery ground, determined first to examine the
+condition of things so as to be able to warn him in time. Fortunately
+her fortune and her name were of great service to her in this
+enterprise. She managed to assemble at her house all the celebrities
+of the day. Her relations helped her; and soon her Wednesdays and
+Saturdays became famous in Paris. People exerted themselves to the
+utmost to obtain an invitation to her state dinners, or her smaller
+parties on Sundays. Her house in Varennes Street was looked upon as
+neutral ground, where political intrigues and party strife were alike
+tabooed. The countess spent a whole winter in making her observations.
+
+The world, seeing her sit modestly by her fireside, thought she was
+wholly occupied with her pretty daughter, Henrietta, who was always
+playing or reading by her side. But she was all the time listening,
+and trying, with all her mental powers, to understand the great
+questions of the day. She studied characters; watched the passions of
+some, and discovered the cunning tricks of others, ever anxious to
+find out what enemies she would have to fear, and what allies to
+conciliate. Like one of those ill-taught professors who study in the
+morning what they mean to teach in the afternoon, she prepared herself
+for the lessons which she soon meant to give. Fortunately her
+apprenticeship was short, thanks to her superior intellect, her
+womanly cleverness, and rare talents which no one suspected.
+
+She soon reaped the fruit of her labors.
+
+The next winter the count, who had so far kept aloof from politics,
+came out with his opinions. He soon made his mark, aided by his fine
+appearance, his elegant manners, and imperturbable self-possession. He
+spoke in public, and made an impression by his good common-sense. He
+advised others, and they were struck by his sagacity. He had soon
+enthusiastic partisans, and, of course, as violent adversaries. His
+friends encouraged him to become the leader of his party; and he
+worked day and night to achieve that end.
+
+"Unfortunately I have to pay for it at home," he said to his intimate
+friends; "for my wife is one of those timid women who cannot
+understand that men are made for the excitement of public life. I
+should be still in the province, if I had listened to her."
+
+She enjoyed her work in quiet delight. The greater the success of her
+husband in the world, the prouder she became of her own usefulness to
+him. Her feelings were very much those of a dramatic poet who hears
+the applause given to the characters which he has created.
+
+But there was this wonderful feature in her work,--that nobody
+suspected her; no one, not even her own child. She wanted Henrietta,
+as little as the world, to know what she was to her husband; and she
+taught her not only to love him as her father, but to respect and
+admire him as a man of eminence. Of course, the count was the very
+last man to suspect any thing. He might have been told all, and he
+would have believed nothing.
+
+He fancied he had discovered himself the whole line of proceeding
+which his wife had so carefully traced out for him. In the full
+sincerity of his heart, he believed he had composed and written out
+the speeches which she drew up for him; and the articles for the
+newspapers, and the letters, which she dictated, appeared to him all
+to have sprung from his own fertile brains. He was even sometimes
+surprised at the want of good sense in his wife, and pointed out to
+her, quite ironically, that the steps from which she tried hardest to
+dissuade him were the most successful he took. But no irony could turn
+the countess from the path which she had traced out for herself; nor
+did she ever allow a word or even a smile to escape her, that might
+have betrayed her secret. When her husband became sarcastic, she bowed
+her head, and said nothing. But, the more he gloried in his utter
+nullity, the more she delighted in her work, and found ample
+compensation in the approval of her own conscience.
+
+The count had been so exceedingly good as to take her when she was
+penniless; she owed him the historic name she bore and a large
+fortune; but, in return, she had given him, and without his being
+aware of it, a position of some eminence. She had made him happy in
+the only way in which a small and ordinary man could be made happy,--
+by gratifying his vanity.
+
+Now she was no longer under obligations to him.
+
+"Yes," she said to herself, "we are quits, fairly quits!"
+
+Now also, she reproached herself no longer for the long hours during
+which her thoughts, escaping from the control of her will, had turned
+to the man of her early choice.
+
+Poor fellow! She had been his evil star.
+
+His life had been imbittered from the day on which he found himself
+forsaken by her whom he loved better than life itself. He had given up
+every thing.
+
+His parents had "hunted up" an heiress, as they called it, and he had
+married her dutifully. But the good old people had been unlucky. The
+bride, chosen among a thousand, had brought their son a fortune of a
+hundred thousand dollars; but she was a bad woman. And after eight
+years of wretched, intolerable married life, Peter Champcey had shot
+himself, unable to bear any longer his domestic misfortunes, and the
+infidelity of his wife.
+
+He had, however, avoided committing this crime at Angers, where he
+held a high official position. He had gone to Rosiers, the house
+formerly occupied by Pauline's mother; and there, in a narrow lane,
+his body was found by some peasants coming home from market. The ball
+had so fearfully disfigured his face, that at first no one recognized
+him; and the accident made a terrible sensation.
+
+The countess heard of it first through her husband. He could not
+understand, he said, how a man in good position, with a bright future
+before him, and a large income to support him, could thus kill
+himself.
+
+"And to choose such a strange place for his suicide!" he added. "It is
+evident the man was insane."
+
+But the countess did not hear this. She had fainted. She understood
+but too well why Peter had wished to die in that lane overshadowed by
+old elm-trees.
+
+"I killed him," she thought, "I killed him!"
+
+The blow was so sudden and so severe, that she came near dying.
+Fortunately her mother died nearly at the same time; and this
+misfortune helped to explain her utter prostration and deep grief.
+
+Her mother had been gradually fading away, after having had all she
+desired, and living in real luxury during her last years. Her
+selfishness was so intense, that she never became aware of the cruelty
+with which she had sacrificed her daughter.
+
+Sacrificed, however, she really had been; for never did woman suffer
+what the countess endured from the day on which her lover's suicide
+added bitter remorse to all her former grief. What would have become
+of her, if her child had not bound her to life! But she resolved to
+live; she felt that she was bound to live for Henrietta's sake.
+
+Thus she struggled on quite alone, for she had not a soul in whom she
+could confide, when one afternoon, as she was going down stairs, a
+servant came to tell her that there was a young man in naval uniform
+below, who desired to have the honor of waiting upon her.
+
+The servant handed her his card; she took it, and read,--
+
+
+ "Daniel Champcey."
+
+
+It was Daniel, Peter's brother. Pale as death, the countess turned as
+if to escape.
+
+"What must I say?" asked the servant, rather surprised at the emotion
+shown by his mistress.
+
+The poor woman felt as if she was going to faint.
+
+"Show him up," she replied in a scarcely audible voice,--"show him
+up."
+
+When she looked up again, there stood before her a young man, twenty-
+three or twenty-four years old, with a frank and open face, and clear,
+bright eyes, beaming with intelligence and energy.
+
+The countess pointed at a chair near her; for she could not have
+uttered a word to save her daughter's life.
+
+He could not help noticing her embarrassment; but he did not guess the
+cause. Peter had never mentioned Pauline's name in his father's house.
+
+So he sat down, and explained why he came, showing neither
+embarrassment nor forwardness.
+
+As soon as he had graduated at the Naval Academy, he had been made a
+midshipman on board "The Formidable," and there he was still. A
+younger man had recently been wrongly promoted over him; and he had
+asked for leave of absence to appeal to the secretary of the navy. He
+felt quite sure of the justice of his claims; but he also knew that
+strong recommendations never spoil a good cause. In fact, he hoped
+that Count Ville-Handry, of whose kindness and great influence he had
+heard much, would consent to indorse his claims.
+
+Gradually, and while listening to him, the countess recovered her
+calmness.
+
+"My husband will be happy to serve a countryman of his," she replied;
+"and he will tell you so himself, if you will be kind enough to wait
+for him, and stay to dinner."
+
+Daniel did stay. At table he was placed by the side of Henrietta, who
+was then fifteen years old; and the countess, seeing these two young
+and handsome people side by side, was suddenly struck with an idea
+which seemed to her nothing less than inspiration from on high. Why
+might she not intrust the future happiness of her daughter to the
+brother of the poor man who had loved her so dearly? Thus she might
+make some amends for her own conduct, and show some respect to his
+memory.
+
+"Yes," she said to herself that night, before falling asleep, "it must
+be so. Daniel shall be Henrietta's husband."
+
+Thus it came about, that, only a fortnight later, Count Ville-Handry
+said to one of his intimate friends, pointing out Daniel,--
+
+"That young Champcey is a very remarkable young man; he has a great
+future before him. And one of these days, when he is a lieutenant, and
+a few years older, if it should so happen that he liked Henrietta, and
+asked me for my consent, I should not say no. The countess might think
+and say of it what she chooses, I am master."
+
+After that time Daniel became, unfortunately, a constant visitor at
+the house in Varennes Street.
+
+He had not only obtained ample satisfaction at headquarters, but, by
+the powerful influence of certain high personages, he had been
+temporarily assigned to duty in the bureau of the navy department,
+with the promise of a better position in active service hereafter.
+
+Thus Daniel and Henrietta saw a great deal of each other, and, to all
+appearances, began to love each other.
+
+"O God!" thought the countess, "why are they not a few years older?"
+
+The poor lady had for some months been troubled by dismal
+presentiments. She felt as if she would not live long; and she
+trembled at the idea of leaving her child without any other protector
+but the count.
+
+If Henrietta had at least known the truth, and, instead of admiring
+her father as a man of superior ability, learned to mistrust his
+judgment! A hundred times the countess was on the point of revealing
+her secret. Alas! her great delicacy always kept her from doing so.
+
+One night, as she returned from a great ball, she suddenly was seized
+with vertigo. She did not think much of it, but sent for a cup of tea.
+
+When it came, she was standing before the fireplace, undoing her hair;
+but, instead of taking it, she suddenly raised her hand to her throat,
+uttered a hoarse sound, and fell back.
+
+They raised her up. In an instant the whole house was alive. They sent
+for the doctors. All was in vain.
+
+The Countess Ville-Handry had died from disease of the heart.
+
+
+
+                                 III.
+
+Henrietta, roused by the noise all over the house, the voices in the
+passages, and the steps on the staircase, and suspecting that some
+accident had happened, had rushed at once into her mother's room.
+
+There she had heard the doctors utter the fatal words,--
+
+"All is over!"
+
+There were five or six of them in the room; and one of them, his eyes
+swollen from sleeplessness, and overcome with fatigue, had drawn the
+count into a corner, and, pressing his hands, repeated over and over
+again,--
+
+"Courage, my dear sir, courage!"
+
+He, overcome, with downcast eye, and cold perspiration on his pallid
+brow, did not understand him; for he continued to stammer
+incessantly,--
+
+"It is nothing, I hope. Did you not say it was nothing?"
+
+There are misfortunes so terrible, so overwhelming in their
+suddenness, that the stunned mind refuses to believe them, and denies
+their genuineness in spite of their actual presence.
+
+How could any one imagine or comprehend that the countess, who but a
+moment ago was standing there full of life, in perfect health, and the
+whole vigor of her years, apparently perfectly happy, smiling, and
+beloved by all,--how could one conceive that she had all at once
+ceased to exist?
+
+They had laid her on her bed in her ball costume,--a blue satin dress
+trimmed with lace. The flowers were still in her hair; and the blow
+had come with such suddenness, that, even in death, she retained the
+appearance of life; she was still warm, her skin transparent, and her
+limbs supple. Even her eyes, still wide open, retained their
+expression, and betrayed the last sensation that had filled her heart,
+--terror. It looked as if she had had at that last moment a revelation
+of the future which her too great cautiousness had prepared for her
+daughter.
+
+"My mother is not dead; oh, no! she cannot be dead!" exclaimed
+Henrietta. And she went from one doctor to the other, urging them,
+beseeching them, to find some means--
+
+What were they doing there, looking so blank, instead of acting? Were
+they not going to restore her,--they whose business it was to cure
+people, and who surely had saved a number of people? They turned away
+from her, distressed by her terrible grief, expressing their inability
+to help by a gesture; and then the poor girl went back to the bed,
+and, bending over her mother, watched with a painfully bewildered air
+for her return to life. It seemed to her as if she felt that noble
+heart still beat under her hand, and as if those lips, sealed forever
+by death, must speak again to re-assure her.
+
+They attempted to take her away from that heartrending sight; they
+begged her to go to her room; but she insisted upon staying. They
+tried to remove her by force; but she clung to the bed, and vowed that
+they should tear her to pieces sooner than make her leave her mother.
+
+At last, however, the truth broke upon her. She sank down upon her
+knees by the side of the bed, hiding her face in the drapery, and
+repeating with fierce sobs,--
+
+"My mother, my darling mother!"
+
+It was nearly morning, and the pale dawn was stealing into the room,
+when at last some sisters of charity came, who had been sent for; and
+then a couple of priests; a little later (it was towards the end of
+January) one of the count's friends appeared, who undertook all those
+sickening preparations which our civilization demands in such cases.
+On the next day the funeral took place.
+
+More than two hundred persons called to condole with the count,
+twenty-five or thirty ladies came and kissed Henrietta, calling her
+their poor dear child.
+
+Then horses were heard in the court-yard, coachmen quarrelling; orders
+were given; and at last the hearse rolled away solemnly--and that was
+all.
+
+Henrietta wept and prayed in her chamber.
+
+Late in the day, the count and Henrietta sat down at table alone for
+the first time in their lives; but they did not eat a morsel. How
+could they do it, seeing before them the empty seat, once occupied by
+her who was the life of the whole house, and now never to be filled
+again?
+
+And thus, for a long time, their meals were a steady reminder of their
+loss. During the day they were seen wandering about the house, without
+any apparent purpose, as if looking or hoping for something to happen.
+
+But there was another true and warm heart, far from that house, which
+had been sorely wounded by the death of the countess. Daniel had loved
+her like a mother; and in his heart a mysterious voice warned him,
+that, in losing her, he had well-nigh lost Henrietta.
+
+He had called several times at the house of mourning; but it was only
+a fortnight later that he was admitted. When Henrietta saw him, she
+felt sorry she had not let him come in before. He had apparently
+suffered as much as she; he looked pale; and his eyes were red.
+
+They remained for some time seated opposite each other, without saying
+a word, but deeply moved, and feeling instinctively that their common
+grief bound them more firmly than ever to each other.
+
+The count, in the meantime, walked up and down in the large room. He
+was so much changed, that one might have failed to recognize him.
+There was a strange want of steadiness in his movements; he looked
+almost like a paralytic, whose crutches had suddenly broken down. Was
+he conscious of the immense loss which he had suffered? His vanity was
+too great to render that very probable.
+
+"I shall master my grief as soon as I go back to work," he said.
+
+He ought not to have done it; but he resumed his duties as a
+politician at a time when they had become unusually difficult, and
+when great things were expected of him. Two or three absurd,
+ridiculous, in fact unpardonable blunders, ruined him forever. He lost
+his reputation as a statesman, and with it his influence.
+
+As yet, however, his reputation remained uninjured. No one suspected
+the truth. They attributed the sudden failure of his faculties to the
+great sorrow that had befallen him in the death of his wife.
+
+"Who would have thought that he had loved her so deeply?" they asked
+one another.
+
+Henrietta was as much misled as the others, and perhaps even more. Her
+respect and her admiration, so far from being diminished, only
+increased day by day. She loved him all the more dearly as she watched
+the apparent effect of his incurable grief.
+
+He was really deeply grieved, but only by his fall. How had it come
+about? He tortured his mind in vain; he could not find a plausible
+explanation, and said over and over again,--
+
+"It is perfectly inexplicable."
+
+He talked of regular plots, of a coalition of his enemies, of the
+black ingratitude of men, and their fickleness. At first he had
+thought of going back to the country. But gradually, as day followed
+day, and weeks grew into months, his wounded vanity began to heal; he
+forgot his misfortunes, and adopted new habits of life.
+
+He was a great deal at his club now, rode much on horseback, went to
+the theatres, and dined with his friends. Henrietta was delighted; for
+she had at one time begun to be seriously concerned for her father's
+health. But she was not a little amazed when she saw him lay aside his
+mourning, and exchange his simple costumes, suitable to his age, for
+the eccentric fashions of the day, wearing brilliant waistcoats and
+fancy-colored trousers.
+
+Some days later matters grew worse.
+
+One morning Count Ville-Handry, who was quite gray, appeared at
+breakfast with jet black beard and hair. Henrietta could not restrain
+an expression of amazement. But he smiled, and said with considerable
+embarrassment,--
+
+"My servant is making an experiment; he thinks this goes better with
+my complexion, and makes me look younger."
+
+Evidently something strange had occurred in the count's life. But what
+was it?
+
+Henrietta, although ignorant of the world, and at that time innocence
+personified, was, nevertheless, a woman, and hence had the keen
+instinct of her sex, which is better than all experience. She
+reflected, and she thought she could guess what had happened.
+
+After hesitating for three days, the poor girl, saddened rather than
+frightened, confided her troubles to Daniel. But she had only spoken a
+few words when he interrupted her, and, blushing deeply, said,--
+
+"Do not trouble yourself about that, Miss Henrietta; and, whatever
+your father may do, do not mind it."
+
+That advice was more easily given than followed; for the count's ways
+became daily more extraordinary. He had gradually drifted away from
+his old friends and his wife's friends, and seemed to prefer to their
+high-bred society the company of very curious people of all kinds. A
+number of young men came in the forenoon on horseback, and in the most
+unceremonious costumes. They came in smoking their cigars, and asked
+at once for liquors and absinthe. In the afternoon, another set of men
+made their appearance,--vulgar and arrogant people, with huge whiskers
+and enormous watch-chains, who gesticulated vehemently, and were on
+most excellent terms with the servants. They were closeted with the
+count; and their discussions were so loud, they could be heard all
+over the house.
+
+What were the grave discussions that made so much noise? The count
+undertook to enlighten his daughter. He told her, that, having been
+ill-treated in politics, he intended to devote himself henceforth to
+grand enterprises, and hoped confidently to realize an enormous
+fortune, while, at the same time, rendering great service to certain
+branches of industry.
+
+A fortune? Why should he want money? What with his own estate, and
+what with his wife's fortune, he had already an income of a hundred
+thousand dollars. Was that not quite enough for a man of sixty-five
+and for a young girl who did not spend a thousand a year on her
+toilet?
+
+Henrietta asked him timidly, for she was afraid of hurting her
+father's feelings, why he wanted more money.
+
+He laughed heartily, tapped her cheek playfully, and said,--
+
+"Ah, you would like to rule your papa, would you?"
+
+Then he added more seriously,--
+
+"Am I so old, my little lady, that I ought to go into retirement? Have
+you, also, gone over to my enemies?"
+
+"Oh, dear papa!"
+
+"Well, my child, then you ought to know that a man such as I am cannot
+condemn himself to inactivity, unless he wants to die. I do not want
+any more money; what I want is an outlet for my energy and my
+talents."
+
+This was so sensible a reply, that both Henrietta and Daniel felt
+quite re-assured.
+
+Both had been taught by the countess to look upon her husband as a man
+of genius; hence they felt sure that he had only to undertake a thing,
+and he was sure to succeed. Besides, Daniel hoped that such grave
+matters of business would keep the count from playing the fashionable
+young man.
+
+But it seemed as if nothing could turn him from this folly; he became
+daily younger and faster. He wore the most eccentric hats on one ear.
+He ordered his coats to be made in the very last fashion; and never
+went out without a camellia or a rosebud in his buttonhole. He no
+longer contented himself with dyeing his hair, but actually began to
+rouge, and used such strong perfumes, that one might have followed his
+track through the streets by the odors he diffused around him.
+
+At times he would sit for hours in an arm-chair, his eyes fixed on the
+ceiling, his brow knit, and his thoughts apparently bent upon some
+grave question. If he was spoken to, he started like a criminal caught
+in the act. He who formerly prided himself on his magnificent appetite
+(he saw in it a resemblance to Louis XIV.) now hardly ate any thing.
+On the other hand, he was forever complaining of oppression in the
+chest, and of palpitation of the heart.
+
+His daughter repeatedly found him with tears in his eyes,--big tears,
+which passed through his dyed beard, and fell like drops of ink on his
+white shirt-front. Then, again, these attacks of melancholy would be
+followed by sudden outbursts of joy. He would rub his hands till they
+pained him; he would sing and almost dance with delight.
+
+Now and then a commissionaire (it was always the same man) came and
+brought him a letter. The count tore it from his hands, threw him a
+gold-piece, and went to shut himself up in his study.
+
+"Poor papa!" said Henrietta to Daniel. "There are moments when I
+tremble for his mind."
+
+At last, one evening after dinner, when he had drunk more than
+usually, perhaps in order to gain courage, he drew his daughter on his
+knee, and said in his softest voice,--
+
+"Confess, my dear child, that in your innermost heart you have more
+than once called me a very bad father. I dare say you blame me for
+leaving you so constantly alone here in this large house, where you
+must die from sheer weariness."
+
+Such a charge would have been but too well founded. Henrietta was left
+more completely to herself than the daughter of a workman, whose
+business keeps him from home all day long. The workman, however, takes
+his child out, at least on Sundays.
+
+"I am never weary, papa," replied Henrietta.
+
+"Really? Why, how do you occupy yourself?"
+
+"Oh! in the first place I attend to the housekeeping, and try my best
+to make home pleasant to you. Then I embroider, I sew, I study. In the
+afternoon my music-teacher comes, and my English master. At night I
+read."
+
+The count smiled; but it was a forced smile.
+
+"Never mind!" he broke in; "such a lonely life cannot go on. A girl of
+your age stands in need of some one to advise her, to pet her,--an
+affectionate and devoted friend. That is why I have been thinking of
+giving you another mother."
+
+Henrietta drew back her arm, which she had wound round her father's
+neck; and, rising suddenly, she said,--
+
+"You think of marrying again?"
+
+He turned his head aside, hesitated moment, and then replied,--
+
+"Yes."
+
+At first the poor girl could not utter a word, so great were her
+stupor, her indignation, her bitter grief; then she made an effort,
+and said in a pained voice,--
+
+"Do you really tell me so, papa? What! you would bring another wife to
+this house, which is still alive with the voice of her whom we have
+lost? You would make her sit down in the chair in which she used to
+sit, and let her rest her feet on the cushion which she embroidered?
+Perhaps you would even want me to call her mamma? Oh, dear papa!
+surely you do not think of such profanation!"
+
+The count's trouble was pitiful to behold. And yet, if Henrietta had
+been less excited, she would have read in his eye that his mind was
+made up.
+
+"What I mean to do is done in your behalf, my dear child," he
+stammered out at last. "I am old; I may die; we have no near
+relations; what would become of you without a friend?"
+
+She blushed crimson; but she said timidly,--
+
+"But, papa, there is M. Daniel Champcey."
+
+"Well?"
+
+The count's eyes shone with delight as he saw that she was falling
+into the pit he had dug for her. The poor girl went on,--
+
+"I thought--I had hoped--poor mamma had told me--in fact, since you
+had allowed M. Daniel to come here"--
+
+"You thought I intended to make him my son-in-law?"
+
+She made no answer.
+
+"That was in fact the idea your mother had. She had certainly very odd
+notions, against which I had to use the whole strength of my firm
+will. A sailor is a sorry kind of husband, my dear child; a word from
+his minister may part him for years from his wife."
+
+Henrietta remained silent. She began to understand the nature of the
+bargain which her father proposed to her, and it made her indignant.
+He thought he had said enough for this time, and left her with these
+words,--
+
+"Consider, my child; for my part, I will also think of it."
+
+What should she do? There were a hundred ways; but which to choose?
+Finding herself alone, she took a pen, and for the first time in her
+life she wrote to Daniel:--
+
+
+ "I must speak to you /instantly/. Pray come.
+
+ "Henrietta."
+
+
+She gave the letter to a servant, ordering him to carry it at once to
+its address; and then she waited in a state of feverish anxiety,
+counting the minutes.
+
+Daniel Champcey had, in a house not far from the university, three
+rooms, the windows of which looked out upon the gardens of an
+adjoining mansion, where the flowers bloomed brilliantly, and the
+birds sang joyously. There he spent almost all the time which was not
+required by his official duties. A walk in company with his friend,
+Maxime de Brevan; a visit to the theatre, when a particularly fine
+piece was to be given; and two or three calls a week at Count Ville-
+Handry's house,--these were his sole and certainly very harmless
+amusements.
+
+"A genuine old maid, that sailor is," said the concierge of the house.
+
+The truth is, that, if Daniel's natural refinement had not kept him
+from contact with what Parisians call "pleasure," his ardent love for
+Henrietta would have prevented his falling into bad company. A pure,
+noble love, such as his, based upon perfect confidence in her to whom
+it is given, is quite sufficient to fill up a life; for it makes the
+present delightful, and paints the distant horizon of the future in
+all the bright colors of the rainbow.
+
+But, the more he loved Henrietta, the more he felt bound to be worthy
+of her, and to deserve her affections. He was not ambitious. He had
+chosen a profession which he loved. He had a considerable fortune of
+his own, and was thus, by his private income and his pay as an
+officer, secured against want. What more could he desire? Nothing for
+himself.
+
+But Henrietta belonged to a great house; she was the daughter of a man
+who had filled a high position; she was immensely rich; and, even if
+he had married her only with her own fortune, she would have brought
+him ten times as much as he had. Daniel did not want Henrietta, on the
+blessed day when she should become his own, to have any thing to wish
+for or to regret. Hence he worked incessantly, indefatigably, waking
+up every morning anew with the determination to make himself one of
+those names which weigh more than the oldest parchments, and to win
+one of those positions which make a wife as proud as she is fond of
+her husband. Fortunately, the times were favorable to his ambition.
+The French navy was in a state of transformation; but the marine was
+as yet unreformed, waiting, apparently, for the hand of a man of
+genius.
+
+And why might not he be that man? Supported by his love, he saw
+nothing impossible in that thought, and fancied he could overcome all
+obstacles.
+
+"Do you see that d---- little fellow, there, with his quiet ways?"
+said Admiral Penhoel to his young officers. "Well, look at him; he'll
+checkmate you all."
+
+Daniel was busy in his study, finishing a paper for the minister, when
+the count's servant came and brought him Henrietta's letter. He knew
+that something extraordinary must have happened to induce Henrietta,
+with her usual reserve, to take such a step, and, above all, to write
+to him in such brief but urgent terms.
+
+"Has any thing happened at the house?" he asked the servant.
+
+"No, sir, not that I know."
+
+"The count is not sick?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"And Miss Henrietta?"
+
+"My mistress is perfectly well."
+
+Daniel breathed more freely.
+
+"Tell Miss Henrietta I am coming at once; and make haste, or I shall
+be there before you."
+
+As soon as the servant had left, Daniel dressed, and a moment later he
+was out of the house. As he walked rapidly up the street in which the
+count lived, he thought,--
+
+"I have no doubt taken the alarm too soon; perhaps she has only some
+commission for me."
+
+But he was beset with dark presentiments, and had to tell himself that
+that was not likely to be the case. He felt worse than ever, when,
+upon being shown into the drawing-room, he saw Henrietta sitting by
+the fire, deadly pale, with her eyes all red and inflamed from
+weeping.
+
+"What is the matter with you?" he cried, without waiting for the door
+to be closed behind him. "What has happened?"
+
+"Something terrible, M. Daniel."
+
+"Tell me, pray, what. You frighten me."
+
+"My father is going to marry again."
+
+At first Daniel was amazed. Then, recalling at once the gradual
+transformation of the count, he said,--
+
+"Oh, oh, oh! That explains every thing."
+
+But Henrietta interrupted him; and, making a great effort, she
+repeated to him in a half-stifled voice almost literally her
+conversation with her father. When she had ended, Daniel said,--
+
+"You have guessed right, Miss Henrietta. Your father evidently does
+propose to you a bargain."
+
+"Ah! but that is horrible."
+
+"He wanted you to understand, that, if you would consent to his
+marriage, he would consent"--
+
+Shocked at what he was going to add, he stopped; but Henrietta said
+boldly,--
+
+"To ours, you mean,--to ours? Yes, so I understood it; and that was my
+reason for sending for you to advise me."
+
+Poor fellow! She was asking him to seal his fate.
+
+"I think you ought to consent!" he stammered out.
+
+She rose, trembling with indignation, and replied,--
+
+"Never, never!"
+
+Daniel was overcome by this sudden shock. Never. He saw all his hopes
+dashed in an instant, his life's happiness destroyed forever,
+Henrietta lost to him. But the very imminence of the danger restored
+to him his energy. He mastered his grief, and said in an almost calm
+voice,--
+
+"I beseech you, let me explain to you why I advised you so. Believe
+me, your father does not want your consent at all. You cannot do
+without his consent; but he can marry without asking you for yours.
+There is no law which authorizes children to oppose the follies of
+their parents. What your father wants is your silent approval, the
+certainty that his new wife will be kindly received. If you refuse, he
+will go on, nevertheless, and not mind your objections."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"I am, unfortunately, but too sure of that. If he spoke to you of his
+plans, you may be sure he had made up his mind. Your resistance will
+lead only to our separation. He might possibly forgive you; but she--
+Don't you think she should avail herself to the utmost of her
+influence over him? Who can foresee to what extremities she might be
+led by her hatred against you? And she must be a dangerous woman,
+Henrietta, a woman who is capable of any thing."
+
+"Why?"
+
+He hesitated for a moment, not daring to speak out fully what he
+thought; and at last he said slowly, as if weighing his words,--
+
+"Because, because this marriage cannot be any thing else but a
+barefaced speculation. Your father is immensely rich; she wants his
+fortune."
+
+Daniel's reasoning was so sensible, and he pleaded his cause with such
+eagerness, that Henrietta's resolution was evidently shaken.
+
+"You want me to yield?" she asked.
+
+"I beseech you to do it."
+
+She shook her head sadly, and said in a tone of utter dejection,--
+
+"Very well. It shall be done as you wish it. I shall not object to
+this profanation. But you may be sure, my weakness will do us no
+good."
+
+It struck ten. She rose, offered her hand to Daniel, and said,--
+
+"I will see you to-morrow evening. By that time I shall know, and I
+will tell you, the name of the woman whom father is going to marry;
+for I shall ask him who she is."
+
+She was spared that trouble. Next morning, the first words of the
+count were,--
+
+"Well, have you thought it over?"
+
+She looked at him till he felt compelled to turn his head away; and
+then she replied in a tone of resignation,--
+
+"Father, you are master here. I should not tell you the truth, if I
+said I was not going to suffer cruelly at the idea of a stranger
+coming here to-- But I shall receive her with all due respect."
+
+Ah! The count was not prepared for such a speedy consent.
+
+"Do not speak of respect," he said. "Tell me that you will be tender,
+affectionate, and kind. Ah, if you knew her, Henrietta! She is an
+angel."
+
+"What is her age?"
+
+"Twenty-five."
+
+The count read in his daughter's face that she thought his new wife
+much too young for him; and therefore he added, quickly,--
+
+"Your mother was two years younger when I married her."
+
+That was so; but he forgot that that was twenty years ago.
+
+"However," he added, "you will see her; I shall ask her to let me
+present you to her. She /is/ a foreigner, of excellent family, very
+rich, marvellously clever and beautiful; and her name is Sarah
+Brandon."
+
+That evening, when Henrietta told Daniel the name of her future
+mother-in-law, he started with an air of utter despair, and said,--
+
+"Great God! If Maxime de Brevan is not mistaken, that is worse than
+any thing we could possibly anticipate."
+
+
+
+                                 IV.
+
+When Henrietta saw how the young officer was overcome by the mere
+mention of that name, Sarah Brandon, she felt the blood turn to ice in
+her veins. She knew perfectly well that a man like Daniel was not
+likely to be so utterly overwhelmed unless there was something
+fearful, unheard of, in the matter.
+
+"Do you know the woman, Daniel?"
+
+But he, regretting his want of self-possession, was already thinking
+how he could make amends for his imprudence.
+
+"I swear to you," he began.
+
+"Oh, don't swear! I see you know who she is."
+
+"I know nothing about her."
+
+"But"--
+
+"It is true I have heard people talk of her once, a /long time ago/."
+
+"Whom?"
+
+"One of my friends, Maxime de Brevan, a fine, noble fellow."
+
+"What sort of a woman is she?"
+
+"Ah, me! that I cannot tell you. Maxime happened to mention her just
+in passing; and I never thought that one of these days I should-- If I
+seemed to be so very much surprised just now, it was because I
+remembered, all of a sudden, a very ugly story in which Maxime said
+she had been involved, and then"--
+
+He was ridiculous in his inability to tell a fib; so, when he found
+that he was talking nonsense, he turned his head away to avoid
+Henrietta's eyes. She interrupted him, and said reproachfully,--
+
+"Do you really think I am not strong enough to hear the truth?"
+
+At first he did not reply. Overcome by the strange position in which
+he found himself, he looked for a way to escape, and found none. At
+last he said,--
+
+"Miss Henrietta, you must give me time before I tell you any more. I
+know nothing positive; and I dare say I am unnecessarily alarmed. I
+will tell you all as soon as I am better informed."
+
+"When will that be?"
+
+"To-night, if I can find Maxime de Brevan at home, as I hope I shall
+do; if I miss him, you must wait till to-morrow."
+
+"And if your suspicions turn out to be well founded; if what you fear,
+and hide from me now, is really so,--what must I do then?"
+
+Without a moment's hesitation, he rose and said in a solemn voice,--
+
+"I am not going to tell you again how I love you, Henrietta; I am not
+going to tell you that to lose you would be death to me, and that in
+our family we do not value life very highly; you know that, don't you?
+But, in spite of all that, if my fears should be well founded, as I
+apprehend they are, I should not hesitate to say to you, whatever
+might be the consequences, Henrietta, and even if we should have to
+part forever, we must try our utmost, we must employ all possible
+means in our power, to prevent a marriage between Count Ville-Handry
+and Sarah Brandon."
+
+In spite of all her sufferings, Henrietta felt her heart bounding with
+unspeakable happiness and joy. Ah! he deserved to be loved,--this man
+whom her heart had freely chosen among them all,--this man who gave
+her such an overwhelming proof of his love. She offered him her hand;
+and, with her eyes beaming with enthusiasm and tenderness, she said,--
+
+"And I, I swear by the sacred memory of my mother, that whatever may
+happen, and whatever force they may choose to employ, I shall never
+belong to any one but to you."
+
+Daniel had seized her hand, and held it for some time pressed to his
+lips. At last, when his rapture gave way to calmer thoughts, he
+said,--
+
+"I must leave you at once, Henrietta, if I want to catch Maxime."
+
+As he left, his head was in a whirl, his thoughts in a maze. His life
+and his happiness were at stake; and a single word would decide his
+fate in spite of all he could do.
+
+A cab was passing; he hailed it, jumped in, and cried to the driver,--
+
+"Go quick, I say! You shall have five francs! No. 61 Rue Laffitte!"
+
+That was the house where Maxime de Brevan lived.
+
+He was a man of thirty or thirty-five years, remarkably well made,
+light-haired, wearing a full beard, with a bright eye, and pleasing
+face. Mixing on intimate terms with the men who make up what is called
+high life, and with whom pleasure is the only occupation, he was very
+popular with them all. They said he was a man that could always be
+relied upon, at all times ready to render you a service when it was in
+his power, a pleasant companion, and an excellent second whenever a
+friend had to fight a duel.
+
+In fine, neither slander nor calumny had ever attacked his reputation.
+And yet, far from following the advice of the philosopher, who tells
+us to keep our life from the eye of the public, Maxime de Brevan
+seemed to take pains to let everybody into his secrets. He was so
+anxious to tell everybody where he had been, and what he had been
+doing, that you might have imagined he was always preparing to prove
+an alibi.
+
+Thus he told the whole world that the Brevans came originally from the
+province of Maine, and that he was the last, the sole representative,
+of that old family. Not that he prided himself particularly on his
+ancestors; he acknowledged frankly that there was very little left of
+their ancient splendor; in fact, nothing but a bare support. But he
+never said what this "support" amounted to; his most intimate friends
+could not tell whether he had one thousand or ten thousand a year. So
+much only was certain, that, to his great honor and glory, he had
+solved the great problem of preserving his independence and his
+dignity while associating, a comparatively poor man, with the richest
+young men of Paris.
+
+His rooms were simple and unpretending; and he kept but a single
+servant--his carriage he hired by the month.
+
+How had Maxime Brevan become Daniel's friend? In the simplest possible
+way. They had been introduced to each other at a great ball by a
+common friend of theirs, a lieutenant in the navy. About one o'clock
+in the morning they had gone home together; and as the moon was
+shining brightly, the weather was mild, and the walking excellent,
+they had loitered about the Place de la Concorde while smoking their
+cigars.
+
+Had Maxime really felt such warm sympathy for his friend? Perhaps so.
+At all events, Daniel had been irresistibly attracted by the peculiar
+ways of Maxime, and especially by the cool stoicism with which he
+spoke of his genteel poverty. Then they had met again, and finally
+became intimate.
+
+Brevan was just dressing for the opera when Daniel entered his room.
+He uttered a cry of delight when he saw him, as he always did.
+
+"What!" he said, "the hermit student from the other side of the river
+in this worldly region, and at this hour? What good wind blows you
+over here?"
+
+Then, suddenly noticing Daniel's terrified appearance, he added,--
+
+"But what am I talking about? You look frightened out of your wits.
+What's the matter?"
+
+"A great misfortune, I fear," replied Daniel.
+
+"How so? What is it?"
+
+"And I want you to help me."
+
+"Don't you know that I am at your service?"
+
+Daniel certainly thought so.
+
+"I thank you in advance, my dear Maxime; but I do not wish to give you
+too much trouble. I have a long story to tell you, and you are just
+going out"--
+
+But Brevan interrupted him, shaking his head kindly, and saying,--
+
+"I was only going out for want of something better to do, upon my
+word! So sit down, and tell me all."
+
+Daniel had been so overcome by terror, and the fear that he might
+possibly lose Henrietta, that he had run to his friend without
+considering what he was going to tell him. Now, when the moment came
+to speak, he was silent. The thought had just occurred to him, that
+Count Ville-Handry's secret was not his own, and that he was in duty
+bound not to betray it, if possible, even if he could have absolutely
+relied upon his friend's discretion.
+
+He did not reply, therefore, but walked up and down the room, seeking
+in vain some plausible excuse, and suffering perfect agony. This
+continued so long, that Maxime, who had of late heard much of diseases
+of the brain, asked himself if Daniel could possibly have lost his
+mind.
+
+No; for suddenly his friend stopped before him, and said in a short,
+sharp tone,--
+
+"First of all, Maxime, swear that you will never, under any
+circumstances, say to any human being a word of what I am going to
+tell you."
+
+Thoroughly mystified, Brevan raised his hand, and said,--
+
+"I pledge my word of honor!"
+
+This promise seemed to re-assure Daniel; and, when he thought he had
+recovered sufficient control over himself, he said,--
+
+"Some months ago, my dear friend, I heard you telling somebody a
+horrible story concerning a certain Mrs. Sarah Brandon"--
+
+"Miss, if you please, not Mrs."
+
+"Well, it does not matter. You know her?"
+
+"Certainly. Everybody knows her."
+
+Daniel did not notice the extreme self-conceit with which these words
+were uttered.
+
+"All right, then. Now, Maxime, I conjure you, by our friendship, tell
+me frankly what you think of her. What kind of a woman is this Miss
+Brandon?"
+
+His features, as well as his voice, betrayed such extreme excitement,
+that Brevan was almost stunned. At last he said,--
+
+"But, my dear fellow, you ask me that in a manner"--
+
+"I must know the truth, I tell you. It is of the utmost importance to
+me."
+
+Brevan, struck by a sudden thought, touched his forehead, and
+exclaimed,--
+
+"Oh, I see! You are in love with Sarah!"
+
+Daniel would never have thought of such a subterfuge in order to avoid
+mentioning the name of Count Ville-Handry; but, seeing it thus offered
+to him, he determined to profit by the opportunity.
+
+"Well, yes, suppose it is so," he said with a sigh.
+
+Maxime raised his hands to heaven, and said in a tone of painful
+conviction,--
+
+"In that case you are right. You ought to inquire; for you may be
+close upon a terrible misfortune."
+
+"Ah, is she really so formidable?"
+
+Maxime shrugged his shoulders, as if he were impatient at being called
+upon to prove a well-known fact, and said,--
+
+"I should think so."
+
+There seemed to be no reason why Daniel should persist in his
+questions after that. Those words ought to have been explanation
+enough. Nevertheless he said in a subdued voice,--
+
+"Pray explain, Maxime! Don't you know, that, as I lead a very quiet
+life, I know nothing?"
+
+Brevan, looking more serious than he had ever done, rose and replied,
+leaning against the mantlepiece,--
+
+"What would you have me tell you? It is only fools who call out to
+lovers to beware; and to warn a man who will not be warned, is
+useless. Are you really in love with Miss Sarah, or are you not? If
+you are, nothing that I could say would change your mind. Suppose I
+were to tell you that this Sarah is a wretched creature, an infamous
+forger, who has already the death of three poor devils on her
+conscience, who loved her as you do? Suppose I told you worse things
+than these, and could prove them? Do you know what would happen? You
+would press my hand with effusion. You would overwhelm me with thanks,
+tears in your eye. You would vow, in the candor of your heart, that
+you are forever cured, and, when you leave me"--
+
+"Well?"
+
+"You would rush to your beloved, tell her all I said, and beseech her
+to clear herself of all these charges."
+
+"I beg your pardon; I am not one of those men who"--
+
+But Brevan was getting more and more excited. He interrupted his
+friend, and said,--
+
+"Nonsense! You are a man like all other men. Passion does not reason,
+does not calculate; and that is the secret of its strength. As long as
+we have a spark of commonsense left, we are not really in love. That
+is so, I tell you; and no will, no amount of energy, can do any thing
+with it. There are people who tell you soberly that they have been in
+love without losing their senses, and reproach you for not keeping
+cool. Bosh! Those people remind me of still champagne blaming
+sparkling champagne for popping off the cork. And now, my dear fellow,
+have the kindness to accept this cigar, and let us take a walk."
+
+Was that really so as Brevan said? Was it true that real love destroys
+in us the faculty of reasoning, and of distinguishing truth from
+falsehood? Did he really not love Henrietta truly, because he was on
+the point of giving her up for the sake of doing his duty?
+
+Oh, no, no! Brevan had been speaking of another kind of love,--a love
+neither pure nor chaste. He spoke of those passions which suddenly
+strike us down like lightning; which confound our senses, and mislead
+our judgment; which destroy every thing, as fire does, and leave
+nothing behind but disaster and disgrace and remorse.
+
+But all the more painful became Daniel's thoughts as he remembered
+that Count Ville-Handry was overcome by one of these terrible passions
+for a worthless creature. He could not accept Maxime's offer.
+
+"One word, I pray you," he said. "Suppose I lose my free will, and
+surrender absolutely; what will become of me?"
+
+Brevan looked at him with an air of pity, and said,--
+
+"Not much will happen to you; only"--
+
+And then he added with almost sternness, mixed with bitter sarcasm,--
+
+"You ask me for your horoscope? Be it so. Have you a large fortune?"
+
+"About fifty thousand dollars."
+
+"Well, in six months they will be gone; in a year you will be
+overwhelmed with debts, and at your wits' end; in less than a year and
+a half, you will have become a forger."
+
+"Maxime!"
+
+"Ah! You asked me to tell you the truth. Then, as to your social
+position. Now it is excellent; you have been promoted as rapidly as
+merit could claim, everybody says. You will be an admiral one of these
+days. But in six months you will be nothing at all; you will have
+resigned your commission, or you will have been dismissed."
+
+"Allow me"--
+
+"No. You are an honest man, the most honorable man I know; after six
+months' acquaintance with Sarah Brandon, you will have lost your self-
+respect so completely, that you will have become a drunkard. There is
+your picture. 'It's not flattered!' you will say. But you wanted to
+have it. And now let us go."
+
+This time he was determined; and Daniel saw that he would not obtain
+another word from him, unless he changed his tactics. He held him
+back, therefore, a moment; and, as he opened the door, he said,--
+
+"Maxime, you must pardon me a very innocent deception, which was
+suggested by your own words. It is not I who am in love with Miss
+Sarah Brandon."
+
+Brevan was so much surprised, he could not stir.
+
+"Who is it, then?" he asked.
+
+"One of my friends."
+
+"What name?"
+
+"I wish you would render the service I ask of you doubly valuable by
+not asking me that question,--at least, not to-day."
+
+Daniel spoke with such an accent of truth, that not a shadow of doubt
+remained on Maxime's mind. It was not Daniel who had fallen in love
+with Sarah Brandon. Brevan did not doubt that for a moment. But he
+could not conceal his trouble, and his disappointment even, as he
+exclaimed,--
+
+"Well done, Daniel! Tell me that your ingenuous people cannot deceive
+anybody!"
+
+However, he said nothing more about it; and, while Daniel was pouring
+out his excuses, he quietly went back to the fire, and sat down. After
+a moment's silence, he began again,--
+
+"Let us assume, then, that it is one of your friends who is
+bewitched?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And the matter is--serious?"
+
+"Alas! He talks of marrying that woman."
+
+Maxime shrugged his shoulders contemptuously, and said,--
+
+"As to that, console yourself. Sarah will never consent."
+
+"So far from that, she herself has made the suggestion."
+
+This time, Maxime raised his head suddenly, and looked stupefied.
+
+"Then your friend must be very rich."
+
+"He is immensely rich."
+
+"He bears a great name, and holds a high position?"
+
+"His name is one of the oldest and noblest in the province of Anjou."
+
+"And he is a very old man?"
+
+"He is sixty-five."
+
+Brevan struck the marble slab of the mantlepiece with his fist so that
+it shook, and exclaimed,--
+
+"Ah, she told me she would succeed!"
+
+And then he added in a very low tone of voice, as if speaking to
+himself with an indescribable accent of mingled admiration and
+hatred,--
+
+"What a woman! Oh, what a woman!"
+
+Daniel, who was himself greatly excited, and far too busy with his own
+thoughts to observe what was going on, did not notice the excitement
+of his friend; he continued quietly,--
+
+"Now you will understand my great curiosity. In order to prevent the
+scandal of such a marriage, my friend's family would do every thing in
+the world. But how can you attack a woman of whose antecedents and
+mode of life nothing is known?"
+
+"Yes, I understand," said Brevan,--"I understand."
+
+His features betrayed that he was making a great mental effort. He
+remained for some time absorbed in his thoughts; and at last he said,
+as if coming to a decision,--
+
+"No, I do not see any way to prevent this marriage; none at all."
+
+"Still, from what you told me"--
+
+"What!"
+
+"About the cupidity of this woman."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"If she were offered a large sum, some eighty or a hundred thousand
+dollars?"
+
+Maxime laughed out loud; but there was not the true ring in his
+laughter.
+
+"You might offer her two hundred thousand, and she would laugh at you.
+Do you think she would be fool enough to content herself with a
+fraction of a fortune, if she can have the whole, with a great name
+and a high position into the bargain?"
+
+Daniel opened his lips to present another suggestion; but Maxime,
+laying aside his usual half-dreamy, mocking manner, said, as if roused
+by a matter of great personal interest,--
+
+"You do not understand me, my dear friend. Miss Brandon is not one of
+those vulgar hawks, who, in broad daylight, seize upon a poor pigeon,
+pluck it alive, and cast it aside, still living, and bleeding all
+over."
+
+"Then, Maxime, she must be"--
+
+"Well, I tell you you misapprehend her. Miss Brandon"--
+
+He stopped suddenly, and looking at Daniel with a glance with which a
+judge examines the features of a criminal, he added in an almost
+threatening voice,--
+
+"By telling you what little I know about her, Daniel, I give you the
+highest proof of confidence which one man can give to another. I love
+you too dearly to exact your promise to be discreet. If you ever
+mention my name in connection with this affair, if you ever let any
+one suspect that you learned what I am going to tell you from me, you
+will dishonor yourself."
+
+Daniel, deeply moved, seized his friend's hand, and, pressing it most
+affectionately, said,--
+
+"Ah, you know Daniel Champcey is to be relied upon."
+
+Maxime knew it; for he continued,--
+
+"Miss Sarah Brandon is one of those female cosmopolitan adventurers,
+whom steam brings nowadays to us from all the four quarters of the
+world. Like so many others, she, also, has come to Paris to spread her
+net, and catch her birds, But she is made of finer stuff than most of
+them, and more clever. Her ambition soars higher; and she possesses a
+real genius for intrigues. She means to have a fortune, and is willing
+to pay any price for it; but she is also desirous to be respected in
+the world.
+
+"I should not be surprised if anybody told me Miss Sarah was born
+within ten miles of Paris; but she calls herself an American. The fact
+is, she speaks English like an Englishwoman, and knows a great deal
+more of America than you know of Paris. I have heard her tell the
+story of her family to a large and attentive audience; but I do not
+say that I believed it.
+
+"According to her own account, M. Brandon, her father, a thoroughbred
+Yankee, was a man of great enterprise and energy, who was ten times
+rich, and as often wretchedly poor again in his life, but died leaving
+several millions. This Brandon, she says, was a banker and broker in
+New York when the civil war broke out. He entered the army, and in
+less than six months, thanks to his marvellous energy, he rose to be a
+general. When peace came, he was without occupation, and did not know
+what on earth to do with himself. Fortunately, his good star led him
+into a region where large tracts of land happened to be for sale. He
+bought them for a few thousand dollars, and soon after discovered on
+his purchase the most productive oil-wells in all America. He was just
+about to be another Peabody when a fearful accident suddenly ended his
+life; he was burnt in an enormous fire that destroyed one of his
+establishments.
+
+"As to her mother, Miss Sarah says she lost her when she was quite
+young, in a most romantic, though horrible manner"--
+
+"What!" broke in Daniel, "has nobody taken the trouble to ascertain if
+all these statements are true?"
+
+"I am sure I do not know. This much is certain, that sometimes curious
+facts leak out. For instance, I have fallen in with Americans who have
+known a broker Brandon, a Gen. Brandon, a Petroleum Brandon."
+
+"He may have borrowed the name."
+
+"Certainly, especially when the original man is said to have died in
+America. However, Miss Brandon has been living now for five years in
+Paris. She came here accompanied by a Mrs. Brian, a relative of hers,
+who is the dryest, boniest person you can imagine, but at the same
+time the slyest woman I have ever seen. She also brought with her a
+kind of protector, a Mr. Thomas Elgin, also a relation of hers, a most
+extraordinary man, stiff like a poker, but evidently a dangerous man,
+who never opens his mouth except when he eats. He is a famous hand at
+small-swords, however, and snuffs his candle, nine times out of ten,
+at a distance of thirty yards. This Mr. Thomas Elgin, whom the world
+calls familiarly Sir Thorn, and Mrs. Brian, always stay with Miss
+Sarah.
+
+"When she first arrived, Miss Sarah established herself in a house
+near the Champs Elysees, which she furnished most sumptuously. Sir
+Thorn, who is a jockey of the first water, had discovered a pair of
+gray horses for her which made a sensation at the Bois de Boulogne,
+and drew everybody's attention to their fair owner. Heaven knows how
+she had managed to get a number of letters of introduction. But
+certainly two or three of the most influential members of the American
+colony here received her at their houses. After that, all was made
+easy. Gradually she crept into society; and now she is welcome almost
+everywhere, and visits, not only at the best houses, but even in
+certain families which have a reputation of being quite exclusive.
+
+"In fine, if she has enemies, she has also fanatic partisans. If some
+people say she is a wretch, others--and they are by no means the least
+clever--tell you that she is an angel, only wanting wings to fly away
+from this wicked world. They talk of her as of a poor little orphan-
+girl, whom people slander atrociously because they envy her youth, her
+beauty, her splendor."
+
+"Ah, is she so rich?"
+
+"Miss Brandon spends at least twenty thousand dollars a year."
+
+"And no one inquires where they come from?"
+
+"From her sainted father's petroleum-wells, my dear fellow. Petroleum
+explains everything."
+
+Brevan seemed to feel a kind of savage delight in seeing Daniel's
+despair, and in explaining to him most minutely how solidly, and how
+skilfully Miss Sarah Brandon's position in the world had been
+established. Had he any expectation to prevent a struggle with her by
+exaggerating her strength? Or rather, knowing Daniel as he did,--far
+better, unfortunately, than he was known by him,--was he trying to
+irritate him more and more against this formidable adversary?
+
+At all events, he continued in that icy tone which gives to sarcasm
+its greatest bitterness,--
+
+"Besides, my dear Daniel, if you are ever introduced at Miss
+Brandon's,--and I pray you will believe me, people are not so easily
+introduced there,--you will be dumfounded at first by the tone that
+prevails in that house. The air is filled with a perfume of hypocrisy
+which would rejoice the stiffest of Quakers. Cant rules supreme there,
+putting a lock to the mouth, and a check to the eyes."
+
+Daniel began evidently to be utterly bewildered.
+
+"But how, how can you reconcile that," he said, "with the thoroughly
+worldly life of Miss Brandon?"
+
+"Oh, very easily, my dear fellow! and there you see the sublime policy
+of the three rogues. To the outer world, Miss Brandon is all levity,
+indiscretion, coquettishness, and even worse. She drives herself,
+shortens her petticoats, and cuts down her dress-bodies atrociously.
+She says she has a right to do as she pleases, according to the code
+of laws which govern American young ladies. But at home she bows to
+the taste and the wishes of her relative, Mrs. Brian, who displays all
+the extreme prudishness of the austerest Puritan. Then she has that
+stiff, tall Sir Thorn ever at her side, who never jokes. Oh! they
+understand each other perfectly; the parts are carefully distributed,
+and"--
+
+Daniel showed that he was utterly discouraged.
+
+"There is no way, then, of getting hold of this woman?" he asked.
+
+"I think not."
+
+"But that adventure of which you spoke some time ago?"
+
+"Which? That with poor Kergrist?"
+
+"How do I know which? It was a fearful story; that is all I remember.
+What did I, at that time, care for Miss Brandon? Now, to be sure"--
+
+Brevan shook his head, and said,--
+
+"Now, you think that story might become a weapon in your hands? No,
+Daniel. Still it is not a very long one; and I can now tell it to you
+more in detail than I could before.
+
+"About fifteen months ago, there arrived in Paris a nice young man
+called Charles de Kergrist. He had lost as yet none of his illusions,
+being barely twenty-five years old, and having something like a
+hundred thousand dollars of his own. He saw Miss Brandon, and
+instantly 'took fire.' He fell desperately in love with her. What his
+relations were with her, no one can tell positively,--I mean with
+sufficient evidence to carry conviction to others,--for the young man
+was a model of discretion. But what became only too well known was the
+fact, that, about eight months later, the people living near Miss
+Brandon's house saw one morning, when the shutters were opened, a
+corpse dangling at a distance of a few feet above the ground from the
+iron fastenings of the lady's window. Upon inspection, the dead man
+proved to be that unlucky Kergrist. In the pocket of his overcoat a
+letter was found, in which he declared that he committed suicide
+because an unreturned affection had made life unbearable to him. Now,
+this letter--mark the fact--was open; that is to say, it had been
+sealed, and the seal was broken."
+
+"By whom?"
+
+"Let me finish. The accident, as you may imagine, made a tremendous
+noise. The family took it up. An inquest was held; and it was found
+that the hundred thousand dollars which Kergrist had brought with him
+had utterly disappeared."
+
+"And Miss Brandon's reputation was not ruined?"
+
+Maxime replied with a bitter, ironical smile,--
+
+"You know very well that she was not. On the contrary, the hanging was
+turned by her partisans into an occasion for praising her marvellous
+virtuousness. 'If she had been weak,' they said, 'Kergrist would not
+have hanged himself. Besides,' they added, 'how can a girl, be she
+ever so pure and innocent, prevent her lovers from hanging themselves
+at her windows? As to the money,' they said, 'it had been lost at the
+gaming-table.' Kergrist was reported to have been seen at Baden-Baden
+and at Homburg; no doubt he played."
+
+"And the world was content with such an explanation?"
+
+"Yes; why not? To be sure, some sceptical persons told the whole story
+very differently. According, to their account, Miss Sarah had been the
+mistress of M. de Kergrist, and, seeing him utterly ruined, had sent
+him off one fine morning. They stated, that, the evening before the
+accident, he had come to the house at the usual hour, and, finding it
+closed, had begged, and even wept, and finally threatened to kill
+himself; that, thereupon, he had really killed himself; (poor fool
+that he was!) that Miss Brandon, concealed behind the blinds, had
+watched all his preparations for the fearful act; that she had seen
+him fasten the rope to the outside hinges of her window, put the noose
+around his neck, and then swing off into eternity; that she had
+watched him closely during his agony, and stood there till the last
+convulsions had passed away."
+
+"Horrible!" whispered Daniel,--"too horrible!"
+
+But Maxime seized him by the arm, and pressing it so as almost to hurt
+him, said in a low, hoarse voice,--
+
+"That is not the worst yet. As soon as she saw that Kergrist was
+surely dead, she slipped down stairs like a cat, opened the house-door
+noiselessly, and, gliding stealthily along the wall till she reached
+the body, she actually searched the still quivering corpse to assure
+herself that there was nothing in the pockets that could possibly
+compromise her. Finding the last letter of Kergrist, she took it away
+with her, broke the seal, and read it; and, having found that her name
+was not mentioned in it, she had the amazing audacity to return to the
+body, and to put the letter back where she had found it. Then only she
+breathed freely. She had gotten rid of a man whom she feared. She went
+to bed, and slept soundly."
+
+Daniel had become livid.
+
+"That woman is a monster!" he exclaimed.
+
+Brevan said nothing. His eyes shone with intense hatred; his lips were
+quivering with indignation. He no longer thought of discretion, of
+caution. He forgot himself, and gave himself up to his feelings.
+
+"But I have not done yet, Daniel," he said, after a pause. "There is
+another crime on record, of older date. The first appearance of Miss
+Brandon in Paris society. You ought to know that also.
+
+"One evening, about four years ago, the president of the Mutual
+Discount Society came into the cashier's room to tell him, that, on
+the following day, the board of directors would examine his books. The
+cashier, an unfortunate man by the name of Malgat, replied that every
+thing was ready; but, the moment the president had turned his back, he
+took a sheet of paper, and wrote something like this:--
+
+
+ "'Forgive me, I have been an honest man forty years long; now a
+  fatal passion has made me mad. I have drawn money from the bank
+  which was intrusted to my care; and, in order to screen my
+  defalcations, I have forged several notes. I cannot conceal my
+  crime any longer. The first defalcation is only six months old.
+  The whole amount is about four hundred thousand francs. I cannot
+  bear the disgrace which I have incurred; in an hour I shall have
+  ceased to live.'
+
+
+"Malgat put this letter in a prominent place on his desk, and then
+rushed out, without a cent in his pocket, to throw himself into the
+canal. But when he reached the bank, and saw the foul, black water, he
+was frightened. For hours and hours he walked up and down, asking God
+in his madness for courage. He never found that courage.
+
+"But what was he to do? He could not flee, having no money; and where
+should he hide? He could not return to his bank; for there, by this
+time, his crime must have become known. In his despair he ran as far
+as the Champs Elysees, and late in the night he knocked at the door of
+Miss Brandon's house.
+
+"They did not know yet what had happened, and he was admitted. Then,
+in his wild despair, he told them all, begging them to give him a
+couple of hundreds only of the four hundred thousand which he had
+stolen in order to give them to Miss Brandon,--a hundred only, to
+enable him to escape to Belgium.
+
+"They refused. And when he begged and prayed, falling on his knees
+before Miss Sarah, Sir Thorn seized him by the shoulders, and turned
+him out of the house."
+
+Maxime, overcome by his intense excitement, fell into an easy-chair,
+and remained there for a considerable time, his eyes fixed, his brow
+darkened, repenting himself, no doubt, of his candor, his wrath, and
+his forgetfulness of all he owed to himself and to others.
+
+But, when he rose again, his rare strength of will enabled him to
+assume his usual phlegmatic manner; and he continued in a mocking
+tone,--
+
+"I see in your face, Daniel, that you think the story is monstrous,
+improbable, almost impossible. Nevertheless, four years ago, it was
+believed all over Paris, and set off by a number of hideous details
+which I will spare you. If you care to look at the papers of that
+year, you will find it everywhere. But four years are four centuries
+in Paris. To say nothing of the many similar stories that have
+happened since."
+
+Daniel said nothing, he only bowed his head sadly. He felt a kind of
+painful emotion, such as he had never before experienced in his life.
+
+"It is not so much the story itself," he said at last, "that overcomes
+me so completely. What I cannot comprehend is, how this woman could
+refuse the man whose accomplice she had been the small pittance he
+required in order to evade justice, and to escape to Belgium."
+
+"Nevertheless, that was so," repeated M. de Brevan; and then he added
+emphatically, "at least, they say so."
+
+Daniel did not notice this attempt to become more cautious again. He
+continued pensively,--
+
+"Is it not very improbable that Miss Brandon should not have been
+afraid to exasperate the unfortunate man, and to drive him to
+desperate measures? In his furious rage, he might have left the house,
+rushed to a police-officer, and confessed to him every thing, laying
+the evidence he had in his hands before a magistrate, and"--
+
+"You say," replied Brevan, interrupting him with a dry, sardonic
+laugh, "precisely what all the advocates of the fair American said at
+that time. But I tell you, that her peculiarity is exactly the daring
+with which she ventures upon the most dangerous steps. She does not
+pretend to avoid difficulties; she crushes them. Her prudence consists
+in carrying imprudence to the farthest limits."
+
+"But"--
+
+"You ought to credit her, besides, with sufficient astuteness and
+experience to know that she had taken the most careful precautions,
+having destroyed every evidence of her own complicity, and feeling
+quite safe in that direction. Moreover, she had studied Malgat's
+character, as she studied afterwards Kergrist's. She was quite sure
+that neither of them would accuse her, even at the moment of death.
+And yet, in the case of this Mutual Discount Society, her calculations
+did not prove absolutely correct."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"It became known that she had received Malgat two or three times
+secretly, for he did not openly enter her house; and the penny papers
+had it, that 'the fair stranger was no stranger to small peculations.'
+Public opinion was veering around, when it was reported that she had
+been summoned to appear before a magistrate. That, however, was
+fortunate for her; she came out from the trial whiter and purer than
+Alpine snow."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"And so perfectly cleared, that, when the whole matter was brought up
+in court, she was not even summoned as a witness."
+
+Daniel started up, and exclaimed,--
+
+"What! Malgat had the sublime self-abnegation to undergo the agonies
+of a trial, and the infamy of a condemnation, without allowing a word
+to escape?"
+
+"No. For the simple reason that Malgat was sentenced /in contumaciam/
+to ten years in the penitentiary."
+
+"And what has become of the poor wretch?"
+
+"Who knows? They say he killed himself. Two months later, a half
+decomposed body was found in the forest of Saint Germain, which people
+declared to be Malgat. However"--
+
+He had become livid, in his turn; but he continued in an almost
+inaudible voice, as if to meet Daniel's objections before they were
+expressed,--
+
+"However, somebody who used to be intimate with Malgat has assured me
+that he met him one day in Dronot Street, before the great auction-
+mart. The man said he recognized him, although he seemed to be most
+artistically disguised. This is what has set me thinking more than
+once, that, if people were not mistaken, a day might, after all, yet
+come, when Miss Sarah would have a terrible bill to settle with her
+implacable creditor."
+
+He passed his hand across his brow as if to drive away such
+uncomfortable thoughts, and then said with a forced laugh,--
+
+"Now, my dear fellow, I have come to the end of my budget. The details
+were all given me by Miss Sarah's friends as well as by her enemies.
+Some you may read of in the papers; but most I know from my own long
+and patient observation. And, if you ask me what interest I could have
+in knowing such a woman, I will tell you frankly, that you see before
+you one of her victims; for my dear Daniel, I have to confess it, I
+also have been in love with her; and how! But I was too small a
+personage, and too poor a devil, to be worth a serious thought of Miss
+Brandon. As soon as she felt sure that her abominable tricks had set
+my head on fire, and that I had become an idiot, a madman, a stupid
+fool--on that very day she laughed in my face. Ah! I tell you, she
+played with me as if I had been a child, and then she sent me off as
+if I had been a lackey. And now I hate her mortally, as I loved her
+almost criminally. Therefore, if I can help you, in secret, without
+becoming known, you may count upon me."
+
+Why should Daniel have doubted the truthfulness of his friend's
+statements? Had he not himself, and quite voluntarily, confessed his
+own folly, his own love, anticipating all questions, and making a
+clean breast of the whole matter?
+
+Not a doubt, therefore, arose in Daniel's mind. On the contrary, he
+thanked God for having sent him such an ally, such a friend, who had
+lived long enough amid all these intrigues of Parisian high life to
+know all its secret springs, and to guide him safely. He took Maxime's
+hand in his own, and said with deep feeling,--
+
+"Now, my friend, we are bound to each other for life."
+
+Brevan seemed deeply touched; he raised his hand as if to wipe a tear
+from his eyes. But he was not a man to give way to tender feelings. He
+said,--
+
+"But how about your friend? How can we prevent his marrying Miss
+Sarah? Does any way occur to you? No? Ah! you see, it will be hard
+work."
+
+He seemed to meditate deeply for a few moments; then uttering his
+words slowly and emphatically, as if to lend them their full weight,
+and impress them forcibly on Daniel's mind, he resumed,--
+
+"We must attack Miss Brandon herself, if we want to master the
+situation. If we could once know who she really is, all would be safe.
+Fortunately there is no difficulty in Paris in finding spies, if you
+have money enough."
+
+As the clock on the mantlepiece struck half-past ten, he started and
+stopped. He jumped up as if suddenly inspired by a bright idea, and
+said hurriedly,--
+
+"But now I think of it, Daniel, you do not know Miss Brandon; you have
+never even seen her!"
+
+"No, indeed!"
+
+"Well, that's a pity. We must know our enemies; how else can we even
+smile at them? I want you to see Miss Sarah."
+
+"But who will point her out to me? where? when?"
+
+"I will do it to-night, at the opera. I bet she will be there!"
+
+Daniel was in evening costume, having called upon Henrietta, and then
+he was all ready.
+
+"Very well," he said, "I am willing."
+
+Without losing a moment, they went out, and reached the theatre just
+as the curtain rose on the fourth act of Don Giovanni. They were,
+fortunately, able to secure two orchestra-chairs. The stage was
+gorgeous; but what did they care for the singer on the boards, or the
+divine music of Mozart? Brevan took his opera-glasses out, and rapidly
+surveying the house, he had soon found what he was looking for. He
+touched Daniel with his elbow, and, handing him the glasses, whispered
+in his ear,--
+
+"Look there, in the third box from the stage; look, there she is!"
+
+
+
+                                  V.
+
+Daniel looked up. In the box which Maxime had pointed out to him he
+saw a girl of such rare and dazzling beauty, that he could hardly
+retain a cry of admiration. She was leaning forward, resting on the
+velvet cushion of her box, in order to hear better.
+
+Her hair, perfectly overwhelming in its richness, was so carelessly
+arranged, that no one could doubt it was all her own; it was almost
+golden, but with such a bright sheen, that at every motion sparks
+seemed to start from its dark masses. Her large, soft eyes were
+overshadowed by long lashes; and as she now opened them wide, and now
+half closed them again, they changed from the darkest to the lightest
+blue.
+
+Her lips smiled in all the freshness and innocence of merry youth,
+displaying now and then two rows of teeth, matchless in their beauty
+and regularity.
+
+"Can that be," said Daniel to himself, "the wretched creature whose
+portrait Maxime has just given me?"
+
+A little behind her, and half-hid in the shade of the box, appeared a
+large bony head, adorned with an absurd bunch of feathers. Her eyes
+flashed indignation; and her narrow lips seemed to say perpetually,
+"Shocking!" That was Mrs. Brian.
+
+Still farther back, barely discernible after long examination, arose a
+tall, stiff figure, a bald, shining head, two dark, deep-sunk eyes, a
+hooked nose, and a pair of immense streaming whiskers. That was the
+Hon. Thomas Elgin, commonly known as Sir Thorn.
+
+As Daniel was persistently examining the box, with the smiling girl,
+the stern old woman, and the placid old man in the background, he felt
+doubts of all kinds creeping into his mind.
+
+Might not Maxime be mistaken? Did he not merely repeat the atrocious
+slanders of the envious world?
+
+These thoughts troubled Daniel; and he would have mentioned his doubts
+to Maxime; but his neighbors were enthusiasts about music, and, as
+soon as he bent over to whisper into his friend's ear, they growled,
+and, if he ventured to utter a word, they forced him to be silent. At
+last the curtain fell. Many left the house; others simply rose to look
+around; but Maxime and Daniel remained in their seats. Their whole
+attention was concentrated upon Miss Brandon's box, when they saw the
+door open, and a gentleman enter, who, at the distance at which they
+sat, looked like a very young man. His complexion was brilliantly
+fair, his beard jet black, and his curly hair most carefully arranged.
+He had his opera-hat under his arm, a camellia in his button-hole; and
+his light-yellow kid gloves were so tight, that it looked as if they
+must inevitably burst the instant he used his hands.
+
+"Count Ville-Handry!" said Daniel to himself.
+
+Somebody touched his shoulder slightly; and, as he turned round, he
+found it was Maxime, who said with friendly irony,--
+
+"Your old friend, is it not? The happy lover of Miss Brandon?"
+
+"Yes, it is so. I have to confess it."
+
+He was just in the act of explaining the reasons for his silence, when
+M. de Brevan interrupted him, saying,--
+
+"Just look, Daniel; just look!"
+
+The count had taken a seat in the front part of the box, by Miss
+Brandon's side, and was talking to her with studied affectation,
+bending over her, gesticulating violently, and laughing till he showed
+every one of the long yellow teeth which were left him. He was
+evidently on exhibition, and desired to be seen by everybody.
+Suddenly, however, after Miss Brandon had said a few words to him, he
+rose, and went out.
+
+The bell behind the scenes was ringing, and the curtain was about to
+rise again.
+
+"Let us /go/," said Daniel to M. de Brevan: "I am suffering."
+
+He was really suffering, mortified by the ridiculous scene which
+Henrietta's father was playing. But he entertained no longer any
+doubts; he had clearly seen how the adventuress was spurring on the
+old man, and fanning his feeble flame.
+
+"Ah! it will be hard work to rescue the count from the wiles of this
+witch," said Maxime.
+
+Having left the house, they were just turning into the narrow street
+which leads to the boulevards, when they saw a tall man, wrapped up in
+a huge cloak, coming towards them, and behind him a servant with a
+whole armful of magnificent roses. It was Count Ville-Handry. Coming
+suddenly face to face upon Daniel, he seemed at first very much
+embarrassed; then, recovering himself, he said,--
+
+"Why, is this you? Where on earth do you come from?"
+
+"From the theatre."
+
+"And you run away before the fifth act? That is a crime against the
+majesty of Mozart. Come, go back with me, and I promise you a pleasant
+surprise."
+
+Brevan came up close to Daniel, and whispered to him,--
+
+"Go; here is the opportunity I was wishing for."
+
+Then he lifted his hat and went his way. Daniel, taken rather by
+surprise, accompanied the count till he saw him stop near a huge
+landau, open in spite of the cold weather, but guarded by three
+servants in gorgeous livery. When they saw the count, they all three
+uncovered respectfully; but he, without taking any notice of them,
+turned to the porter who had the flowers, and said,--
+
+"Scatter all these roses in this carriage."
+
+The man hesitated. He was the servant of a famous florist, and had
+often seen people pay forty or fifty dollars for such bouquets. He
+thought the joke was carried too far. However, the count insisted. The
+roses were piled up in the bottom of the carriage; and, when he had
+done, he received a handsome fee for his trouble.
+
+Then the count returned to the opera-house, Daniel following him,
+filled with amazement. Evidently love had made the count young again,
+and now gave wings to his steps. He ran up the steps of the great
+porch of the opera-house, and in a few moments he was once more in
+Miss Brandon's box. At once he took Daniel by the hand; and, drawing
+him into the box close to the lady, he said to the young girl,--
+
+"Permit me to present to you M. Daniel Champcey, one of our most
+distinguished naval officers."
+
+Daniel bowed, first to her, and then solemnly to Mrs. Brian, and long,
+stiff Sir Thorn.
+
+"I need not tell you, my dear count," said Miss Sarah, "that your
+friends are always welcome here."
+
+Then, turning to Daniel, she added,--
+
+"Besides, I have long since known you."
+
+"Me?"
+
+"Yes, sir. And I even know that you are one of the most frequent
+visitors at Count Ville-Handry's house."
+
+She looked at Daniel with a kind of malicious simplicity, and then
+added,
+
+"/I/ do not mean to say that the count would not be wrong if he
+attributed your frequent visits exclusively to his own merits. I have
+heard something of a certain young lady"--
+
+"Sarah," here broke in Mrs. Brian, "what you say there is highly
+improper." This reproof, so far from checking Miss Sarah's merriment,
+only seemed to increase it. Without losing sight of Daniel, she turned
+to her aunt, and said,--
+
+"Since the count is not opposed to this gentleman's paying his
+attentions to his daughter, I think I may safely speak of them. It
+would be such an extraordinary thing, if any thing should happen to
+interfere with his hopes!"
+
+Daniel, who had blushed all over, suddenly became deadly pale. After
+all that he had been told, these words sounded to him, in spite of the
+loud laugh that accompanied them, like a warning and a threat. But he
+was not allowed the time to reflect. The piece was coming to an end;
+Miss Brandon was drawing a fur cloak over her shoulders, and left on
+the count's arm; while he had to escort Mrs. Brian, being closely
+followed by tall, stiff Sir Thorn. The landau was at the door. The
+servants had let down the steps; and Miss Sarah was just getting in.
+Suddenly, as her foot touched the bottom of the carriage, she drew
+back, and cried out,--
+
+"What is that? What is in there?"
+
+The count came forward, looking visibly embarrassed.
+
+"You are fond of roses," he said, "and I have ordered a few."
+
+With these words he took up some of the leaves, and showed them to
+her. But immediately Miss Brandon's terror was changed into wrath.
+
+"You certainly are bent upon making me angry," she said. "You want
+people to say everywhere that I make you commit all kinds of follies.
+What a glorious thing to waste fifty dollars on flowers, when one has
+I know not how many millions!"
+
+Then, seeing by the light of the street-lamp that the count's face
+showed deep disappointment, she said in a tone to make him lose the
+little reason that was left him,--
+
+"You would have been more welcome if you had brought me a cent's worth
+of violets."
+
+In the mean time Mrs. Brian had taken her seat by Miss Brandon's side;
+Sir Thorn had gotten in; and it was now the count's turn. At the
+moment when the servant was closing the door, Miss Sarah bent forward
+toward Daniel, and said,--
+
+"I hope I shall have the pleasure of soon seeing you again. Our dear
+count will give you my address, and tell you my reception-days. I must
+tell you that we American girls dote upon naval officers, and that
+I"--
+
+The remainder was lost in the noise of the wheels. The carriage which
+took Miss Brandon and Count Ville-Handry away was already at some
+distance, before Daniel could recover from his amazement, his utter
+consternation.
+
+All these strange events, coming upon him one by one, in the course of
+a few hours, and breaking suddenly in upon so calm and quiet a life,
+overwhelmed him to such a degree, that he was not quite sure whether
+he was dreaming or awake.
+
+Alas! he was not dreaming. This Miss Sarah Brandon, who had just
+passed away from him like a glorious vision from on high, was only too
+real; and there, on the muddy pavement, a handful of rose-leaves bore
+witness of the power of her charms, and the folly of her aged lover.
+
+"Ah, we are lost!" exclaimed Daniel, in so loud a voice, that some of
+the passers-by stopped, expecting one of those street-dramas which
+read so strikingly in the local columns of our papers. They were
+disappointed, however. Noticing that he attracted attention, Daniel
+shrugged his shoulders, and quickly walked off towards the boulevards.
+
+He had promised Henrietta to be sure to tell her that very evening, if
+possible, what he had found out; but it was too late now; midnight was
+striking.
+
+"I'll go to-morrow," he said to himself.
+
+Whilst lounging leisurely down the boulevards, still brilliantly
+lighted up, and crowded with people, he strained all his faculties for
+the purpose of examining his situation coolly and calmly. At first he
+had imagined he should only have to do with one of those common
+/intriguantes/ who want to secure themselves a quiet old age, and
+clumsily spread their nets to catch an old or a young man; and who can
+always easily be gotten rid of by paying them a more or less
+considerable sum of money, provided the police does not get hold of
+them. In such a case he would have had some hope.
+
+But here he saw himself suddenly confronted by one of those formidable
+adventuresses in high life, who either save appearances altogether,
+or, at worst, are only compromised far enough to give additional zest
+and an air of mystery to their relations. How could he hope to compete
+with such a woman? and with what weapons could he attack her? How
+should he reach her? and how attack her?
+
+Was it not pure folly to think even of making her give up the
+magnificent fortune which she seemed already to have in her hands,
+Heaven knows by what means? She evidently looked upon it as her own
+already, and enjoyed its charms in anticipation.
+
+"Great God!" said Daniel, "send me some inspiration."
+
+But no inspiration came; and in vain did he torture his mind; he was
+unable to think.
+
+When he reached home, he went to bed as usual; but the consciousness
+of his misfortunes kept him awake. At nine o'clock in the morning,
+having never closed his eyes, and feeling utterly overcome by
+sleeplessness and fatigue, he was just about to get up, when some one
+knocked at his door. He rose hastily, put on his clothes, and went to
+open the door. It was M. de Brevan, who came to hear all about his new
+acquaintance of last night, and whose first word was,--
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Alas!" replied Daniel, "I think the wisest plan would be to give it
+up."
+
+"Upon my word, you are in great haste to surrender."
+
+"And what would you do in my place, eh? That woman has beauty enough
+to drive any one mad; and the count is a lost man."
+
+And, before Maxime had time to reply, Daniel told him simply and
+frankly all about his love for Miss Ville-Handry, the hopes he had
+been encouraged to cherish, and the dangers that threatened his
+happiness in life.
+
+"For I can no longer deceive myself, Maxime," he concluded with a tone
+of utter despair. "I foresee, I know, what is going to happen.
+Henrietta will obstinately, and at any risk, do every thing in the
+world to prevent her father's marriage with Miss Brandon; she will
+struggle to the bitter end. Ought I, or ought I not, to help her?
+Certainly. Can we succeed? No! But we shall have a mortal enemy in
+Miss Brandon; and, on the morning after her wedding, her first thought
+will be how to avenge herself, and how to separate Henrietta and
+myself forever."
+
+Little as Brevan was generally given to show his feelings, he was
+evidently deeply touched by his friend's despair.
+
+"In short, my dear fellow, you have reached the point at which we no
+longer know what to do. All the more reason, then, that you should
+listen to the calm advice of a friend. You must have yourself
+presented at Miss Brandon's house."
+
+"She has invited me."
+
+"Well, then, do not hesitate, but go there."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Not for much. You will pay some compliments to Miss Sarah; you will
+be all attention to Mrs. Brian; and you will try to win over the Hon.
+Thomas Elgin. Finally, and above all, you will be all ears and all
+eyes."
+
+"I am sorry to say I do not understand you yet."
+
+"What? Don't you see that the position of these daring adventurers,
+however secure it may appear, may, after all, hang on a single thread?
+and that nothing is wanting in order to cut that thread but an
+opportunity? And when you may expect, at any moment, any thing and
+every thing, what is to be done but to wait and watch?"
+
+Daniel did not seem to be convinced. He added,--
+
+"Miss Sarah will talk to me about her marriage."
+
+"Certainly she will."
+
+"What can I say?"
+
+"Nothing,--neither yes nor no,--but smile, or run away; at all events,
+you gain time."
+
+He was interrupted by Daniel's servant, who came in, holding a card in
+his hand, and said,--
+
+"Sir, there is a gentleman down stairs in a carriage, who wants to
+know if he would interrupt you if he came up to see you."
+
+"What is the gentleman's name?"
+
+"Count Ville-Handry. Here is his card."
+
+"Be quick!" said Daniel, "run down and ask him, would he please come
+up."
+
+M. de Brevan had started up, and was standing, with his hat on, near
+the door. As the servant left, he said,--
+
+"I am running away."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because the count must not find me here. You would be compelled to
+introduce me to him; he might remember my name; and, if he were to
+tell Miss Sarah that I am your friend, all would be lost."
+
+Thereupon he turned to go; but at the same moment the outer door was
+opened, and he said,--
+
+"There is the count! I am caught."
+
+But Daniel opened promptly the door to his bedroom, pushed him in, and
+shut the door. It was high time; the same moment the count entered.
+
+
+
+                                 VI.
+
+The count must have risen early that day. Although it was not yet ten
+o'clock, he was already brilliant, rouged, dyed, and frizzed. Of
+course all these results had not been the work of an hour. As he
+entered, he drew a long breath, and said,--
+
+"Ah! You live pretty high up, my dear Daniel."
+
+Poor fellow! He forgot that he was playing the young man. But he
+recalled himself at once, and added, full of vivacity,--
+
+"Not that I complain of it; oh, no! A few stories to climb--what is
+that to me?"
+
+At the same time he stretched out his leg, and caressed his calf, as
+if to exhibit its vigor and its suppleness. In the meantime, Daniel,
+full of respect for his future father-in-law, had drawn forward his
+easiest arm-chair. The count took it, and in an airy manner, which
+contrasted ill with his evident embarrassment, he said,--
+
+"I am sure, my dear Daniel, you must be very much surprised and
+puzzled to see me here; are you not?"
+
+"I confess, sir, I am. If you wished to speak to me, you had only to
+drop me a line, and I should have waited upon you at once."
+
+"I am sure you would! But that is not necessary. In fact, I have
+nothing to say to you. I should not have come to see you, if I had not
+missed an appointment. I was to meet one of my fellow members of the
+assembly, and he did not come to the place where we were to meet. On
+my return home, I happened to pass your house; and I said to myself,
+'Why not go up and see my sailor friend? I might ask him what he
+thinks of a certain young lady to whom he had, last night, the honor
+of being presented.'"
+
+Now or never was the favorable moment for following Maxime's advice;
+hence Daniel, instead of replying, simply smiled as pleasantly as he
+could.
+
+But that did not satisfy the count; so he repeated the question more
+directly, and said,--
+
+"Come, tell us frankly, what do you think of Miss Brandon?"
+
+"She is one of the greatest beauties I have ever seen in my life."
+
+Count Ville-Handry's eyes beamed with delight and with pride as he
+heard these words. He exclaimed,--
+
+"Say she is the greatest beauty, the most marvellous and transcendent
+beauty, you ever saw. And that, M. Daniel Champcey, is her smallest
+attraction. When she opens her lips, the charms of her mind, beauty
+and her mind, and remember her admirable ingenuousness, her naive
+freshness, and all the treasures of her chaste and pure soul."
+
+This excessive, almost idiotic admiration, this implicit, absurd faith
+in his beloved, gave the painted face of the count a strange, almost
+ecstatic expression. He said to himself, but loud enough to be
+heard,--
+
+"And to think that chance alone has led me to meet this angel!"
+
+A sudden start, involuntary on the part of Daniel, seemed to disturb
+him; for he resumed his speech, laying great stress upon his words,--
+
+"Yes, chance alone; and I can prove it to you."
+
+He settled down in his chair like a man who is going to speak for some
+length of time; and, in that emphatic manner which so well expressed
+the high opinion he had of himself, he continued,--
+
+"You know, my friend, how deeply I was affected by the death of the
+Countess Ville-Handry. It is true she was not exactly the companion a
+statesman of my rank would have chosen. Her whole capacity rarely rose
+beyond the effort to distinguish a ball-dress from a dinner-dress. But
+she was a good woman, attentive, discreet, and devoted to me; an
+excellent manager, economical, and yet always sure to do honor to the
+high reputation of my house."
+
+Thus, in all sincerity, the count spoke of her who had literally made
+him, and who, for sixteen long years, had galvanized his empty head.
+
+"In short," he continued, "the loss of my wife so completely upset me,
+that I lost all taste for the occupations which had so far been dear
+to me; and I set about to find distractions elsewhere. Soon after I
+had gotten into the habit of going frequently to my club, I fell in
+with M. Thomas Elgin, and, although we never became intimate, we
+always exchanged a friendly greeting, and occasionally a cigar.
+
+"Sir Thorn, as they call him, is an excellent horseman, you know, and
+used to ride out every morning at an early hour; and as the physicians
+had recommended to me horseback exercise, and as I like it, because I
+excel in riding, as in every thing else, we often met in the Bois de
+Boulogne. We wished each other good-day; and sometimes we galloped a
+little while side by side. I am rather reserved; but Sir Thorn is even
+more so, and thus it did not seem that our acquaintance was ever to
+ripen into any thing better, till an accident brought us together.
+
+"One morning we were returning slowly from a long ride, when Sir
+Thorn's mare, a foolish brute, suddenly shied, and jumped so high,
+that he was thrown. I jumped down instantly to help him up again; but
+he could not rise. You know nothing ordinarily hurts these Americans.
+But it seems, as we found out afterwards, that he had sprained an
+ankle, and dislocated a knee. There was no one near the place; and I
+began to be seriously embarrassed, when fortunately two soldiers
+appeared. I called to them, and sent one on my horse to the nearest
+hack-stand to bring a carriage. As soon as it came, we raised the
+invalid, and put him in as well as we could; I got on the box to show
+the man the way to Sir Thorn's house. When we arrived there, I rang
+the bell, and told the servants to come down to their master. They got
+him, with some difficulty, out of the hack; and there they were,
+carrying him painfully up the stairs, and he groaning feebly, for he
+suffered terribly.
+
+"I was going up before them; and, as I reached the second story, a
+door suddenly opened, and a young girl was standing right before me.
+
+"She was evidently dressing, when the noise which we made startled
+her; and she came running out. She had only taken time to throw a
+loose wrapper around her shoulders; and her dishevelled hair streamed
+out from under a kind of coquettish morning-cap.
+
+"When she saw her kinsman in the arms of the servants, she imagined he
+was dangerously wounded, perhaps even-- She turned as pale as death,
+and, uttering a loud cry, she tottered.
+
+"She would have fallen down the steps, head foremost, if I had not
+caught her in my arms. She had fainted. And there I held her, leaning
+on my shoulder, so close that I became aware of the warmth of her
+lovely body, and actually felt her heart beat against mine. Her cap
+had become unfastened; and her hair fell in golden floods all over me,
+and down to the floor. But all this lasted only a few seconds.
+
+"When she recovered, and found herself in the arms of a man, she rose
+with an air of extreme distress, and, slipping away, disappeared in
+her room."
+
+At the mere description of this scene, the count turned pale under his
+rouge; and his voice forsook him. Nor did he in any way attempt to
+conceal his emotion.
+
+"I am a poor old fellow," he said; "and between you and me, my dear
+Daniel, I will tell you that the women--well--the women have not been
+--exactly cruel to me. In fact, I thought I had outlived all the
+emotions which they can possibly give us.
+
+"Well, I was mistaken. Never in my life, I assure you, have I felt
+such a deep sensation as when Miss Brandon was lying in my arms."
+
+While saying this, he had pulled out his handkerchief, saturated with
+a strong perfume, and was wiping his forehead, though very gently, and
+with infinite precautions, so as not to spoil the artistic work of his
+valet.
+
+"You will know Miss Brandon," he went on, "I hope soon. Once having
+seen her, one wants to see her again. I was lucky enough to have a
+pretext for coming again; and the very next day I was at her door,
+inquiring after M. Thomas Elgin. They showed me into the room of that
+excellent gentleman, where I found him stretched out on an invalid's
+chair, with his legs all bandaged up. By his side sat a venerable
+lady, to whom he presented me, and who was no other than Mrs. Brian.
+
+"They received me very kindly, although with some little reserve under
+all their politeness; but I staid and staid in vain beyond the proper
+time; Miss Sarah did not appear.
+
+"Nor did I see her upon subsequent occasions, when I repeated my
+visits, until at last I came to the conclusion that she avoided me
+purposely.
+
+"Upon my word, I believed it. But one day Sir Thorn, who was improving
+very rapidly, expressed a desire to walk out a few steps in the Champs
+Elysees. I offered him my arm; he accepted it; and, when we came back,
+he asked me if I would be kind enough to take pot-luck with him."
+
+However important these communications were for Daniel, he was for
+some time already listening but very inattentively to the count's
+recital, for he had heard a strange, faint noise, which he could not
+by any means explain to himself. At last, looking all around, he
+discovered the cause.
+
+The door to his bedroom, which he was sure he had closed himself, was
+now standing partly open. No doubt M. de Brevan, weary of his
+confinement and excited by curiosity, had chosen this way to see and
+to listen. Of all this, however, Count Ville-Handry saw nothing, and
+suspected nothing.
+
+"Thus," he continued, "I was at last to see Miss Sarah again. Upon my
+word, I was less excited, I think, the day I made my first speech. But
+you know I have some power over myself; and I had recovered my
+calmness, when Sir Thorn confessed to me that he would have invited me
+long since, but for the fear of offending his young relative, who had
+declared she would never meet me again. I was grieved, and asked how I
+had offended her. And then Sir Thorn, with that marvellous composure
+which never leaves him, said, 'It is not you she blames, but herself,
+on account of that ridiculous scene the other day.'
+
+"Do you hear, Daniel, he called that adorable scene which I have just
+described to you, ridiculous! It is only Americans who can commit such
+absurdities.
+
+"I have since found out that they had almost to force Miss Brandon to
+receive me; but she had tact enough not to let me see it, when I was
+formally presented to her, just before going to dinner. It is true,
+she blushed deeply; but she took my hand with the utmost cordiality,
+and cut me short when I was trying to pay her some compliment,
+saying,--
+
+"'You are Thorn's friend; I am sure we shall be friends also.'
+
+"Ah, Daniel! you admired Miss Brandon at the theatre; but you ought to
+see her at her house. Abroad she sacrifices herself in order to pay
+proper regard to the world; but at home she can venture to be herself.
+
+"We soon became friends, as she had foretold, so soon, in fact, that I
+was quite surprised when I found her addressing me like an old
+acquaintance. I soon discovered how that came about.
+
+"Our young girls here in France, my dear Daniel, are charming, no
+doubt, but generally ill taught, frivolous, and caring for nothing but
+balls, novels, or dress. The Americans are very different. Their
+serious minds are occupied with the same subjects which fill their
+parents' minds,--with politics, industry, discussions in the assembly,
+discoveries in science, &c. A man like myself, known abroad and at
+home during a long political career of some distinction, could not be
+a stranger to Miss Brandon. My earnestness in defending those causes
+which I considered just had often filled her with enthusiasm. Deeply
+moved by my speeches, which she was in the habit of reading, she had
+often thought of the speaker. I think I can hear her now say with that
+beautiful voice of hers, which has the clear ring of pure crystal,--
+
+"'Oh, yes! I knew you, count; I knew you long ago. And there was many
+a day when I wished I were a friend of yours, so that I might say to
+you, "Well done, sir! what you are doing is grand, is noble!"'
+
+"And that was true; for she remembered a number of passages from my
+speeches, even from such as I had forgotten myself; and she always
+quoted them literally. At times, I was amazed at some peculiarly bold
+thoughts which she uttered; and, when I complimented her upon them,
+she broke out in loud laughter, and said,--
+
+"'Why, count, these are your own ideas; I got them from you. You said
+so on such and such an occasion.'
+
+"And when I looked at night, after my return, into my papers, to
+ascertain the fact, I found almost always that Miss Brandon had been
+right. Need I tell you after that, that I soon became an almost daily
+visitor at the house in Circus Street? Surely you take it for granted.
+
+"But what I must tell you is, that I found there the most perfect
+happiness, and the purest that I have ever known upon earth. I was
+filled with respect and with admiration, when I looked at their rigid
+morality, united with the heartiest cheerfulness. There I enjoyed my
+happiest hours, between Mrs. Brian, the Puritan lady, so strict for
+herself, so indulgent for others; and Thomas Elgin, the noblest and
+best of men, who conceals under an appearance of icy coldness the
+warmest and kindest of hearts."
+
+What was Count Ville-Handry aiming at? or had he no aim at all?
+
+Had he come merely to confide to Daniel the amazing romance of his
+love? Or did he simply yield to the natural desire of all lovers, to
+pour out the exuberance of their feelings, and to talk of their love,
+even when they know that their indiscretion may be fatal to their
+success?
+
+Daniel put these questions to himself; but the count did not leave him
+time to reflect, and to answer them.
+
+After a short pause, he seemed to rouse himself, and said, suddenly
+changing his tone,--
+
+"I guess what you think, my dear Daniel. You say to yourself, 'Count
+Ville-Handry was in love.' Well, I assure you you are mistaken."
+
+Daniel started from his chair; and, overcome by amazement, he
+exclaimed,--
+
+"Can it be possible?"
+
+"Exactly so; I give you my word of honor. The feelings which attracted
+me toward Miss Brandon were the same that bound me to my daughter. But
+as I am a shrewd observer, and have some knowledge of the human heart,
+I could not help being struck by a change in Miss Brandon's face, and
+especially in her manner. After having treated me with the greatest
+freedom and familiarity, she had suddenly become reserved, and almost
+cold. It was evident to me that she was embarrassed in my presence.
+Our constant intercourse, so far from reassuring her, seemed to
+frighten her. You may guess how I interpreted this change, my dear
+Daniel.
+
+"But, as I have never been a conceited man, I thought I might be
+mistaken. I devoted myself, therefore, to more careful observation;
+and I soon became aware, that, if I loved Miss Brandon only with the
+affection of a father, I had succeeded in inspiring her with a more
+tender sentiment."
+
+In any other person, this senile self-conceit would have appeared
+intensely absurd to Daniel; in his Henrietta's father, it pained him
+deeply. The count actually noticed his downcast look, and,
+misinterpreting it, asked him,--
+
+"Could you doubt what I say?"
+
+"Oh, no, sir!"
+
+"Very well, then. I can assure you, at all events, that this discovery
+troubled me not a little. I was so surprised by it, that for three
+days I could neither think of it coolly, nor decide on what I ought to
+do. Still it was necessary I should make up my mind. I did not for a
+moment think of abusing the confidence of this innocent child; and yet
+I knew, I felt it, she was absolutely in my power. But no! It would
+have been infamous in me to repay the hospitality of excellent Mrs.
+Brian, and the kindness of noble M. Elgin, with such ingratitude. On
+the other hand, must I necessarily deny myself my pleasant visits at
+the house in Circus Street, and break with friends who were so dear to
+me? I thought of that, also; but I had not the courage to do so."
+
+He hesitated for a moment, trying to read in Daniel's eyes his real
+opinion. After a while, he said very gravely,--
+
+"It was then only, that the idea of marrying her occurred to me."
+
+Daniel had been expecting the fatal word; thus, however heavy the blow
+was, it found him prepared. He remained immovable.
+
+This indifference seemed to surprise the count; for he uttered an
+expression of discontent, and curtly repeated,--
+
+"Yes, I thought of marrying her. You will say, 'That was a serious
+matter.' I know that only too well; and therefore I did not decide the
+question in a hurry, but weighed the reasons for and against very
+carefully. I am not one of those weak men, you know, I am sure, who
+can easily be hoodwinked, and who fancy they alone possess the secret
+of perennial youth. No, no, I know myself, and am fully aware, better
+than anybody else, that I am approaching maturer years.
+
+"This was, in fact, the first objection that arose in my mind. But
+then I answered it triumphantly by the fact that age is not a matter
+to be decided by the certificate of baptism, but that we are just as
+old as we appear to be. Now, thanks to an exceptionally sober and
+peaceful life, of which forty years were spent in the country, to an
+iron constitution, and to the extreme care I have always taken of my
+health, I possess a--what shall I say?--a vigor which many young men
+might envy, who can hardly drag one foot after the other."
+
+He rose as he said this, threw out his chest, straightened his back,
+and stretched out his well-shaped leg. Then, when he thought Daniel
+had sufficiently admired him, he continued,--
+
+"Now, what of Miss Brandon? You think, perhaps, she is still in her
+teens? Far from that! She is at least twenty-five, my dear friend;
+and, for a woman, twenty-five years are--ah, ah!"
+
+He smiled ironically, as if to say that to him a woman of twenty-five
+appeared an old, a very old woman. Then he went on,--
+
+"Besides, I know how serious her disposition is, and her eminent good
+sense. You may rely upon me, when I tell you I have studied her. A
+thousand trifles, of no weight in appearance, and unnoticed by herself
+in all probability, have told me that she abhors very young men. She
+has learnt to appreciate the value of young husbands of thirty, who
+are all fire and flame in the honeymoon, and who, six months later,
+wearied with pure and tranquil happiness, seek their delights
+elsewhere. It is not only of late that I have found out how truly she
+values what is, after all, most desirable in this world,--a great name
+worthily borne by a true man, and a reputation that would shed new
+radiance upon her. How often have I heard her say to Mrs. Brian,
+'Above all, aunt, I want to be proud of my husband; I want to see
+everybody's eye sparkle with admiration and envy as soon as I mention
+his name, which will have become mine also; I want people to whisper
+around me, "Ah, how happy she is to be loved by such a man!"'"
+
+He shook his head gravely, and said in a solemn tone,--
+
+"I examined myself, Daniel, and found that I answered all of Miss
+Brandon's expectations; and the result of my meditations was, that I
+would be a madman to allow such happiness to escape me, and that I was
+bound to risk every thing. I made up my mind, therefore, firmly, and
+went to M. Elgin in order to make him aware of my intentions. I cannot
+describe to you the amazement of that worthy gentleman.
+
+"'You are joking,' he said at first, 'and that pains me deeply.'
+
+"But, when he saw that I had never in my life spoken more seriously,
+he, who is usually so phlegmatic, became perfectly furious. As if I
+would have come to him, if, by some impossible accident, I should have
+been unhappy in my choice! But I fell from the clouds when he told me
+outright that he meant to do all he could do to prevent such a match.
+Nor would he give up his purpose, say what I could; and I had to use
+all my skill to make him change his mind. At last, after more than two
+hours' discussion, all that I could obtain from him was the promise
+that he would remain neutral, and that he would leave to Mrs. Brian
+the responsibility of refusing or accepting my offer."
+
+He laughed, this good Count Ville-Handry, he laughed heartily, no
+doubt recalling his discussion with Sir Thorn, and his triumphant
+skill.
+
+"So," he resumed, "I went to Mrs. Brian. Ah! she did not mince
+matters. At the first word, she called me--God forgive her!--an old
+fool, and plainly told me that I must never show myself again in
+Circus Street.
+
+"I insisted; but in vain. She would not even listen to me, the old
+Puritan; and, when I became pressing, she dropped me a solemn curtsey,
+and left me alone in the room, looking foolish enough, I am sure.
+
+"For the time, I had nothing to do but to go away. I did so, hoping
+that her interview with her niece might induce her to change her mind.
+Not at all. The next morning, when I called at the house, the servants
+said Sir Thorn was out, and Mrs. Brian and Miss Brandon had just left
+for Fontainebleau. The day after, the same result; and for a whole
+week the doors remained closed.
+
+"I was becoming restless, when a commissionaire, one morning, brought
+me a letter. It was Miss Brandon who wrote. She asked me to be that
+very day, at four o'clock, in the Bois de Boulogne, near the
+waterfalls; that she would ride out in the afternoon with Sir Thorn;
+that she would escape from him, and meet me.
+
+"As a matter of course, I was punctual; and it was well I was so, for,
+a few minutes after I got there, I saw her--or rather I felt her--
+coming towards me, riding at full speed. When she reached me, she
+stopped suddenly, and, jumping from her horse, said to me,--
+
+"'They watch me so jealously, that I could not write to you till
+to-day. I am deeply wounded by this want of confidence, and I do not
+think I can endure it any longer. Here I am, carry me off, let us go!'
+
+"Never, O Daniel! never have I seen her look more marvellously
+beautiful than she looked at that moment. She was flushed with
+excitement and the rapid ride; her eyes shone with courage and
+passion; her lips trembled; and then she said again,--
+
+"'I know I am ruining myself; and you yourself--you will probably
+despise me. But never mind! Let us be gone!'"
+
+He paused, overcome with excitement; but, soon recovering, he
+continued,--
+
+"To hear a beautiful woman tell you that! Ah, Daniel! that is an
+experience which alone is worth a man's whole life. And yet I had the
+courage, mad as I felt I was becoming, to speak to her words of calm
+reason. Yes, I had the sublime courage, and the almost fortuitous
+control over myself, to conjure her to retreat into her house.
+
+"She began to weep, and accused me of indifference.
+
+"But I had discovered a way out of the difficulty, and said to her,--
+
+"'Sarah, go home. Write to me what you have just told me, and I am
+sure I shall compel your friends to grant me your hand.'
+
+"This she did.
+
+"And what I had foreseen came to pass. In the face of such evidence of
+what they called our madness, Sir Thorn and Mrs. Brian dared not
+oppose our plans any longer. After some little hesitations, and
+imposing certain honorable conditions, they said to Sarah and
+myself,--
+
+"'You will have it so. Go, then, and get married.'"
+
+This is what Count Ville-Handry called chance, a " blessed chance," as
+he said, utterly unmindful of the whole chain of circumstances which
+he himself related. From the accident that had befallen M. Elgin, and
+the fainting-fit of Miss Brandon, to the meeting in the Bois de
+Boulogne and the proposed runaway-match, all seemed to him perfectly
+natural and simple,--even the sudden enthusiasm of a young, frivolous
+woman for his political opinions, and the learning by heart of his
+speeches.
+
+Daniel was amazed. That a man like the count should be so perfectly
+blind to the intrigue that was going on around him, seemed to him
+incomprehensible. The count, however, was not so blind, that he should
+not have at least suspected the nature of Daniel's feelings.
+
+"What are you thinking of?" he asked. "Come, let us hear your opinion.
+Tell us frankly that you suspect Miss Brandon, and accuse her of
+trying to catch me in her snares, or, at least, of having selfish
+views."
+
+"I do not say so," stammered Daniel.
+
+"No, but you think so; and that is worse. Well, come; I think I can
+convince you of your mistake. What do you think Miss Brandon would
+gain by marrying me? A fortune, you say. I have only one word in
+reply; but that is sufficient; Miss Brandon is richer than I am."
+
+How, and at what price, Miss Brandon had managed to possess herself of
+such a fortune, Daniel knew but too well from Maxime's account; hence
+he could not suppress a nervous shudder, which the count noticed, and
+which irritated him.
+
+"Yes, richer than I am," he repeated. "The oil-wells which she has
+inherited from her father bring her in, bad years and good years, from
+thirty to forty thousand dollars a year, and that in spite of their
+being sadly mismanaged. If they were well managed, they would produce,
+three, four, or five times as much, or even more. Sir Thorn has proved
+to me that they are an almost inexhaustible mine of wealth. If
+petroleum was not fabulously profitable, how would you account for the
+oil-fever with which these cool, calculating Americans have suddenly
+been seized, and which has made more millionaires than the gold-fever
+in California and the Territories? Ah! there is something to be made
+there yet, and something grand, if one could dispose of a large
+capital."
+
+He became excited, and forgot himself; but he soon checked himself. He
+had evidently been on the point of letting a secret leak out. After a
+few moments, he continued more calmly,--
+
+"But enough of that. I trust your suspicions are removed. Next you may
+tell me that Miss Brandon takes me because she can do no better.
+Mistaken again, my friend. At this very moment she is called upon to
+choose between me and a much younger man than I am, whose fortune,
+moreover, is larger than mine,--Mr. Wilkie Gordon."
+
+How did it come about that Count Ville-Handry seemed to appeal to
+Daniel, and to plead his cause before him? Daniel did not even think
+of asking himself that question; his mind was in a state of utter
+confusion. Still, as the count insisted on having his opinion, as he
+urged him, and repeatedly asked, "Well, do you see any other
+objection?" he forgot at last his friend's prudent warning, and said
+in a troubled voice,--
+
+"No doubt, count, you know Miss Brandon's family?"
+
+"Certainly! Do you think I would buy a cat in a bag? Her excellent
+father was a model of honesty."
+
+"And--her previous life?"
+
+The count started from his chair, and, casting a savage glance at
+Daniel, said,--
+
+"Oh, oh! I see one of those rascally slanderers, who have tried to
+tarnish the honor of the noblest and chastest of all women, has
+already been at work here, anticipating my communication to you, and
+repeating those infamous calumnies. You must give me the name of the
+scoundrel."
+
+Unconsciously, almost, Daniel turned towards the door, behind which M.
+de Brevan was listening. Perhaps he expected him to come forth; but
+Maxime did not stir.
+
+"Sarah's previous life!" continued the count. "I know every hour of
+it; and I can answer for it as for my own. The darling! Before
+consenting to be mine, she insisted upon my knowing every thing, yes,
+every thing, without reserve or boastfulness; and I know what she has
+suffered. Did they not actually say she had been the accomplice of a
+wretched thief, a cashier of some bank, who had become a defaulter?
+Did they not say that she had driven a foolish young man, a gambler,
+to commit suicide; and that she had watched, unmoved, the tortures of
+his agony? Ah! you have only to look at Miss Brandon to know that
+these vile stories are wretched inventions of malicious enemies and
+rivals. And look here, Daniel; you may believe me; whenever you see
+people calumniate a man or a woman, you may rest assured that that man
+or woman has, somehow or other, wounded or humiliated some vulgar
+person, some mean, envious fool, who cannot endure his or her
+superiority in point of fortune, rank, or beauty and talent."
+
+He had actually recovered his youthful energy in thus defending his
+beloved. His eye brightened up; his voice became strong, and his
+gestures animated.
+
+"But no more of that painful topic," he said: "let us talk seriously."
+
+He rose, and leaning on the mantelpiece, so as to face Daniel, he
+said,--
+
+"I told you, my dear Daniel, that Sir Thorn and Mrs. Brian insisted
+upon certain conditions before they consented to our marriage. One is,
+that Miss Brandon is to be received by my relations as she deserves to
+be, not only respectfully, but affectionately, even tenderly. As to
+relations, there is not any. I have some remote cousins, who, having
+nothing to expect from me when I die, do not trouble themselves any
+more about me than I trouble myself about them. But I have a daughter;
+and there is the danger. I know she is distressed at the idea of my
+marrying again. She cannot bear the mere idea that another woman is to
+take the place of her mother, to bear her name, and to rule in my
+house."
+
+Daniel began at last to know what he had to understand by that
+unsuccessful appointment which had procured him the pleasure of a
+visit from Count Ville-Handry.
+
+"Now," continued the latter, "I know my daughter. She is her mother
+over again, weak, but obstinate beyond endurance. If she has taken it
+into her head to receive Miss Brandon uncivilly, she will do so, in
+spite of all she has promised me, and she will make a terrible scene
+of it. And if Miss Brandon consents, in spite of all, to go on, my
+house will become a hell to me, and my wife will suffer terribly. Now
+the question is, whether I have sufficient influence over Henrietta to
+bring her to reason. I think not. But this influence which I have not
+--a very nice young man may have it; and that man is you."
+
+Daniel had turned red. It was for the first time that the count spoke
+so clearly. He went on,--
+
+"I have never disapproved of my poor wife's plans; and the proof is,
+that I have allowed you to pay your attentions to my daughter. But now
+I make this condition: if my daughter is to Miss Brandon what she
+ought to be to her, a tender and devoted sister, then, six months
+after my wedding, there shall be another wedding at my house."
+
+Daniel was about to speak; but he stopped him, saying,--
+
+"No, not a word! I have shown you the wisdom of my decision, and you
+may act accordingly."
+
+He had already put on his hat and opened the door, when he added,--
+
+"Ah! one word more. Miss Brandon has asked me to present you to her
+to-night. She wants to speak to you. Come and dine with me; and after
+dinner we will go to Circus Street. Now, pray think of what I have
+told you, and good-by!"
+
+
+
+                                 VII.
+
+Count Ville-Handry had hardly closed the door, when M. de Brevan
+rushed out of the bedroom in which he had been concealed.
+
+"Was I right?" he exclaimed.
+
+But Daniel did not hear him. He had forgotten his very presence.
+Overcome by the great effort he had made to conceal his emotions, he
+had sunk into a chair, hiding his face in his hands, and said to
+himself in a mournful voice, and as if trying to convince himself of
+an overwhelming fact,--
+
+"The count has lost his mind altogether, and we are lost."
+
+The grief of this excellent young man was so great and so bitter, that
+M. de Brevan seemed to be deeply moved. He looked at him for some time
+with an air of pity, and then suddenly, as if yielding to a good
+impulse, he touched his shoulder, and said,--
+
+"Daniel!"
+
+The unhappy man started like one who has suddenly been roused from
+deep slumber; and, as he recalled what had just happened, he said,--
+
+"You have heard all, Maxime?"
+
+"All! I have not lost a word nor a gesture. But do not blame me for my
+indiscretion. It enables me to give you some friendly advice. You know
+I have paid dear for my experience."
+
+He hesitated, being at a loss how to express his ideas; then he
+continued in a short, sharp tone,--
+
+"You love Miss Ville-Handry?"
+
+"More than my life, don't you know?"
+
+"Well, if that is so, abandon all thoughts of useless resistance;
+induce Miss Henrietta to do as her father wishes; and persuade Miss
+Brandon to let your wedding take place a month after her own. But ask
+for special pledges. Miss Ville-Handry may suffer somewhat during that
+month; but the day after your wedding you will carry her off to your
+own home, and leave the poor old man to his amorous folly."
+
+Daniel showed in his face that this suggestion opened a new prospect
+before him.
+
+"I had not thought of that," he said.
+
+"It is all you can do."
+
+"Yes, it is what prudence would advise me to do. But can I do so in
+honor?"
+
+"Oh, honor, honor!"
+
+"Would it not be wrong in me to abandon the poor old man to the mercy
+of Miss Brandon and her accomplices?"
+
+"You will never be able to rescue him, my dear fellow."
+
+"I ought at least to try. You thought so yesterday, and even this
+morning, not two hours ago."
+
+Maxime could scarcely hide his impatience.
+
+"I did not know then what I know now," he said.
+
+Daniel had risen, and was walking up and down the small room, replying
+to his own objections, rather than to those raised by Brevan.
+
+"If I were alone master," he said, "I might, perhaps, agree to a
+capitulation. But could Henrietta accept it? Never, never! Her father
+knows her well. She is as weak as a child; but at the proper moment
+she can develop a masculine energy and an iron will."
+
+"Why should you tell her at all who Miss Brandon is?"
+
+"I have pledged my word of honor to tell her every thing."
+
+Brevan again shrugged his shoulders, and there was no mistaking what
+he meant by that gesture. He might just as well have said aloud, "Can
+one conceive such stupidity?"
+
+"Then you had better give up your Henrietta, my poor fellow," he said.
+
+But Daniel's despair had been overcome. He ground his teeth with
+anger, and said,--
+
+"Not yet, my friend, not yet! An honest man who defends his honor and
+his life is pretty strong. I have no experience, that is true; but I
+have you, Maxime; and I know I can always count upon you."
+
+Daniel did not seem to have noticed that M. de Brevan, at first all
+fire and energy, had rapidly cooled off, like a man, who, having
+ventured too far, thinks he has made a mistake, and tries to retrace
+his steps.
+
+"Certainly you may count upon me," he replied; "but what can be done?"
+
+"Well, what you said yourself. I shall call upon Miss Brandon, and
+watch her. I shall dissemble, and gain time. If necessary, I shall
+employ detectives, and find out her antecedents. I shall try to
+interest some high personage in my behalf,--my minister, for instance,
+who is very kind to me. Besides, I have an idea."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"That unlucky cashier, whose story you told me, and who, you think, is
+not dead--if we could find him. How did you call him? Oh, Malgat! An
+advertisement inserted in all the leading newspapers of Europe would,
+no doubt, reach him; and the hope of seeing himself avenged"--
+
+M. de Brevan's cheeks began to redden perceptibly. He broke out with
+strange vehemence,--
+
+"What nonsense!"
+
+Then he added, more collectedly,--
+
+"You forget that Malgat has been sentenced to I know not how many
+years' penal servitude, and that he will see in your advertisement a
+trick of the police; so that he will only conceal himself more
+carefully than ever."
+
+But Daniel was not so easily shaken. He said,--
+
+"I will think it over. I will see. Perhaps something might be done
+with that young man whom the count mentioned, that M. Wilkie Gordon.
+If I thought he was really anxious for Miss Brandon's hand"--
+
+"I have heard it said, and I am sure it is so, the young man is one of
+those idiots whom vanity renders insane, and who do not know what to
+do in order to make themselves notorious. Miss Brandon being very
+famous, he would marry her, just as he would pay a hundred thousand
+dollars for a famous racer."
+
+"And how do you account for Miss Brandon's refusal?"
+
+"By the character of the man, whom I know very well, and whom she
+knows as well. She is quite aware that, three months after the
+wedding, he would decamp, and in less than a year she would be
+divorced. Then there is another thing: Wilkie is only twenty-five
+years old; and you know a fellow at that age is likely to live a good
+deal longer than a lover who is beyond the sixties."
+
+The way in which he said this lent to his words a terrible
+significance; and Daniel, turning pale, stammered out,--
+
+"Great God! Do you think Miss Brandon could"--
+
+"Could do anything, most assuredly,--except, perhaps, get into trouble
+with the police. I have heard her say that only fools employ poison or
+the dagger."
+
+A strange smile passed over his lips; and he added in a tone of
+horrible irony,--
+
+"It is true there are other means, less prompt, perhaps, but much
+safer, by which people may be removed when they become inconvenient.
+
+"What means? The same, no doubt, which she had employed to get rid of
+poor Kergrist, and that unlucky Malgat, the cashier of the Mutual
+Discount Society. Purely moral means, based upon her thorough
+knowledge of the character of her victims, and her own infernal power
+over them."
+
+But Daniel tried in vain to obtain more light from his friend. Brevan
+answered evasively; perhaps because he did not dare to speak out
+freely, and reveal his real thoughts; or because it lay in his plans
+to be content with having added this horrible fear to all the other
+apprehensions of his friend.
+
+His embarrassment, just now unmistakable, had entirely disappeared, as
+if he had come to a final decision after long hesitation. He who had
+first advised all kinds of concessions now suggested the most
+energetic resistance, and seemed to be confident of success.
+
+When he at last left Daniel, he had made him promise to keep him hour
+by hour informed of all that might happen, and, above all, to try
+every means in his power to unmask Miss Brandon.
+
+"How he hates her!" said Daniel to himself when he was alone,--"how he
+hates her!"
+
+But this very hatred, which had already troubled him the night before,
+now disturbed him more and more, and kept him from coming to any
+decision. The more he reflected, the more it seemed to him that Maxime
+had allowed himself to be carried away beyond what was probable, or
+even possible. The last accusation, especially, seemed to him
+perfectly monstrous.
+
+A young and beautiful woman, consumed by ambition and covetousness,
+might possibly play a comedy of pure love while she was disgusted in
+her heart. She might catch by vile tricks a foolish old man, and make
+him marry her, openly and avowedly selling her beauty and her youth.
+Such things happen, and are excused by the morality of our day. The
+same wicked, heartless woman might speculate upon becoming speedily a
+widow, and thus regaining her liberty, together with a large fortune.
+This also happens, however horrible it may appear. But that she should
+marry a poor old fool, with the preconceived purpose of hastening his
+end by a deliberate crime, there was a depth in that wickedness which
+terrified Daniel's imagination.
+
+Deeply ensconced in his chair, he was losing himself in conjectures,
+forgetting how time passed, and how his work was waiting for him, even
+the invitation to dinner which the count had given to him, and the
+prospect of being introduced that very evening to Miss Brandon. Night
+came; and then only his concierge, who came in to see what had become
+of him all day long, aroused him from his torpor.
+
+"Ah, I am losing my senses!" he exclaimed, rising suddenly. "And
+Henrietta, who has been waiting for me--what must she think of me?"
+
+Miss Ville-Handry, at that very moment, had reached that degree of
+anxiety which becomes well-nigh intolerable. After having waited for
+Daniel all the evening of the day before, and after having spent a
+sleepless night, she had surely expected him to-day, counting the
+seconds by the beating of her heart, and starting at the noise of
+every carriage in the street. In her despair, knowing hardly what she
+was doing, she was thinking of running herself to University Street,
+to Daniel's house, when the door opened.
+
+In the same indifferent tone in which he announced friends and
+enemies, the servant said,--
+
+"M. Daniel Champcey."
+
+Henrietta was up in a moment. She was about to exclaim,--
+
+"What has kept you? What has happened?" But the words died away on her
+lips.
+
+It had been sufficient for her to look at Daniel's sad face to feel
+that a great misfortune had befallen her.
+
+"Ah! you had been right in your fears," she said, sinking into a
+chair.
+
+"Alas!"
+
+"Speak: let me know all."
+
+"Your father has come to me, and offered me your hand, Henrietta,
+provided I can obtain your consent to his marriage with Miss Brandon.
+Now, listen to me; and then you can decide."
+
+Faithful to his promise, he thereupon told her every thing he had
+learned from Maxime and the count, suppressing only those details
+which would have made the poor girl blush, and also that terrible
+charge which he was unwilling to believe.
+
+When he had ended, Henrietta said warmly,--
+
+"What! I should allow my father to marry such a creature? I should sit
+still and smile when such dishonor and such ruin are coming to a house
+over which my mother has presided! No; far be it from me ever to be so
+selfish! I shall oppose Miss Brandon's plans with all my strength and
+all my energy."
+
+"She may triumph, after all."
+
+"She shall not triumph over my resistance and my contempt. Never--do
+you hear me, Daniel?--never will I bow down before her. Never shall my
+hand touch hers. And, if my father persists, I shall ask him, the day
+before his wedding, to allow me to bury myself in a convent."
+
+"He will not let you go."
+
+"Then I shall shut myself up in my room, and never leave it again. I
+do not think they will drag me out by force."
+
+There was no mistaking it; she spoke with an earnestness and a
+determination which nothing could shake or break. And yet the very
+saddest presentiments oppressed Daniel's heart. He said,--
+
+"But Miss Brandon will certainly not come alone to this house."
+
+"Whom will she bring with her?"
+
+"Her relatives, M. Thomas Elgin and Mrs. Brian. Oh Henrietta, dearest
+Henrietta! to think that you should be exposed to the spite and the
+persecution of these wretches!"
+
+She raised her head proudly, and replied,--
+
+"I am not afraid of them." Then she added in a gentler tone,--
+
+"Besides, won't you always be near me, to advise me, and to protect me
+in case of danger?"
+
+"I? Don't you think they will try to part us soon enough?"
+
+"No, Daniel, I know very well that the house will no longer be open to
+you."
+
+"Well?"
+
+The poor girl blushed up to the roots of her hair, and, turning her.
+eyes away from him to avoid his looks, she said,--
+
+"Since they force us to do so, I must needs do a thing a girl,
+properly speaking, ought not to do. We will meet secretly. I shall
+have to stoop to win over one of my waiting-women, who may be discreet
+and obliging enough to aid me, and, through her, I will write to you,
+and receive your letters."
+
+But this arrangement did not relieve Daniel from his terrible
+apprehensions. There was a question which constantly rose to his lips,
+and which still he did not dare to utter. At last, making a great
+effort, he asked,--
+
+"And then?"
+
+Henrietta understood perfectly what he meant. She answered,--
+
+"I thought you would be able to wait until the day should come when
+the law would authorize me to make my own choice."
+
+"Henrietta!"
+
+She offered him her hand, and said solemnly,--
+
+"And on that day, Daniel, I promise you, if my father still withholds
+his consent, I will ask you openly for your arm; and then, in broad
+daylight, before all the world, I shall leave this house never to
+re-enter it again."
+
+As quick as thought, Daniel had seized her hand, and, carrying it to
+his lips, he said,--"Thanks! A thousand thanks! You restore me to
+hope."
+
+Still, before abandoning the effort, he thought he would try one more
+measure; and for that purpose it was necessary that Henrietta should
+be induced to conceal her intentions as long as possible. It was only
+with great difficulty that he succeeded in obtaining her consent.
+
+"I will do what you desire; but believe me, all your efforts will be
+in vain."
+
+She was interrupted by the arrival of Count Ville-Handry. He kissed
+his daughter, said a few words about rain and fine weather; and then,
+drawing Daniel into one of the windows, he asked--
+
+"Have you spoken to her?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Miss Henrietta wants a few days to consider."
+
+The count looked displeased, and said,--
+
+"That is absurd. Nothing can be more ridiculous. But, after all, it is
+your business, my dear Daniel. And, if you want any additional motive,
+I will tell you that my daughter is very rich. She has a quarter of a
+million of her own."
+
+"Sir!" exclaimed Daniel indignantly.
+
+But Count Ville-Handry had already turned upon his heels; and the
+butler came to announce that dinner was on the table.
+
+The meal, though excellent in itself, was necessarily very dull and
+sad. It was promptly despatched; for the count seemed to be sitting on
+needles, and every minute looked at his watch.
+
+They had but just handed the coffee around, when he turned to Daniel,
+saying,--
+
+"Let us make haste. Miss Brandon expects us."
+
+Daniel was instantly ready. But the count did not even give him time
+to take leave of Henrietta; he carried him off to his carriage, pushed
+him in, jumped in after him, and called out to the servant,-- "Circus
+Street! Miss Brandon! Drive fast!"
+
+
+
+                                VIII.
+
+The servants knew very well what the count meant when he said, "Drive
+fast!" The coachman, on such occasions, made his horses literally go
+as fast as they could; and, but for his great skill, the foot-
+passengers would have been in considerable danger. Nevertheless, on
+this evening Count Ville-Handry twice lowered the window to call
+out,--
+
+"Don't drive at a walk!"
+
+The fact is, that, in spite of his efforts to assume the air of a
+grave statesman, he was as impatient, and as vain of his love, as a
+young collegian hurrying to his first rendezvous with his beloved.
+During dinner he had been sullen and silent; now he became talkative,
+and chatted away, without troubling himself about the silence of his
+companion.
+
+To be sure, Daniel did not even listen. Half-buried in the corner of
+the well-padded carriage, he tried his best to control his emotions;
+for he was excited, more excited than ever in his life, by the thought
+that he was to see, face to face, this formidable adventuress, Miss
+Brandon. And like the wrestler, who, before making a decisive assault,
+gathers up all his strength, he summoned to his aid his composure and
+his energy. It took them not more than ten minutes to drive the whole
+distance to Circus Street.
+
+"Here we are!" cried the count.
+
+And, without waiting for the steps to be let down, he jumped on the
+sidewalk, and, running ahead of his servants, knocked at the door of
+Miss Brandon's house. It was by no means one of those modern
+structures which attract the eye of the passer-by by a ridiculous and
+conspicuous splendor. Looking at it from the street, you would have
+taken it for the modest house of a retired grocer, who was living in
+it upon his savings at the rate of two or three thousand a year. It is
+true, that from the street, you could see neither the garden, nor the
+stables and the carriage-houses.
+
+In the meantime a servant had appeared, who took the count's and
+Daniel's coats, and showed them up stairs. When they reached the upper
+landing, the count stopped, as if his breath had been giving out of a
+sudden.
+
+"There," he stammered, "there!"
+
+"Where? What?" Daniel did not know what he meant. The count only
+wished to say that "there" was the place where he had held Miss
+Brandon in his arms the day she had fainted. But Daniel had no time to
+ask any questions. Another servant appeared, coming out of the rooms,
+and, bowing low before Count Ville-Handry, he said,--
+
+"The ladies have but just risen from table, and are still dressing."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"If the gentlemen will please sit down in the parlor, I will tell M.
+Elgin."
+
+"Very well," said the count, speaking in a tone which showed that he
+considered himself perfectly at home in Miss Brandon's house. He
+entered the parlor, followed by Daniel. It was a magnificent room; but
+every thing in it, from the carpet on the floor to the chandelier on
+the ceiling, betrayed the Puritanic taste of Mrs. Brian. It was
+splendid; but the splendor was cold, stiff, and mournful. The
+furniture had sharp angles, and suggested any thing but comfort. The
+bronze figures on the mantlepiece-clock were biblical personages; and
+the other bronzes were simply hideous. Except these, there was no
+ornament visible, not a painting, nor a statuette.
+
+Yes, one. Opposite the fireplace, in the place of honor, there stared
+at you a painting in a most costly gilt frame,--a horrible daub,
+representing a man of about fifty years, who wore a fancy uniform with
+enormous epaulets, a huge sword, a plumed hat, and a blue sash, into
+which two revolvers were thrust.
+
+"Gen. Brandon, Miss Sarah's father," said Count Ville-Handry, in a
+tone of deep respect, which unnerved Daniel. "As a work of art, this
+portrait leaves, no doubt, much to be wished for; but they say the
+likeness is excellent."
+
+Certainly, though that might be so, there was no resemblance to be
+discovered between the tanned face of this American general and the
+blooming features of Miss Brandon. But there was something more. As
+Daniel examined this picture nearer by, and more closely, he thought
+he discovered a studied and intentional coarseness of execution. It
+looked to him like the work of an artist who had endeavored to imitate
+those wretched painters who live upon the vanity of weak men and
+little children. He thought he discovered by the side of gross
+inaccuracies unmistakable traces of a master's hand; and especially
+one of the ears, half hid behind the hair, seemed to him admirably
+done.
+
+But, before he could draw his conclusions from this strange discovery,
+M. Thomas Elgin appeared in the room. He was in evening costume,
+looking taller and stiffer than ever in his white cravat; and, as he
+came forward, he halted a little on one foot, though leaning upon a
+big cane.
+
+"What, my dear Sir Thorn!" exclaimed the count, "your leg still gives
+you trouble?"
+
+"Oh, a great deal!" replied the honorable gentleman, with a very
+marked English accent,--"a great deal since this morning. The doctor
+thinks there must be something the matter with the bone."
+
+At the same time, obeying the tendency which we all have to display
+our ailments, he slightly drew up his trousers, so that the bandages
+became visible which he wore around his leg. Count Ville-Handry looked
+at it with pity; then, forgetting that he had introduced Daniel
+already the night before at the opera, he presented him once more;
+and, when the ceremony was over, he said to Sir Thorn,--
+
+"Upon my word, I am almost ashamed to appear so early; but I knew you
+expected company to-night."
+
+"Oh, only a few persons!"
+
+"And I desired to see you for a few moments alone."
+
+A strange grimace represented the only smile of which the honorable
+gentleman was capable. He made it twice, and then said, caressing his
+primly-cut whiskers,--
+
+"They have told Miss Sarah that you are here, my dear count; and I
+heard her tell Mrs. Brian that she was nearly ready. I cannot imagine
+how she can spend so much time at her toilet."
+
+They were thus chatting away before the fireplace, Sir Thorn stretched
+out in an easy-chair, and the count leaning against the mantlepiece,
+while Daniel had withdrawn into the embrasure of a window which looked
+upon the court-yard and the garden behind the house. There, his brow
+pressed against the cool window-panes, he was meditating. He could not
+understand this wound of M. Elgin's.
+
+"Is it possible that his fall was an intentional fall?" he thought,
+"or did he really break his leg? If he did so, that fainting-fit might
+have been natural, and not prearranged; but"--
+
+He was just plunging into these doubts and speculations, when the
+noise of a carriage entering the court-yard, aroused him from his
+thoughts.
+
+He looked out. A /coupe/ had driven up to the back porch of the house.
+A lady stepped out; and he was on the point of uttering a cry of
+surprise, for he thought he recognized Miss Sarah in that woman. But
+could that be so? He was unwilling to believe it, when she suddenly
+raised her head in order to speak to the coachman, and the light from
+the lamps fell full upon her face.
+
+There was no doubt now on his mind. It was Miss Brandon.
+
+She flew up the steps, and entered the house. He heard distinctly the
+heavy door close behind her.
+
+At the opera, the night before, a single word uttered by Miss Brandon
+had sufficed to enlighten Daniel. But now this was a very different
+matter. It was a potent fact, unmistakable and tangible, which came to
+him in support of his suspicions.
+
+In order to increase the passionate impatience of the count, they had
+told him that Miss Brandon was still dressing, but that she was making
+all haste to come down to him. Not a word had been said of her being
+out, and of her return at that very moment. Where had she been? What
+new intrigues had compelled her to leave the house just then? It must
+have evidently been something of great importance to have kept her out
+till so late an hour, and when she knew, moreover, that the count was
+waiting for her.
+
+This incident threw a flood of light on the cunning policy pursued in
+this house, and on the clever and active complicity of M. Thomas Elgin
+and Mrs. Brian. What their game really was, and how Count Ville-Handry
+had been caught in the trap, he now understood well enough; he would
+have been caught in it himself.
+
+How clever these actors were! how perfect all the arrangements! and
+how scientifically the smallest details were prepared! How
+marvellously well even the parlor was arranged to serve the purposes
+of the owners! This simple elegance could not but banish all doubts;
+and this horrible portrait of the so-called Gen. Brandon--what a
+stroke of genius!
+
+As to the lame leg. of Sir Thorn, Daniel no longer believed in it.
+
+"His leg is no more broken than mine," he thought.
+
+But at the same time he marvelled at the self-denial of this
+gentleman, who, in order to prove a falsehood, consented to wear his
+leg bandaged up for months, as if it really had been severely injured.
+
+"And to-night," said Daniel to himself, "the performance, no doubt, is
+to be specially artistic, as they expected me."
+
+Still, like a duellist, who tries to regain all his strength after a
+sleepless night, Daniel was now fully prepared for the battle. He even
+returned to the fireplace, for fear that his standing alone, and his
+preoccupation, might betray his thoughts.
+
+The conversation between Count Ville-Handry and M. Elgin had in the
+meantime become very familiar; and the count was just detailing all
+his arrangements for the approaching wedding. He would live, he said,
+with his wife in the second story of his palace. The first story was
+to be divided into two suites of apartments,--one for M. Thomas Elgin,
+and the other for Mrs. Brian; for he knew very well that his adored
+Sarah would never consent to part with her dear relatives, who had
+been father and mother to her.
+
+The last words remained in his throat; he stood as if he were
+petrified, his eyes starting from their sockets, his mouth wide open.
+
+Mrs. Brian had entered the room, followed by Miss Brandon. Daniel was
+even more struck by her strange beauty to-day than at the opera; it
+was literally dazzling. She wore on that night a dress of tea-color
+embroidered with tiny bouquets in Chinese silk, and trimmed below with
+an immense flounce of plaited muslin. In her hair, which looked even
+more carelessly put up than usually, she had nothing but a branch of
+fuschia, the crimson bells falling gracefully down upon her neck,
+where they mingled with her golden curls.
+
+She came smilingly up to Count Ville-Handry, and, offering him her
+brow to kiss, she said,--
+
+"Do I look well, dear count?"
+
+He trembled from head to foot; and all he could do was to stretch out
+his lips, and to stammer in an almost ecstatic tone of voice,--
+
+"Oh, beautiful! too beautiful!"
+
+"It has taken you long enough, I am sure," said Sir Thorn severely,--
+"too long!"
+
+He might have known that Miss Brandon had accomplished a miracle of
+expeditiousness; for it was not a quarter of an hour since she
+returned to the house.
+
+"You are an impertinent villain, Thorn," she said, laughing in the
+fresh and hearty manner of a child; "and I am very happy that the
+presence of the count relieves /me/ from your eternal sermons."
+
+"Sarah!" exclaimed Mrs. Brian reprovingly.
+
+But she had already turned round, with her hand outstretched towards
+Daniel,--
+
+"I am so glad you have come, sir!" she said. "I am sure we shall
+understand each other admirably."
+
+She told him this with the softest possible voice; but, if he had
+known her better, he would have read in the way in which she looked at
+him, that her disposition towards him had entirely changed since
+yesterday; then she wished him well; now she hated him savagely.
+
+"Understand each other?" he repeated as he bowed; "in what?"
+
+She made no answer.
+
+The servant announced some of the usual visitors; and she went to
+receive them. Ten o'clock struck; and from that moment the invited
+guests did not cease to arrive. At eleven o'clock there were perhaps a
+hundred persons in the room; and in the two adjoining rooms card-
+tables had been arranged.
+
+It appeared that the gentlemen who showed themselves there--old men
+mostly, amply decorated with foreign orders, and young men in
+extravagantly fashionable costumes--were not free from suspicion; but
+they all belonged to Paris high-life, to that society, which, under a
+dazzlingly brilliant outside, conceals hideous crimes, and allows now
+and then traces of real misery to be seen through the rents in the
+splendid livery worn by its members.
+
+Some of these men stood, by the name they bore or the position they
+filled, high above the rest of the company; they were easily
+recognized by their haughty manner, and the intense deference with
+which their slightest remarks were received. And to this crowd Count
+Ville-Handry displayed his good-fortune. He assumed all the airs of
+the master of the house; as if he had been in his own house, gave
+orders to the servants, and then, with mock modesty, went from group
+to group, eagerly picking up all the compliments he could gather on
+Miss Brandon's beauty, and his own good luck.
+
+Gracefully reclining in an easy-chair near the fireplace, Miss Sarah
+looked a young queen surrounded by her court. But in spite of the
+multitude of her admirers, and the number of compliments she received
+at every moment, she never for a moment lost sight of Daniel, watching
+him all the time stealthily, to read his thoughts in his features.
+
+Once she even shocked the crowd of her worshippers by suddenly leaving
+her place in order to ask him why he held himself so aloof, and
+whether he felt indisposed. Then, seeing that he was a perfect
+stranger here, she was good enough to point out to him some of the
+most remarkable men in the crowd. In doing this, she was so anxious to
+make him aware of her distinguished friends, that Daniel began to
+think she must have divined his intentions, and thus indirectly defied
+him, as if she had said in so many words,--
+
+"You see what friends I have, and how they would defend me if you
+should dare to attack me."
+
+Nevertheless, he was not discouraged, being fully aware of all the
+difficulties of his undertaking, and having long since counted up all
+the obstacles in his way. While the conversation was going on around
+him, he arranged in his head a plan, which, he hoped, would enable him
+to find out the antecedents of this dangerous adventuress.
+
+These thoughts preoccupied him to such a degree, that he did not
+become aware how the rooms became gradually empty. It was so,
+nevertheless; and there were finally only a few intimate friends left,
+and four players at a card-table.
+
+Then Miss Brandon arose, and, coming up to Daniel, said to him,--
+
+"Will you grant me ten minutes' conversation, sir?"
+
+He prepared to follow her, when Mrs. Brian interposed, saying a few
+words in a tone of reproach to her niece. Daniel knew enough English
+to understand that she said,--
+
+"What you are doing is highly improper, Sarah."
+
+"Shocking!" added M. Thomas Elgin.
+
+But she shrugged her shoulders slightly, and replied in English,--
+
+"My dear count alone would have a right to judge my conduct; and he
+has authorized me to do what I am doing."
+
+Then turning to Daniel, she said to him in French,--
+
+"Come with me, sir."
+
+
+
+                                 IX.
+
+Miss Sarah led Daniel to a small boudoir adjoining her own room.
+Nothing could be fresher and more coquettish than this little room,
+which looked almost like a greenhouse, so completely was it filled
+with rare and fragrant flowers, while the door and window-frames were
+overgrown with luxuriant creepers. In the windows stood large vases
+filled with flowers; and the light bamboo chairs were covered with the
+same bright silk with which the walls were hung. If the great
+reception-room reflected the character of Mrs. Brian, this charming
+boudoir represented Miss Brandon's own exquisite taste.
+
+She sat down on a small sofa and began, after a short pause,--
+
+"My aunt was right; it would have been more proper for me to convey to
+you through M. Elgin what I want to say. But I have the independence
+of all the girls of my country; and, when my interests are at stake, I
+trust no one but myself."
+
+She was bewitching in her ingenuousness as she uttered these words
+with the air of a little child who looks cunning, and determined to
+undertake something that appears quite formidable.
+
+"I am told that my dear count has been to see you this afternoon," she
+continued, "and you have heard that in less than a month I shall be
+the Countess Ville-Handry?"
+
+Daniel was surprised. In less than a month! What could be done in so
+little time?
+
+"Now, sir," continued Miss Brandon, "I wish to hear from your own lips
+whether you see--any--objections to this match."
+
+She spoke so frankly, that it was evident she was utterly unconscious
+of that article in the code of social laws which prescribes that a
+French girl must never mention the word "marriage" without blushing to
+the roots of her hair. Daniel, on the contrary, was terribly
+embarrassed.
+
+"I confess," he replied with much hesitation, "that I do not
+understand, that I cannot possibly explain to myself, why you do me
+the honor"--
+
+"To consult you? Pardon me; I think you understand me perfectly well.
+Have they not promised you Miss Ville-Handry's hand?"
+
+"The count has permitted me to hope"--
+
+"He has pledged his word, sir, under certain conditions. My dear count
+has told me every thing. I speak, therefore, to Count Ville-Handry's
+son-in-law, and I repeat, Do you see any objections to this match?"
+
+The question was too precisely put to allow of any prevarication. And
+still Daniel was bent upon gaining time, and avoiding any positive
+answer. For the first time in his life he said a falsehood; and,
+turning crimson all over, he stammered out,--
+
+"I see no objection."
+
+"Really?"
+
+"Really."
+
+She shook her head, and then said very slowly,--
+
+"If that is so, you will not refuse me a great favor. Carried away by
+her grief at seeing her father marry again, Miss Ville-Handry hates
+me. Will you promise me to use your influence in trying to persuade
+her to change her disposition towards me?"
+
+Never had honest Daniel Champcey been tried so hard. He answered
+diplomatically,--
+
+"I am afraid you overestimate my influence."
+
+She looked at him suddenly with such a sharp and penetrating glance
+that he felt almost startled, and then said,--
+
+"I do not ask of you to succeed, only promise me upon your honor that
+you will do your best, and I shall be very much obliged to you. Will
+you give me that promise?"
+
+Could he do so? The situation was so exceptional, Daniel had at all
+cost to lull the enemy into security for a time, and for a moment he
+was inclined to pledge his honor. Nay, more than that, he made an
+effort to do it. But his lips refused to utter a false oath.
+
+"You see," resumed Miss Brandon very coldly, "you see you were
+deceiving me."
+
+And, turning away from him, she hid her face in her hands, apparently
+overcome by grief, and repeated in a tone of deep sorrow,--
+
+"What a disgrace! Great God! What a humiliation!"
+
+But suddenly she started up again, her face bright with a glow of
+hope, and cried out,--
+
+"Well, be it so. I like it all the better so. A mean man would not
+have hesitated at an oath, however determined he might have been not
+to keep it. Whilst you--I can trust you; you are a man of honor, and
+all is not lost yet. Whence comes your aversion? Is it a question of
+money, the count's fortune?"
+
+"Miss Brandon!"
+
+"No, it is not that, I see. I was quite sure of it. What, then, can it
+be? Tell me, sir, I beseech you! tell me something."
+
+What could he tell her? Daniel remained silent.
+
+"Very well," said Sarah, clinching her teeth convulsively. "I
+understand."
+
+She made a supreme effort not to break out in sobs; and big tears,
+resembling diamonds of matchless beauty, rolled slowly down from
+between her long, trembling eyelashes.
+
+"Yes," she said, "I understand. The atrocious calumnies which my
+enemies have invented have reached you; and you have believed them.
+They have, no doubt, told you that I am an adventuress, come from
+nowhere; that my father, the brave defender of the Union, exists only
+in the painting in my parlor; that no one knows where my income comes
+from; that Thorn, that noble soul, and Mrs. Brian, a saint upon earth,
+are vile accomplices of mine. Confess, you have been told all that,
+and you have believed it."
+
+Grand in her wrath, her cheeks burning, her lips trembling, she rose,
+and added in a tone of bitter sarcasm,--
+
+"Ah! When people are called upon to admire a noble deed, they refuse
+to believe, they insist upon inquiring before they admire, they
+examine carefully. But, if they are told something bad, they dispense
+with that ceremony; however monstrous the thing may appear, however
+improbable it may sound, they believe it instantly. They would not
+touch a child; but they do not hesitate to repeat a slander which
+dishonors a woman, and kills her as surely as a dagger. If I were a
+man, and had been told that Miss Brandon was an adventuress, I would
+have been bent upon ascertaining the matter. America is not so far
+off. I should have soon found the ten thousand men who had served
+under Gen. Brandon, and they would have told me what sort of a man
+their chief had been. I should have examined the oil-regions of
+Pennsylvania; and I would have learned there that the petroleum-wells
+belonging to M. Elgin, Mrs. Brian, and Miss Brandon produce more than
+many a principality."
+
+Daniel was amazed at the candor and the boldness with which this young
+girl approached the terrible subject. To enable her to speak with such
+energy and in such a tone, she must either be possessed of unsurpassed
+impudence, or--he had to confess it--be innocent.
+
+Overcome by the effort she had made, she had sunk back upon the sofa,
+and continued in a lower tone of voice, as if speaking to herself,--
+
+"But have I a right to complain? I reap as I have sown. Alas! Thorn
+has told me so often enough, and I would not believe him. I was not
+twenty years old when I came to Paris, after my poor father's death. I
+had been brought up in America, where young girls know no other law
+but that of their own consciences. They tell us at home, all the time,
+that it is our first duty to be truthful. In France, young girls are
+taught that hypocrisy is their first duty. We are taught not to blush,
+except when we have done wrong; they are taught all the appearances of
+false prudishness. In France, they work hard to save appearances; with
+us, we aim at reality. In Philadelphia, I did every thing I chose to
+do, provided I did not think it was wrong. I thought I could do the
+same here. Poor me! I did not count upon the wickedness of the world.
+I went out alone, on horseback, in the morning. I went alone to
+church, to pray to God. If I wanted any thing for my toilet, I sent
+for the carriage, and drove out, alone, to buy it. When a man spoke to
+me, I did not feel bound to cast down my eyes; and, if he was amusing
+and witty, I laughed. If a new fashion pleased me, I adopted it. I
+committed all these crimes. I was young, rich, popular. These were as
+many more crimes. And after I had been here a year, they said that
+Malgat, that wretch"--
+
+She jumped up as she said this, ran up to Daniel, and, seizing him by
+the hands, she said,--
+
+"Malgat! Have they talked to you about Malgat?"
+
+And, as he hesitated to answer, she added:--
+
+"Ah, answer me! Don't you see that your hesitation is an insult?"
+
+"Well--yes."
+
+As if in utter despair, she raised her hands to heaven, calling God,
+as it were, to witness, and asking for inspiration from on high. Then
+she added suddenly,--
+
+"But I have proofs, irrefutable proofs of Malgat's rascality."
+
+And, without waiting for another word, she hurried into the adjoining
+room. Daniel, moved to the bottom of his heart, remained standing
+where he was, immovable, like a statue.
+
+He was utterly confounded and overcome by the charm of that marvellous
+voice, which passed through the whole gamut of passion with such a
+sonorous ring, and yet with such sweet languor, that it seemed by
+turns to sob and to threaten, to sigh with sadness and to thunder with
+wrath.
+
+"What a woman!" he said to himself, repeating thus unconsciously the
+words uttered by M. de Brevan.
+
+"What a woman! And how well she defends herself."
+
+But Miss Brandon was already back again, carrying in her arms a small
+box of costly wood inlaid with jewels. She resumed her seat on the
+sofa; and in that brief, sharp tone which betrays terrible passions
+restrained with a great effort, she said,--
+
+"Before all, I must thank you, M. Champcey, for your frankness, since
+it enables me to defend myself. I knew that slander had attacked me; I
+felt it, so to say, in the air I was breathing; but I had never been
+able yet to take hold of it. Now, for the first time, I can face it;
+and I owe it to you that I am able to defy it. Listen, therefore; for
+I swear to you by all that is most sacred to me, by the memory of my
+sainted mother, I swear to you solemnly, that you shall hear the
+truth, and nothing but the truth."
+
+She had opened the box, and was eagerly searching something among the
+papers inside. She then continued, in feverish haste,--
+
+"M. Malgat was the cashier and confidential clerk of the Mutual
+Discount Society, a large and powerful company. M. Elgin had some
+business with him, a few weeks after our arrival here, for the purpose
+of drawing funds which he had in Philadelphia. He found him an
+exceedingly obliging man, and, to show his appreciation, invited him
+to dine here. Thus he became acquainted with Mrs. Brian and myself. He
+was a man of about forty, of medium height, ordinary looking, very
+polite, but not refined in his manners. The first time I looked at his
+light yellow eyes, I felt disgusted and frightened. I read in his face
+an expression of base vice. The impression was so strong, that I could
+not help telling M. Elgin how sure I was this man would turn out a bad
+man, and that he ought not to trust him in money-matters."
+
+Daniel listened with breathless attention. This description of Malgat
+impressed his portrait so deeply on his mind, that he thought he saw
+him before his eyes, and would certainly recognize him if he should
+ever meet him.
+
+"M. Elgin," continued Miss Brandon, "only laughed at my presentiments;
+and even Mrs. Brian, I remember distinctly, scolded me, saying it was
+very wrong to judge a man by his appearance, and that there were very
+honest men in the world who had yellow eyes. I must acknowledge,
+moreover, that M. Malgat behaved perfectly well whenever he was here.
+As M. Elgin did not know Paris, and had money to invest, he advised
+him what to do. When we had drafts upon the Mutual Discount Society,
+he always saved M. Elgin the trouble, and brought the money himself.
+After a while, when M. Elgin took it into his head to try some small
+speculations on 'change, M. Malgat offered him his assistance,
+although they never had any luck, in fact."
+
+By this time Miss Brandon had found the papers she was looking for.
+She handed them to Daniel, saying,--
+
+"And, if you do not believe what I say, look at this."
+
+There were a dozen square bits of paper, on which Malgat had reported
+the result of his operations on 'change, which he carried on on
+account of, and with the money of, M. Elgin. All ended with these
+words:--
+
+"We have lost considerably; but we may be more fortunate next time.
+There is a capital chance on such and such funds; send me all the
+money you can spare."
+
+The words were always the same; the name of the funds alone varied in
+each.
+
+"That is strange," said Daniel.
+
+Miss Sarah shook her head.
+
+"Strange? Yes, indeed!" she replied. "But it does not help me in any
+way. This letter, however, will tell you more. Read it, sir, and read
+it aloud."
+
+Daniel took the letter, and read,--
+
+
+ "'Paris, Dec. 5, 1865.
+
+ "'M. Thomas Elgin. /Dear Sir/,--It is to you alone, the most
+  honorable among men, that I can make the terrible confession that
+  I have committed a crime.
+
+ "'I am wretched. Employed by you in your speculations, I have given
+  way to temptation, and have speculated on my own account. One loss
+  brought about another, I lost my head; I hoped to recover my
+  money; and now, at this hour, I owe more than ten thousand
+  dollars, which I have taken from the safe of the society.
+
+ "'Will you have pity on me? Will you be so generous as to lend me
+  that sum? I may not be able to return it in less than six or seven
+  years; but I will repay you, I swear it, with interest.
+
+ "'I await your answer, like a criminal, who waits for the verdict.
+  It is a matter of life and death with me; and as you decide, so I
+  may be saved, or disgraced forever.               A. Malgat.'"
+
+
+On the margin, methodical M. Elgin had written in his angular
+handwriting,--
+
+"Answered immediately. Sent to M. M. ten thousand dollars, to be drawn
+from funds deposited with the Mutual Discount Society. No interest to
+be paid."
+
+"And that," stammered Daniel, "that is the man"--
+
+"Whom they charge me with having turned aside from the paths of
+honesty; yes, sir! Now you learn to know him. But wait. You see, he
+was saved. It was not long before he appeared here, his false face
+bathed in tears. I can find no words to convey to you the exaggerated
+expressions of his gratitude. He refused to shake hands with M. Elgin,
+he said, because he was no longer worthy of such honor. He spoke of
+nothing but of his devotion unto death. It is true M. Elgin carried
+his generosity to an extreme. He, a model of honesty, who would have
+starved to death rather than touch the gold intrusted to his care,--he
+consoled Malgat, finding all kinds of apology for him, telling him,
+that, after all, he was not so very much to blame, that there were
+temptations too strong to be resisted, and repeating even those
+paradoxical principles which have been specially invented as an
+apology for thieves. Malgat had still some money of his own; but M.
+Elgin did not ask him for it, for fear of hurting his feelings. He
+continued to invite him, and urged him to come and dine with us as
+heretofore."
+
+She stopped, laughing in a nervous manner, which was painful to hear,
+and then continued, in a hoarse voice,--
+
+"Do you know, M. Champcey, how Malgat repaid all this kindness? Read
+this note; it will restore me in your esteem, I trust."
+
+It was another letter written by Malgat to M. Elgin, and ran thus,--
+
+
+ "M. Elgin,--I have deceived you. It was not ten thousand dollars I
+  had taken, but sixty thousand five hundred dollars.
+
+ "Thanks to false entries, I have been able to conceal my
+  defalcations until now; but I can do so no longer. The board of
+  directors have begun to suspect me; and the president has just
+  told me that tomorrow the books will be examined. I am lost.
+
+ "I ought to kill myself, I know; but I have not the courage to do
+  so. I venture to ask you to furnish me the means of escaping from
+  this country. I beseech you on my knees, in the name of all that
+  is dear to you, for mercy's sake; for I am penniless, and cannot
+  even pay the fare on the railway as far as the frontier. Nor can I
+  return to my house; for I am watched.
+
+ "Once more, M. Elgin, have pity on a poor man, and leave the answer
+  with the concierge. I will come by about nine o'clock. A. Malgat."
+
+
+Not on the margin, as before, but across the lines, M. Elgin had written
+these laconic words:--
+
+"Answered immediately. No! The scamp!"
+
+Daniel could not have uttered a word to save his life; he was too
+fearfully excited. Miss Brandon continued,--
+
+"We were dining alone that day; and M. Elgin was so indignant, that he
+forgot his usual reserve, and told us everything. Ah! I felt only pity
+for the poor man; and I besought him to give the wretch the means to
+escape. But he was inflexible. Seeing, however, how excited I was, he
+tried to reassure me by telling me that Malgat would certainly not
+come, that he would not dare to expect an answer to such a letter."
+
+She pressed both her hands on her heart, as if to still its beating;
+and then continued, in a weak voice,--
+
+"Nevertheless, he came, and, seeing his hopes disappointed, he
+insisted upon speaking to us. The servants let him go up, and he
+entered. Ah! if I lived a thousand years, I should never forget that
+fearful scene. Feeling that all was lost, this thief, this defaulter,
+had become enraged; he demanded money. At first he asked for it on his
+knees in humble words; but, when he found that this did not answer, he
+suddenly rose in a perfect fury, his mouth foaming, his eyes
+bloodshot, and overwhelmed us with the coarsest insults. At last M.
+Elgin's patience gave out, and he rang for the servants. They had to
+employ force to drag him out; and, as they pushed him down stairs, he
+threatened us with his fist, and swore that he would be avenged."
+
+Miss Brandon shuddered till she appeared to be all in a quiver; and,
+for a moment, Daniel thought she was going to be ill. But she made an
+effort to overcome her weakness; and, in a more decided tone, she
+continued,--
+
+"Forty-eight hours passed; and the impression of this horrible scene
+began to fade from our minds, till it appeared like a bad dream. If we
+mentioned Malgat at all, it was with pity and contempt; for what could
+he do to us? Nothing, you will say. Even if he should dare to accuse
+us of some great crime, we thought no one would listen to him, and we
+should never hear of it. How could we imagine that the world would set
+to work doubting our honor upon the mere word of a wretch like him?
+
+"His crime had, in the meantime, become known; and all the papers were
+full of it, adding a number of more or less reliable stories. They
+exaggerated the sums he had stolen; and they said he had succeeded in
+escaping to England, and that the police had lost his traces in
+London.
+
+"I, poor girl, had nearly forgotten the whole matter.
+
+"He had really fled; but, before leaving Paris, he had succeeded in
+preparing everything for the vengeance which he had threatened. Where
+could he have found people mean enough to serve his purposes? and who
+were they? I do not know. Perhaps he did nothing more, as Mrs. Brian
+suggested, than to address two or three anonymous letters to some of
+our acquaintances, who he knew did not like us, or envied us.
+
+"At all events, in less than a week after his disappearance, it was
+reported everywhere, that I, Sarah Brandon, had been an accomplice of
+this defaulter, and, worse than that, that the sums he had stolen
+might easily be found, if a certain bureau in my bedchamber could be
+searched.
+
+"Yes, that is what they said, at first in a whisper and most
+cautiously, then louder, and finally openly, and before all the world.
+
+"Soon the papers took it up. They repeated the facts, arranging them
+to suit their purpose, and alluding to me in a thousand infamous
+innuendoes. They said that Malgat's defalcation was after the American
+style, and that it was perfectly natural he should go to a foreign
+country, after having been associated with a certain foreign lady."
+
+She had become crimson all over; her bosom rose; and shame,
+indignation, and resentment alternately appeared on her face, changing
+finally into an ardent desire of vengeance.
+
+"We, in the meantime," she continued, "quiet and safe in our honesty,
+did not even suspect these infamous proceedings. It is true, I had
+been struck by some strange whisperings, by curious looks and singular
+smiles, when I passed some of my friends; but I had not noticed them
+specially.
+
+"A paper which had been left at the house one afternoon, when we were
+out, showed us the true state of things. It was a summons. I was
+ordered to appear before a magistrate.
+
+"It was a thunderbolt. Mad with wrath and grief, M. Elgin swore I
+should not go, that he would most assuredly find out the authors of
+this infamous libel, and that, in the meantime, he would challenge and
+kill every one who dared repeat it.
+
+"In vain did Mrs. Brian and myself beseech him, on our knees, not to
+leave the house until he had grown cooler. He pushed us aside almost
+with brutality, and rushed out, taking with him the papers and letters
+written by Malgat.
+
+"We were at the end of our endurance, having suffered all the tortures
+of anxiety, when, at last, near midnight, M. Elgin returned, pale,
+exhausted, and distressed. He had found no one willing even to listen
+to him; everybody telling him that he was much too good to give a
+thought to such infamous reports; that they were too absurd to be
+believed."
+
+She nearly gave way, sobs intercepting her words; but she mastered her
+emotion, and continued,--
+
+"The next day I went to the court-house; and, after being kept waiting
+for a long time in a dark passage, I was brought before the
+magistrate. He was an elderly man, with hard features and piercing
+eyes, who received me almost brutally, as if I had been a criminal.
+But, when I had shown him the letters which you have just read, his
+manner suddenly changed, pity got the better of him; and I thought I
+saw a tear in his eye. Ah! I shall be eternally grateful to him for
+the words he said when I left his office,--
+
+"'Poor, poor young girl! Justice bows reverently before your
+innocence. Would to God that the world could be made to do the same!'"
+
+She fixed her eyes, trembling with fear and hope, upon Daniel, and
+added, in a voice of supplication and touching humility,--
+
+"The world has been more cruel than justice itself but you, sir, will
+you be harder than the magistrate?"
+
+Alas! Daniel was sorely embarrassed what to answer. He felt as if all
+his senses were in an uproar and in utter confusion.
+
+"Sir!" begged Miss Brandon again. "M. Champcey!"
+
+She continued to fix her eyes upon him. He turned his head aside,
+feeling as if, under her obstinate gaze, his mind left him, his energy
+evaporated, and all the fibres of his strong will were breaking.
+
+"Great God!" exclaimed Miss Brandon, with grieved surprise; "he still
+doubts me. Sir, I pray you, speak! Do you doubt the authenticity of
+these letters? Ah, if you do, take them; for I do not hesitate to
+confide them, the only proofs of my innocence, to your honor. Take
+them and show them to the other clerks who have been sitting for
+twenty years in the same office with Malgat; and they will tell you
+that it is his handwriting; that he has signed his own condemnation.
+And, if that is not enough for you, go to the magistrate who examined
+me; his name is Patrigent."
+
+And she waited, waited, but not a word came forth.
+
+Daniel had sunk, undone, into a chair; and his elbow resting on a
+small stand, his brow in his hands, he endeavored to think, to reason.
+Then Miss Brandon rose, came gently up to him, and taking his hand,
+said softly,--
+
+"I beseech you!"
+
+But as if suddenly electrified by the touch of this soft, warm hand,
+Daniel rose so hastily, that he upset the chair; and, trembling with
+mysterious terror, he cried out,--
+
+"Kergrist!"
+
+It was as if a fearful insult had set Miss Brandon on fire. Her face
+turned crimson, and then, almost instantly, livid; and, stepping back
+a little, she darted at Daniel a look of burning hatred.
+
+"Oh!" she murmured, "oh!" finding, apparently, no words to express all
+she felt.
+
+Was she going away? It looked as if she thought of it, for she walked
+to the door; but, suddenly changing her mind, she came back to where
+she had stood, facing Daniel.
+
+"This is the first time in my life," she said, trembling with rage,
+"that I condescend to justify myself against such infamous charges;
+and you abuse my patience by heaping insult after insult upon me. But
+never mind. I look upon you as upon Henrietta's husband; and, since I
+have commenced, I mean to finish."
+
+Daniel tried to say a few words of apology; but she interrupted him,--
+
+"Well, yes; one night a young man, Charles de Kergrist,--a profligate,
+a gambler, crowning his scandalous life with the vilest and meanest
+act,--did come and kill himself under my window. The next day a great
+outcry arose against me. Three days later the brother of that wretched
+madman, a M. Rene de Kergrist, came and held M. Elgin to account. But
+do you know what came of these explanations? Charles de Kergrist, it
+appears, killed himself after a supper, which he left in a state of
+drunkenness. He committed suicide because he had lost his fortune at
+Homburg and at Baden; because he had exhausted his last resources;
+because his family, ashamed at his disgrace, refused to acknowledge
+him any longer. And, if he chose my window for his self-murder, it was
+because he wanted to satisfy a petty grievance. Looking upon me as an
+heiress, whose fortune would enable him to continue his extravagant
+life, he had courted me, and been refused by M. Elgin. Finally, at the
+time when the catastrophe occurred, I was sixty miles away from here,
+in Tours, staying at the house of one of M. Elgin's friends, M.
+Palmer, who deposed"--
+
+And, as Daniel looked at her with an air of utter bewilderment, she
+added,--
+
+"Perhaps you will ask me for proofs of what I state. I have none to
+give you. But I know a man who can give you what you want, and that
+man is M. de Kergrist's brother; for, after those explanations, he has
+continued to be our friend, sir, one of our best friends. And he was
+here to-night, and you have seen him; for he came and spoke to me
+while you were standing by me. M. de Kergrist lives here in Paris; and
+M. Elgin will give you his address."
+
+She looked at Daniel with a glance in which pity and contempt were
+strangely mixed, and then added, in her proudest tone,--
+
+"And now, sir, since /I/ have deigned to stand here like a criminal,
+do you sit in judgment on me. Question me, and I will answer. What
+else are you going to charge me with?"
+
+A judge, however, ought to be calm; and Daniel was but too conscious
+of his deep excitement; he knew he could not even prevent his features
+from expressing his utter bewilderment. He gave up all discussion
+therefore, and simply said,--
+
+"I believe you, Miss Brandon, I believe you."
+
+Miss Brandon's beautiful eyes lighted up for a moment with joy; and in
+a tone of voice which sounded like the echo of her heart, she said,--
+
+"Oh, thank you, sir! now I am sure you will grant me Miss Henrietta's
+friendship."
+
+Why did she mention that name? It broke the charm which had overcome
+Daniel. He saw how weak he had been, and was ashamed of himself.
+
+He said sternly, thus proving his anger at himself, and the failure of
+his judgment,--
+
+"Permit me not to reply to that to-night. I should like to consider."
+
+She looked at him half stupefied.
+
+"What do you mean?" she said. "Have I, or have I not, removed your
+doubts, your insulting suspicions? Perhaps you wish to consult one of
+my enemies?"
+
+She spoke in a tone of such profound disdain, that Daniel, stung to
+the quick, forgot the discretion which he had intended to observe, and
+said,--
+
+"Since you insist upon it, Miss Brandon, I must confess that there is
+one doubt which you have not removed."
+
+"Which?"
+
+Daniel hesitated, regretting the words he had allowed to escape him.
+But he had gone too far now to retract. He replied,--
+
+"I do not understand, Miss Brandon, how you can marry Count Ville-
+Handry."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"You are young. You are immensely rich, you say. The count is sixty-
+six years old."
+
+She, who had been so daring that nothing seemed to be able to
+disconcert her, now lowered her head like a timid boarding-school girl
+who has been caught acting contrary to rules; and a flood of crimson
+spread over her face, and every part of her figure which was not
+concealed by her dress.
+
+"You are cruel, sir!" she stammered; "the secret into which you pry is
+one of those which a girl hardly dares to confide to her mother."
+
+He was triumphant, thinking he had caught her at last.
+
+"Ah, indeed!" he said ironically.
+
+But the proud young lady did not waver, and replied with bitter
+sadness,--
+
+"You will have it so; be it so. For your sake, I will lay aside that
+veil of proud reserve which conceals the mysteries of a young girl's
+heart. I do not love Count Ville-Handry."
+
+Daniel was startled. This confession seemed to him the height of
+imprudence.
+
+"I do not love him,--at least not with real love; and I have never
+allowed him to hope for such a feeling. Still I shall be most happy to
+become his wife. Do not expect me to explain to you what is going on
+within me. I myself hardly understand it as yet. I can give no precise
+name to that feeling of sympathy which attracts me towards him. I have
+been captivated by his wit and his kindness; his words have an
+indescribable charm for me. That is all I can tell you."
+
+Daniel could not believe his ears.
+
+"And," she continued, "if you must have motives of more ordinary
+character, I will confess to you that I can no longer endure this
+life, harassed as I am by vile calumnies. The palace of Count Ville-
+Handry appears to me an asylum, where I shall bury my disappointments
+and my sorrows, and where I shall find peace and a position which
+commands respect. Ah! you need not be afraid for that great and noble
+name. I shall bear it worthily and nobly, and shrink from no sacrifice
+to enhance its splendor. You may say that I am a calculating woman. I
+dare say /I/ am; but I see nothing mean or disgraceful in my hopes."
+
+Daniel had thought he had confounded her, and it was she who crushed
+him by her bold frankness; for there was nothing to say, no reasonable
+objection to make. Fifty marriages out of every hundred are made upon
+less high ground. Miss Brandon, however, was not a woman to be easily
+overcome. She rose as she spoke, to her former haughtiness, and
+inspired herself with the sound of her voice.
+
+"During the last two years," she said, "I have had twenty offers; and
+among them three or four that would have been acceptable to a duchess.
+I have refused them, in spite of M. Elgin and Mrs. Brian. Only
+yesterday, a man of twenty-five, a Gordon Chalusse, was here at my
+feet. I have sent him off like the others, preferring my dear count.
+And why?"
+
+She remained a moment buried in thought, her eyes swimming in tears;
+and, answering apparently her own questions, rather than Daniel's, she
+went on,--
+
+"Thanks to my beauty, as the world calls it, a fatal beauty, alas! I
+have been admired, courted, filled to satiety with compliments. They
+say I am in the most elegant and most polished society in Europe; and
+yet I have looked in vain for the man whose eye could for a moment
+even break the peace of my heart. I have seen everywhere only persons
+of like perfection, whose characters had no more wrinkles than the
+coat made by the first of tailors, all equally eager and gallant,
+playing well, talking well, dancing well, riding well."
+
+She shook her head with a movement full of energy; and, beaming with
+enthusiasm, she exclaimed,--
+
+"Ah! I had dreamed of better things to come. What I dreamed of was a
+man of noble heart, with an inflexible will, capable of attempting
+what others dared not,--what, I do not know, but something grand,
+perilous, impossible. I dreamed of one of those ambitious men with a
+pale brow, a longing look, whose eyes sparkle with genius,--one of
+those strong men who impose their will upon the multitude, and who
+remove mountains by the force of their will.
+
+"Alas! to repay the love of such a man, I would have found treasures
+in my heart, which now remain useless, like all the wealth that is
+buried at the bottom of the sea. I would have drunk deep from the cup
+of my hopes; my pulse would have kept time with the fever of his
+excitement. For his sake, I would have made myself small, humble,
+useful; I would have watched in his looks for the shadow of a desire.
+
+"But how proud I would have been, I, his wife, of his success and of
+his glories, of the reverence paid him by his admirers, and the hatred
+of his enemies!"
+
+Her voice had vibrations in it that might have stirred up the heart of
+a stoic. The splendor of her exalted beauty illumined the room.
+
+And gradually, one by one, Daniel's suspicions vanished, or fell to
+pieces like the ill-jointed pieces of an ancient armor. But Miss
+Brandon paused, ashamed of her vehemence, and continued more slowly,--
+
+"Now, sir, you know me better than any other person in this world. You
+alone have read the innermost heart of Sarah Brandon. And yet I see
+you today for the first time in my life. And yet you are the first man
+who has ever dared to speak harshly to me, harsh unto insult. Will you
+make me repent of my frankness? Oh, no, no! surely you will not be so
+cruel. I know you to be a man of honor and of high principles; I know
+how, in order to save a name which you revere, you have risked your
+prospects in life, the girl you love, and an enormous fortune. Yes,
+Miss Ville-Handry has made no ordinary choice."
+
+She looked as if she were utterly despondent, and added, in a tone of
+concentrated rage,--
+
+"And I, I know my fate."
+
+Then followed a pause, a terrible pause. They were standing face to
+face, pale, troubled, trembling with excitement, their teeth firmly
+set, their eyes eloquent with deep feeling.
+
+Daniel, as he felt the hot breath of this terrible passion, became
+almost unconscious of the surroundings; his mind was shaken; a
+mysterious delirium took possession of his senses; the blood rushed to
+his head; and he felt as if the beating at his temples was ringing in
+the whole house.
+
+"Yes," began at last Miss Brandon once more, "my fate is sealed. I
+must become the Countess of Ville-Handry, or I am lost. And once more,
+sir, I beseech you induce Miss Henrietta to receive me like an elder
+sister. Ah! if I were the woman you think I am, what would I care for
+Miss Henrietta and her enmity? You know very well that the count will
+go on at any hazard. And yet I beg,--I who am accustomed to command
+everywhere. What more can I do? Do you want to see me at your feet?
+Here I am."
+
+And really, as she said this, she sank down so suddenly, that her
+knees struck the floor with a noise; and, seizing Daniel's hands, she
+pressed them upon her burning brow.
+
+"Great God!" she sighed, "to be rejected, by him!"
+
+Her hair had become partially loosened, and fell in masses on Daniel's
+hands. He trembled from head to foot; and, bending over Miss Brandon,
+he raised her, and held her, half lifeless, while her head rested on
+his shoulder.
+
+"Miss Sarah," he said in a hoarse, low voice.
+
+They were so near to each other, that their breaths mingled, and
+Daniel felt Miss Brandon's sobs on his heart, burning him like fiery
+flames. Then, half drunk with excitement, forgetting every thing, he
+pressed his lips upon the lips of this strange girl.
+
+But she, starting up instantly, drew back, and cried,--
+
+"Daniel! unhappy man!"
+
+Then breaking out in sobs, she stammered,--
+
+"Go! I pray you go! I ask for nothing now. If I must be lost, I must."
+
+And he replied with terrible vehemence,--
+
+"Your will shall be done, Sarah; I am yours. You may count upon me."
+
+And he rushed out like a madman, down the staircase, taking three
+steps at once, and, finding the house-door open, out into the street.
+
+
+
+                                  X.
+
+It was a dark, freezing night; the sky was laden with clouds which
+hung so low, that they nearly touched the roofs of the houses; and a
+furious wind was shaking the black branches of the trees in the Champs
+Elysees, passing through the air like a fine dust of snow.
+
+Daniel rushed in feverish haste, like an escaped convict, headlong on,
+without aim or purpose, solely bent upon escaping. But, when he had
+gone some distance, the motion, the cold night-air, and the keen wind
+playing in his hair, restored him to consciousness. Then he became
+aware that he was still in evening costume, bareheaded, and that he
+had left his hat and his overcoat in Miss Brandon's house. Then he
+remembered that Count Ville-Handry was waiting for him in the great
+reception-room, together with M. Elgin and Mrs. Brian. What would they
+say and think? Unhappy man, in what a sad predicament he found
+himself!
+
+There might have been a way to escape from that hell; and he himself,
+in his madness, had closed it forever.
+
+Like one of those dissipated men who awake from the heavy sleep after
+a debauch, with dry mouth and weary head, he felt as if he had just
+been aroused from a singular and terrible dream. Like the drunkard,
+who, when he is sobered, tries to recall the foolish things he may
+have done under the guidance of King Alcohol, Daniel conjured up one
+by one all his emotions during the hour which he had just spent by
+Miss Brandon's side,--an hour of madness which would weigh heavily
+upon his future fate, and which alone contained in its sixty minutes
+more experiences than his whole life so far.
+
+At no time had he been so near despair.
+
+What! He had been warned, put on his guard, made fully aware of all of
+Miss Brandon's tricks; they had told him of the weird charm of her
+eyes; he himself had caught her that very evening in the open act of
+deceiving others.
+
+And in spite of all this, feeble and helpless as he was, he had let
+himself be caught by the fascinations of this strange girl. Her voice
+had made him forget every thing, every thing--even his dear and
+beloved Henrietta, his sole thought for so many years.
+
+"Fool!" he said to himself, "what have I done?"
+
+Unmindful of the blast of the tempest, and of the snow which had begun
+to fall, he had sat down on the steps of one of the grandest houses in
+Circus Street, and, with his elbows on his knees, he pressed his brow
+with his hands, as if hoping that he might thus cause it to suggest to
+him some plan of salvation. Conjuring up the whole energy of his will,
+he tried to retrace his interview with Miss Brandon in order to find
+out by what marvellous transformation it had begun as a terrible
+combat, and ended as a love-scene. And recalling thus to his memory
+all she had told him in her soft, sweet voice, he asked himself if she
+had not really been slandered; and, if there was actually something
+amiss in her past life, why should it not rather be laid at the door
+of those two equivocal personages who watched over her, M. Elgin and
+Mrs. Brian.
+
+What boldness this strange girl had displayed in her defence! but also
+what lofty nobility! How well she had said that she did not love Count
+Ville-Handry with real love, and that, until now, no man had even
+succeeded in quickening her pulse! Was she of marble, and susceptible
+only of delight in foolish vanity?
+
+Oh, no! a thousand times no! The most refined coquetry never achieved
+that passionate violence; the most accomplished artist never possessed
+that marvellous contagion which is the sublime gift of truth alone.
+And, whatever he could do, his head and heart remained still filled
+with Miss Brandon; and Daniel trembled as he remembered certain words
+in which, under almost transparent illusions, the secret of her heart
+had betrayed itself. Could she have told Daniel more pointedly than
+she had actually done, "He whom I could love is none other but you"?
+Certainly not! And as he thought of it his heart was filled with a
+sense of eager and unwholesome desires; for he was a man, no better,
+no worse, than other men; and there are but too many men nowadays, who
+would value a few hours of happiness with a woman like Miss Brandon
+more highly than a whole life of chaste love by the side of a pure and
+noble woman.
+
+"But what is that to me?" he repeated. "Can I love her, I?"
+
+Then he began again to revolve in his mind what might have happened
+after his flight from the house.
+
+How had Miss Brandon explained his escape? How had she accounted for
+her own excitement?
+
+And, drawn by an invincible power, Daniel had risen to return to the
+house; and there, half-hid under the shadow of the opposite side, in a
+deep doorway, he watched anxiously the windows, as if they could have
+told him any thing of what was going on inside. The reception-room was
+still brilliantly lighted, and people came and went, casting their
+shadows upon the white curtains. A man came and leaned his face
+against the window, then suddenly he drew back; and Daniel distinctly
+recognized Count Ville-Handry.
+
+What did that mean? Did it not imply that Miss Brandon had been taken
+suddenly ill, and that people were anxious about her? These were
+Daniel's thoughts when he heard the noise of bolts withdrawn, and
+doors opened. It was the great entrance-gate of Miss Brandon's house,
+which was thrown open by some of the servants. A low /coupe/ with a
+single horse left the house, and drove rapidly towards the Champs
+Elysees.
+
+But, at the moment when the /coupe/ turned, the light of the lamp fell
+full upon the inside, and Daniel thought he recognized, nay, he did
+recognize, Miss Brandon. He felt as if he had received a stunning blow
+on the head.
+
+"She has deceived me!" he exclaimed, grinding his teeth in his rage;
+"she has treated me like an imbecile, like an idiot!"
+
+Then, suddenly conceiving a strange plan, he added,--
+
+"I must know where she is going at four o'clock in the morning. I will
+follow her."
+
+Unfortunately, Miss Brandon's coachman had, no doubt, received special
+orders; for he drove down the avenue as fast as the horse could go,
+and the animal was a famous trotter, carefully chosen by Sir Thorn,
+who understood horse-flesh better than any one else in Paris. But
+Daniel was agile; and the hope of being able to avenge himself at once
+gave him unheard-of strength.
+
+"If I could only catch a cab!" he thought.
+
+But no carriage was to be seen. His elbows close to the body, managing
+his breath, and steadily measuring his steps, he succeeded in not only
+following the /coupe/, but in actually gaining ground. When Miss
+Brandon reached Concord Square, he was only a few yards behind the
+carriage. But there the coachman touched the horse, which suddenly
+increased its pace, crossed the square, and trotted down Royal Street.
+
+Daniel felt his breath giving out, and a shooting pain, first
+trifling, but gradually increasing, in his side. He was on the point
+of giving up the pursuit, when he saw a cab coming down towards him
+from the Madeleine, the driver fast asleep on the box. He threw
+himself before the horses, and cried out as well as he could,--
+
+"Driver, a hundred francs for you, if you follow that /coupe/ down
+there!"
+
+But the driver, suddenly aroused by a man who stood in the middle of
+the street, bareheaded, and in evening costume, and who offered him
+such an enormous sum, thought it was a practical joke attempted by a
+drunken man, and replied furiously,--
+
+"Look out, rascal! Get out of the way, or I drive over you!"
+
+And therewith he whipped his horses; and Daniel would have been driven
+over, if he had not promptly jumped aside. But all this had taken
+time; and, when he looked up, the /coupe/ was far off, nearly at the
+boulevard. To attempt overtaking it now would have been folly indeed;
+and Daniel remained there, overwhelmed and defeated.
+
+What could he do? It occurred to him that he might hasten to Maxime,
+and ask him for advice. But fate was against him; he gave up that
+idea. He went slowly back to his lodgings, and threw himself into an
+arm-chair, determined not to go to bed till he had found a way to
+extricate himself from the effects of his egregious folly.
+
+But he had now been for two days agitated by the extremest
+alternatives, like a man out at sea, whom the waves buffet, and throw
+--now up to the shore, and now back again into open water. He had not
+closed an eye for forty-eight hours; and, if the heart seems to be
+able to suffer almost indefinitely, our physical strength is strictly
+limited. Thus he fell asleep, dreaming even in his sleep that he was
+hard at work, and just about to discover the means by which he could
+penetrate the mystery of Miss Brandon.
+
+It was bright day when Daniel awoke, chilled and stiffened; for he had
+not changed his clothes when he came home, and his fire had gone out.
+His first impulse was one of wrath against himself. What! he succumbed
+so easily?--he, the sailor, who remembered very well having remained
+more than once for forty, and even once for sixty hours on deck, when
+his vessel was threatened by a hurricane? Had his peaceful and
+monotonous life in his office during the last two years weakened him
+to such a point, that all the springs of his system had lost their
+power?
+
+Poor fellow! he knew not that the direst fatigue /is/ trifling in
+comparison with that deep moral excitement which shakes the human
+system to its most mysterious depths. Nevertheless, while he hastened
+to kindle a large fire, in order to warm himself, he felt that the
+rest had done him good. The last evil effects of his excitement last
+night had passed away; the charm by which he had been fascinated was
+broken; and he felt once more master of all his faculties.
+
+Now his folly appeared to him so utterly inexplicable, that, if he had
+but tasted a glass of lemonade at Miss Brandon's house, he should have
+been inclined to believe that they had given him one of those drugs
+which set the brains on fire, and produce a kind of delirium. But he
+had taken nothing, and, even if he had, was the foolish act less real
+for that? The consequences would be fatal, he had no doubt.
+
+He was thus busy trying to analyze the future, when his servant
+entered, as he did every morning, bringing his hat and overcoat on his
+arm.
+
+"Sir," he said, with a smile which he tried to render malicious, "you
+have forgotten these things at the house where you spent the evening
+yesterday. A servant--on horseback too--brought them. He handed me at
+the same time this letter, and is waiting for an answer."
+
+Daniel took the letter, and for a minute or more examined the
+direction. The handwriting was a woman's, small and delicate, but in
+no ways like the long, angular hand of an American lady. At last he
+tore the envelope; and at once a penetrating but delicate perfume
+arose, which he had inhaled, he knew but too well, in Miss Brandon's
+rooms.
+
+The letter was indeed from her, and on the top of the page bore her
+name, Sarah, in small blue Gothic letters. She wrote,--
+
+
+ "Is it really so, O Daniel! that you are entirely mine, and that I
+  can count upon you? You told me so tonight. Do you still remember
+  your promises?"
+
+
+Daniel was petrified. Miss Brandon had told him that she was
+imprudence personified; and here she gave him a positive proof of it.
+
+Could not these few lines become a terrible weapon against her? Did
+they not admit the most extraordinary interpretation? Still, as the
+bearer might be impatient, the servant asked,--
+
+"What must I tell the man?"
+
+"Ah, wait!" answered Daniel angrily.
+
+And, sitting down at his bureau, he wrote to Miss Brandon,--
+
+
+ "Certainly, Miss Brandon, I remember the promises you extorted from
+  me when I was not master of myself; I remember them but too well."
+
+
+Suddenly an idea struck him; and he paused. What! Having been caught
+already in the very first trap she had prepared for his inexperience,
+was he to risk falling into a second? He tore the letter he had
+commenced into small pieces, and, turning to his servant, said,--
+
+"Tell the man that I am out; and make haste and get me a carriage!"
+
+Then, when he was once more alone, he murmured,--
+
+"Yes, it is better so. It is much better to leave Miss Brandon in
+uncertainty. She cannot even suspect that her driving out this morning
+has enlightened me. She thinks I am still in the dark; let her believe
+it."
+
+Still this letter of hers seemed to prepare some new intrigue, which
+troubled Daniel excessively. Miss Brandon was certain of achieving her
+end; what more did she want? What other mysterious aim could she have
+in view?
+
+"Ah! I cannot make it out," sighed Daniel. "I must consult Brevan."
+
+On his writing-table he found that important and urgent work which the
+minister had intrusted to his hands still unfinished. But the
+minister, the department, his position, his preferment,--all these
+considerations weighed as nothing in comparison with his passion.
+
+He went down, therefore; and, while his carriage drove to his friend's
+house, he thought of the surprise he would cause Maxime.
+
+When he arrived there, he found M. de Brevan standing in his shirt-
+sleeves before an immense marble table, covered all over with pots and
+bottles, with brushes, combs, and sponges, with pincers, polishers,
+and files, making his toilet.
+
+If he expected Daniel, he had not expected him so soon; for his
+features assumed an expression which seemed to prohibit all
+confidential talk. But Daniel saw nothing. He shook hands with his
+friend, and, sinking heavily into a chair, he said,--
+
+"I went to Miss Brandon. She has made me promise all she wanted. I
+cannot imagine how it came about!"
+
+"Let us hear," said M. de Brevan.
+
+Then, without hesitation, and with all the minutest details, Daniel
+told him how Miss Brandon had taken him into her little boudoir, and
+how she had exculpated herself from all complicity with Malgat by
+showing him the letters written by that wretched man.
+
+"Strange letters!" he said, "which, if they are authentic"--
+
+M. de Brevan shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"You were forewarned," he said, "and you have promised all she wanted!
+Do you not think she might have made you sign your own death-
+sentence?"
+
+"But Kergrist?" said Daniel. "Kergrist's brother is her friend."
+
+"I dare say. But do you imagine that brother is any cleverer than you
+are?"
+
+Although he was by no means fully satisfied, Daniel went on,
+describing his amazement when Miss Brandon told him that she did not
+love Count Ville-Handry.
+
+But Maxime burst out laughing, and interrupted him, saying with bitter
+irony,--
+
+"Of course! And then she went on, telling you that she had never yet
+loved anybody, having vainly looked in the world for the man of whom
+she dreamed. She painted to you the phoenix in such colors, that you
+had to say to yourself, 'What does she mean? That phoenix! Why, she
+means me!' That has tickled you prodigiously. She has thrown herself
+at your feet; you have raised her up; she has fainted; she has sobbed
+like a distressed dove in your arms; you have lost your head."
+
+Daniel was overcome. He stammered,--
+
+"How did you know?"
+
+Maxime could not look him in the face; but his voice was as steady as
+ever when he replied, in a tone of bitterest sarcasm,--
+
+"I guess it. Did I not tell you I knew Miss Brandon? She has only one
+card in her hand; but that is enough; it always makes a trick."
+
+To have been deceived, and even to have been rendered ridiculous, is
+one of those misfortunes which we confess to ourselves, however
+painful the process may be; but to hear another person laugh at us
+after such a thing has happened is more than we can readily bear.
+Daniel, therefore, did not conceal his impatience, and said rather
+dryly,--
+
+"If I have been the dupe of Miss Brandon, my dear Maxime, you see, at
+last, that I am so no longer."
+
+"Ah, ah!"
+
+"No, not in the least. And that, thanks to her; for she herself has
+destroyed my illusions."
+
+"Pshaw!"
+
+"Unconsciously, of course, having ran away from her like a fool, I was
+wandering about in the streets near her house, when I saw her come out
+in her /coupe/."
+
+"Oh, come!"
+
+"I saw her as distinctly as I see you. It was four o'clock in the
+morning, mind!"
+
+"Is it possible? And what did you do?"
+
+"I followed her."
+
+M. de Brevan nearly let the brush fall, with which he was polishing
+his finger-nails; but he mastered his confusion so promptly, that
+Daniel did not perceive it.
+
+"Ah! you followed her," he said in a voice which all his efforts could
+not steady entirely. "Then, of course, you know where she went."
+
+"Alas, no! She drove so fast, that, quick as I am, I could not follow
+her, and lost sight of her."
+
+Certainly M. de Brevan was breathing more freely, and said in an easy
+tone,--
+
+"That is provoking, and you have lost a fine opportunity. I am,
+however, by no means astonished that you are at last enlightened."
+
+"Oh! I am so; you may believe me. And yet"--
+
+"Well, yet?"
+
+Daniel hesitated, for fear of seeing another sardonic smile appear on
+Maxime's lips. Still making an effort, he replied,--
+
+"Well, I am asking myself whether all that Miss Brandon states about
+her childhood, her family, and her fortune, might not, after all, be
+true."
+
+Maxime looked like a sensible man who is forced to listen to the
+absurd nonsense of an insane person.
+
+"You think I am absurd," said Daniel. "Perhaps I am; but, then, do me
+the favor to explain to me how Miss Brandon, anxious as she must be to
+conceal her past, could herself point out to me the means to ascertain
+every thing about her, and even to learn the precise amount of her
+income? America is not so far off!"
+
+M. de Brevan's face no longer expressed astonishment; he looked
+absolutely bewildered.
+
+"What!" he cried out, "could you seriously think of undertaking a trip
+to America?"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"To be sure, my dear friend, you are, in all sincerity, too naive for
+our age. What! have you not yet been able to divine Miss Brandon's
+plan? And yet it is patent enough. When she saw you, and had taken
+your measure, she said to herself, 'Here is an excellent young man who
+is in my way, excessively in my way; he must go and breathe a better
+air a few thousand miles off.' And thereupon she suggested to you that
+pleasant trip to America."
+
+After what Daniel had learned about Miss Brandon's character, this
+explanation sounded by no means improbable. Nevertheless, he was not
+quite satisfied. He objected to it thus:--
+
+"Whether I go or stay, the wedding will still take place.
+Consequently, she has no interest in my being abroad. Believe me,
+Maxime, there is something else underneath. Outside of this marriage,
+Miss Brandon must be pursuing some other plan."
+
+"What plan?"
+
+"Ah! That is what I cannot find out, to save my life. But you may be
+sure that I am not mistaken. I want no better evidence of it than the
+fact that she wrote to me this morning."
+
+M. de Brevan jumped up, and said,--
+
+"What! She has written to you?"
+
+"Yes; it is that accursed letter, more than any thing else, that
+brings me here. Here it is, just read it; and, if you can understand
+it, you are more fortunate than I am."
+
+At one glance M. de Brevan had read the five lines which Miss Brandon
+had written; and, turning deadly pale, he said,--
+
+"This is incomprehensible. A note, and such an indiscreet note, from
+her who never writes!"
+
+He looked upon Daniel as if he wished to penetrate his innermost
+thoughts, and then asked him, weighing his words with the utmost
+care,--
+
+"If she should really love you, what would you say?"
+
+Daniel looked disgusted. He replied,--"It is hardly generous in you to
+make sport of me, Maxime. I may be a fool; but I am not an idiot, to
+be conceited to that degree."
+
+"That is no answer to my question," said Brevan; "and I repeat my
+question. What would you say?"
+
+"I would say that I execrate her!"
+
+"Oh! if you hate her so bitterly, you are very near loving her."
+
+"I despise her; and without esteem"--
+
+"That is an old story. That is no impediment."
+
+"Finally, you know how dearly, how ardently, I love Miss Ville-
+Handry."
+
+"Of course; but that is not the same thing."
+
+M. de Brevan had at last finished his careful toilet. He put on a
+dressing-gown; and, carrying Daniel with him into the small room which
+he used as a dressing-room, he asked,--
+
+"And what have you said in reply to that note?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+M. de Brevan had thrown himself into a comfortable chair, and assumed
+the careful air of a physician who has been consulted. He nodded, and
+said,--
+
+"You have done well, and for the future I advise you to pursue the
+same plan. Don't say a word. Can you do any thing to prevent Miss
+Brandon from carrying out her purposes? No! Let her go on, then."
+
+"But"--
+
+"Let me finish. It is not only your own interest to act thus, but also
+Miss Henrietta's interest. The day on which they part you, you will be
+inconsolable; but you will also be free to act. She, on the other
+hand, will be forced to live under the same roof with Miss Brandon;
+and you do not know what a stepmother can do to torture the child of
+her husband!"
+
+Daniel trembled. He had already thought of that; and the idea had made
+him shudder. Brevan continued,--
+
+"For the present, the most important thing is to find out how your
+flight has been explained. We may be able to draw our conclusions from
+what has been said on the subject."
+
+"I'll go at once and try to find out," said Daniel.
+
+And, after having affectionately shaken hands with Maxime, he hurried
+down to his carriage and drove as fast as he could to Count Ville-
+Handry's palace. The count was at home and alone, walking up and down
+in the most excited manner. And certainly he had enough to excite and
+preoccupy him just now. It was nearly noon; and he had not yet been in
+the hands of his valet. When he saw Daniel, he paused for a moment,
+and, crossing his arms on his breast, he said, in a terrible tone,--
+
+"Ah! here you are, M. Champcey. Well, you are doing nice things!"
+
+"I, count? How so?"
+
+"How so? Who else has overwhelmed poor Miss Sarah with insults at the
+very time when she was trying to explain every thing to you? Who else,
+ashamed of his scandalous conduct, has run away, never daring to
+reappear at her house?"
+
+What had the count been told? Certainly not the truth. He went on,--
+
+"And do you know, M. Champcey, what has been the effect of your
+brutality? Miss Brandon has been seized with such a terrible nervous
+attack, that they had to send the carriage for a doctor. You unlucky
+man, you might have killed her! They would, of course, never have
+allowed me to enter her own room; but from the reception-room I could
+at times hear her painful cries and sobs. It was only after eight
+o'clock this morning that she could get any rest; and then Mrs. Brian,
+taking pity on /my/ great grief, granted me the favor to see her,
+sleeping like an infant."
+
+Daniel listened, stupefied by amazement, utterly confounded by the
+impudence of Sir Thorn and Mrs. Brian, and hardly able to understand
+the count's astonishing credulity. He thought to himself,--
+
+"This is abominable! Here I am an accomplice of this Miss Brandon.
+Must I actually aid her in obtaining possession of this unlucky man?"
+
+But what could he do? Should he speak? Should he tell Count Ville-
+Handry, that if he really heard cries of pain, and sobs, they were
+certainly not uttered by Miss Brandon? Should he tell him, that, while
+he was dying with anxiety, his beloved was driving about Paris, Heaven
+knows where and with whom.
+
+The thought of doing so occurred to Daniel. But what would have been
+the good of it? Would the count believe him? Most probably not. And
+thus he would only add new difficulties to his position, which was
+already complicated enough. Finally, he saw very, clearly that he
+would never dare tell the whole truth, or show that letter which he
+had in his pocket. Still he tried to excuse himself, and began,--
+
+"I am too much of a gentleman to insult a woman."
+
+The count interrupted him rudely, saying,--
+
+"Spare me, I pray, a rigmarole which cannot affect me. Besides, I do
+not blame you particularly. I know the heart of man too well not to be
+sure, that, in acting thus, you have followed much less the
+inspirations of your own heart than the suggestions made by my
+daughter."
+
+It might have been very dangerous for Henrietta to allow the count to
+cherish such thoughts. Daniel, therefore, tried once more to explain.
+
+"I assure you, count"--
+
+But the count interrupted him fiercely, stamping with his foot.
+
+"No more! I mean to make an end to this absurd opposition, and to
+break it forever. Do they not know that I am master in my own house?
+and do they propose to treat me like a servant, and to laugh at me,
+into the bargain? I shall make you aware who is master."
+
+He checked himself for an instant, and then continued,--
+
+"Ah, M. Champcey! I did not expect that from you. Poor Sarah! To think
+that I could not spare her such a humiliation! But it is the last; and
+this very morning, as soon as she wakes, she shall know that all is
+ended. I have just sent for my daughter to tell her that the day for
+the wedding is fixed. All the formalities are fulfilled. We have the
+necessary papers"--
+
+He paused, for Henrietta came in.
+
+"You wish to speak to me, papa?" she said as she entered the room.
+
+"Yes."
+
+Greeting Daniel with a sweet glance of her eyes, Henrietta walked up
+to the count, and offered him her forehead to kiss; but he pushed her
+back rudely, and said, assuming an air of supreme solemnity,--
+
+"I have sent for you, my daughter, to inform you that to-morrow
+fortnight I shall marry Miss Brandon."
+
+Henrietta must have been prepared for something of the kind, for she
+did not move. She turned slightly pale; and a ray of wrath shot from
+her eyes. The count went on,--
+
+"Under these circumstances, it is not proper, it is hardly decent,
+that you should not know her who is to be your mother hereafter. I
+shall therefore present you to her this very day, in the afternoon."
+
+The young girl shook her head gently, and then she said,--
+
+"No!"
+
+Count Ville-Handry had become very red. He exclaimed,--
+
+"What! You dare! What would you say if I threatened to carry you
+forcibly to Miss Brandon's house?"
+
+"I, should say, father, that that is the only way to make me go
+there."
+
+Her attitude was firm, though not defiant. She spoke in a calm, gentle
+voice, but betrayed in every thing a resolution firmly formed, and not
+to be shaken by any thing. The count seemed to be perfectly amazed at
+this audacity shown by a girl who was usually so timid. He said,--
+
+"Then you detest, you envy, this Miss Brandon?"
+
+"I, father? Why should I? Great God! I only know that she cannot
+become the Countess Ville-Handry,--she who has filled all Paris with
+evil reports."
+
+"Who has told you so? No doubt, M. Champcey."
+
+"Everybody has told me, father."
+
+"So, because she has been slandered, the poor girl"--
+
+"I am willing to think she is innocent; but the Countess Ville-Handry
+must not be a slandered woman."
+
+She raised herself to her full height, and added in a higher voice,--
+
+"You are master here, father; you can do as you choose. But I--I owe
+it to myself and to the sacred memory of my mother, to protest by all
+the means in my power; and I shall protest."
+
+The count stammered and stared. The blood rose to his head. He cried
+out,--
+
+"At last I know you, Henrietta, and I understand you. /I/ was not
+mistaken. It was you who sent M. Daniel Champcey to Miss Brandon, to
+insult her at her own house."
+
+"Sir!" interrupted M. Daniel in a threatening tone.
+
+But the count could not be restrained; and, with his eyes almost
+starting from their sockets, he continued,--
+
+"Yes, I read your innermost heart, Henrietta. You are afraid of losing
+a part of your inheritance."
+
+Stung by this insult, Henrietta had stepped up close to her father,--
+
+"But don't you see, father, that it is this woman who wants your
+fortune, and that she does not like us, and cannot like us?"
+
+"Why, if you please?"
+
+Once before, Count Ville-Handry had asked this question of his
+daughter in almost the same words. Then she had not dared answer him;
+but now, carried away by her bitterness at being insulted by a woman
+whom she despised, she forgot every thing. She seized her father's
+hand, and, carrying him to a mirror, she said in a hoarse voice,--
+
+"'Why?'--you ask. Well, look there! look at yourself!"
+
+If Count Ville-Handry had trusted nature, he would have looked like a
+man of barely sixty, still quite robust and active. But he had allowed
+art to spoil every thing. And this morning, with his few hairs, half
+white, half dyed, with the rouge and the white paint of yesterday
+cracked, and fallen away in places, he looked as if he had lived a few
+thousand years.
+
+Did he see himself as he really was,--hideous?
+
+He certainly became livid; and coldly, for his excessive rage gave him
+the appearance of composure, he said,--
+
+"You are a wretch, Henrietta!"
+
+And as she broke out in sobs, terrified by his words, he said,--
+
+"Oh, don't play comedy! Presently, at four o'clock precisely, I shall
+call for you. If I find you dressed, and ready to accompany me to Miss
+Brandon's house, all right. If not M. Champcey has been here for the
+last time in his life; and you will never--do you hear?--never be his
+wife. Now I leave you alone; you can reflect!"
+
+And he went out, closing the door so violently, that the whole house
+seemed to shake.
+
+"All is over!"
+
+Both Henrietta and Daniel were crushed by this certain conviction.
+
+The crisis could no longer be postponed. A few hours more, and the
+mischief would be done. Daniel was the first to shake off the stupor
+of despair; and, taking Henrietta's hand, he asked her,--
+
+"You have heard what your father said. What will you do?"
+
+"What I said I would do, whatever it may cost me."
+
+"But could you yield?"
+
+"Yield?" exclaimed the young girl.
+
+And, looking at Daniel with grieved surprise, she added,--
+
+"Would you really dare give me that advice,--you who had only to look
+at Miss Brandon to lose your self-control so far as to overwhelm her
+with insults?"
+
+"Henrietta, I swear"--
+
+"And this to such an extent, that father accused you of having done so
+at my bidding. Ah, you have been very imprudent, Daniel!"
+
+The unhappy man wrung his hands with despair. What punishment he had
+to endure for a moment's forgetfulness! He felt as if he had rendered
+himself guilty already by not revealing the mean conduct of M. Elgin
+and Mrs. Brian while Miss Brandon was driving about Paris. And now, at
+this very hour, he was put into a still more difficult position,
+because he could not even give a glimpse of the true state of things.
+
+He said nothing; and Henrietta gloried in his silence.
+
+"You see," she said, "that if your heart condemns me, your reason and
+your conscience approve of my decision."
+
+He made no reply, but, rising suddenly, he began to walk up and down
+in the room like a wild beast searching for some outlet from the cage
+in which it has been imprisoned. He felt he was caught, hemmed in on
+all sides, and he could do nothing, nothing at all.
+
+"Ah, we must surrender!" he exclaimed at last, overcome with grief;
+"we must do it; we are almost helpless. Let us give up the struggle;
+reason demands it. We have done enough; we have done our duty."
+
+All trembling with passion, he spoke on for some time, bringing up the
+most conclusive arguments, one by one; while his love lent him all its
+persuasive power. And at last it looked as if Henrietta's
+determination were giving way, and she began to hesitate. It was so;
+but she was still struggling against her own emotion, and said in a
+half-suppressed tone,--
+
+"No doubt, Daniel, you think I am not yet wretched enough."
+
+And then, fixing upon him a long, anxious glance, she added,--
+
+"Say no more, or I shall begin to fear that you are dreading the time
+which has still to elapse till we can be united, and that you doubt me
+--or yourself."
+
+He blushed, finding himself thus half detected; but, given up entirely
+to sinister presentiments, he insisted,--
+
+"No, I do not doubt; but I cannot reconcile myself to the idea that
+you are going to live under the same roof with Miss Brandon, M. Elgin,
+and Mrs. Brian. Since this abominable adventuress must triumph, let us
+flee. I have in Anjou an old respectable kinswoman, who will be very
+proud to offer you her hospitality."
+
+Henrietta stopped him by a gesture. Then she said,--
+
+"In other words, I who risk my happiness in order to avoid a blot upon
+the name of Ville-Handry, I should tarnish it in an almost
+ineffaceable manner. That cannot be."
+
+"Henrietta!"
+
+"No more. I stand upon a post of honor which I shall not abandon. The
+more formidable Miss Brandon is, the more it becomes my duty to remain
+here in order to watch over my father."
+
+Daniel trembled.
+
+He remembered suddenly what M. de Brevan had told him of the means
+employed by Miss Brandon for the purpose of getting rid of troublesome
+people. Did Henrietta's instincts make her anticipate a crime? No, not
+such a crime, at least.
+
+"You will understand my decision all the better," she continued, "if I
+tell you what a strange discovery I have made. This morning a
+gentleman called here, who said he was a business-man, and had an
+appointment with Count Ville-Handry which was of the utmost
+importance.
+
+"The servants had told him that their master was out. He became angry,
+and began to talk so loud, that I came to see what was the matter.
+When he saw me, and found out who I was, he at once became very quiet,
+and begged me to take charge of a rough copy of a legal paper, which
+he had been directed to prepare secretly, and which he desired me to
+hand to my father.
+
+"I promised to do so; but, as I was carrying the paper up stairs to
+put it upon my father's bureau, I happened to look at it. Do you know
+what it was? The statutes of a new society, of which father was to be
+president."
+
+"Great God! Is it possible?"
+
+"Most assuredly, unfortunately. I saw on the top of the paper, 'Count
+Ville-Handry, director in chief' and after the name followed all his
+titles, the high offices he has filled, and the French and foreign
+decorations which he has received."
+
+Daniel could no longer doubt. He said,--
+
+"We knew that they would try to obtain possession of your father's
+fortune, and now we have the proof of it. But what can we ever do,
+Henrietta, against the cunning manoeuvres of people like these?"
+
+She bowed her head, and answered in a tone of resignation,--
+
+"I have heard it said that often the mere presence of an inoffensive
+child is sufficient to intimidate and frighten away the boldest
+criminals. If God wills it so, I will be that child."
+
+Daniel tried once more to insist; but she cut him short, saying,--
+
+"You forget, my dear friend, that this is, perhaps for many years, the
+last time we shall ever be alone together. Let us think of the future.
+I have secured the confidence of one of my waiting-women, and to her
+you must direct your letters. Her name is Clarissa Pontois. If any
+grave and unforeseen necessity should arise, and it becomes absolutely
+necessary for me to see you, Clarissa will bring you the key of the
+little garden-gate, and you will come."
+
+Both of them had their eyes filled with tears; and their hearts felt
+increasing anguish as the hand on the dial advanced. They knew they
+would have to part. Could they hope ever to meet again?
+
+It struck four o'clock. Count Ville-Handry reappeared. Stung to the
+quick by what he called the insulting remarks of his daughter, he had
+stimulated the zeal of his valet; and that artist had evidently
+surpassed himself in the arrangement of the hair, and especially in
+the complexion.
+
+"Well, Henrietta?" he asked.
+
+"My decision remains unchanged, father."
+
+The count was probably prepared for this answer; for he succeeded in
+controlling his fury.
+
+"Once more, Henrietta," he said, "consider! Do not decide rashly,
+relying simply upon odious slanders."
+
+He drew from his pocket a photograph, looked at it lovingly, and,
+handing it to his daughter, he added,--
+
+"Here is Miss Brandon's portrait. Look at it, and see if she to whom
+God has given such a charming face, such sublime eyes, can have a bad
+heart."
+
+For more than a minute Henrietta examined the likeness; and then,
+returning it to her father, she said coldly,--
+
+"This woman is beautiful beyond all conception. Now I can explain to
+myself that new society of which you are going to be director-
+general."
+
+Count Ville-Handry turned pale under this "juncture," and cried in a
+terrible voice,--
+
+"Unhappy child! Unhappy child! You dare insult an angel?"
+
+Maddened with rage, he had lifted up his hand, and was about to strike
+his daughter, when Daniel seized his wrist in his iron grasp, and
+threateningly, as if he himself was about to strike, he said,--
+
+"Ah, sir, have a care! have a care!"
+
+The count cast upon him a look of concentrated hatred; but, regaining
+his self-control, he freed himself, and, pointing at the door, he said
+slowly,--
+
+"M. Champcey, I order you to leave this house instantly; and I forbid
+your ever coming back to it again. My servants will be informed, that,
+if any one of them ever allows you to cross the threshold of this
+house, he will be instantly dismissed. Go, sir!"
+
+
+
+                                 XI.
+
+Twenty-four hours after Daniel had thus left Count Ville-Handry's
+palace, pale and staggering, he had not yet entirely recovered from
+this last blow. He had made a mortal enemy of the man whom it was his
+greatest interest to manage; and this man, who of his own accord would
+have parted with him only regretfully, had now turned him
+disgracefully out of his house.
+
+He could hardly account to himself for the way in which this had come
+about. Nay, more; retracing step by step, his conduct during the last
+few days, it appeared to him pitiful, absurd. And then all that had
+happened seemed to have turned against him.
+
+He accused Fate, that blind goddess, who is always blamed by those who
+have not the courage to blame themselves. He was in this state of mind
+when there came to him, to his great surprise, a letter from
+Henrietta. Thus it was she who anticipated him, and who, sure that he
+would be desperate, had the feminine delicacy to write to him almost
+cheerfully.
+
+
+ "Immediately after your departure, my dear Daniel, father ordered
+  me up stairs, and decided that I should stay there till I should
+  become more reasonable. I know I shall stay here a long time."
+
+
+She concluded thus,--
+
+
+ "What we want most of all, oh, my only friend! is courage. Will you
+  have as much as your Henrietta?"
+
+
+"Oh, certainly, certainly! I shall have all that is needed," exclaimed
+Daniel, moved to tears.
+
+And he vowed to himself that he would devote himself, heart and soul,
+to his work, and there find, if not forgetfulness, at least peace. He
+found, however, that to swear was easier than to do. In spite of all
+his efforts, he could not fix his thoughts upon any thing else but his
+misfortunes. The studies which he had formerly pursued with delight
+now filled him with disgust. The balance of his whole life was so
+completely destroyed, that he was not able to restore it.
+
+The existence which he now led was that of a desperate man. As soon as
+he had risen, he hurried to M. de Brevan, and remained in his company
+as long as he could. Left alone, he wandered at haphazard along the
+Boulevards, or up the Champs Elysees. He dined early, hurried home
+again, and, putting on a rough overcoat which he had worn on board
+ship, he went to roam around the palace of his beloved.
+
+There, behind those heavy, beautifully carved gates, which were open
+to all comers but to him, lived she who was more to him than his life.
+If he had struck the flagstones of the sidewalk with the heel of his
+boots, she would have heard the sound. He could hear the music of her
+piano; and yet the will of one man placed an abyss between them.
+
+He was dying of inaction. It seemed to him atrocious, humiliating,
+intolerable, to be thus reduced to expecting good or evil fortune from
+fate, passively, without making an effort, like a man, who having
+taken a ticket in a lottery, and is all anxiety to obtain a large
+fortune, crosses his arms and waits for the drawing.
+
+He was suffering thus for six days, and saw no end of it; when one
+morning, just as he was going out, his bell rang. He went to open the
+door.
+
+It was a lady, who, without saying a word, swiftly walked in, and as
+promptly shut the door behind her.
+
+Although she was wrapped up in a huge cloak which completely hid her
+figure, in spite of the very thick veil before her face, Daniel
+recognized her at once.
+
+"Miss Brandon!" he exclaimed.
+
+In the meantime she had raised her veil, "Yes, it is I," she replied,
+"risking another calumny in addition to all the others that have been
+raised against me, Daniel."
+
+Amazed at a step which seemed to him the height of imprudence, he
+remained standing in the anteroom, and did not even think of inviting
+Miss Brandon to go into the next room, his study.
+
+She went in of her own accord, quite aloof; and, when he had followed
+her, she said to him,--
+
+"I came, sir, to ask you what you have done with that promise you gave
+me the other night at my house?"
+
+She waited a moment; and, as he did not reply, she went on,--
+
+"Come, I see you are like all men, if they pledge their word to
+another man, who is a match for them, they consider it a point of
+honor to keep it, but if it is a woman, then they do not keep it, and
+boast of it!"
+
+Daniel was furious; but she pretended not to see it, and said more
+coldly,--
+
+"I--I have a better memory than you, sir; and I mean to prove it to
+you. I know what has happened at Count Ville-Handry's house; he has
+told me all. You have allowed yourself to be carried away so far as to
+threaten him, to raise your hand against him."
+
+"He was going to strike his daughter, and I held his arm."
+
+"No, sir! my dear count is incapable of such violence; and yet his own
+daughter had dared to taunt him with his weakness, pretending that he
+had been induced by me to establish a new industrial company."
+
+Daniel said nothing.
+
+"And you," continued Miss Brandon,--"you allowed Miss Henrietta to say
+all these offensive and absurd things. I should induce the count to
+engage in an enterprise where money might be lost! Why? What interest
+could I have?"
+
+Her voice began to tremble; and her beautiful eyes filled with tears.
+
+"Interest!" she went on to say, "money! The world can think of no
+other motive nowadays. Money! I have enough of it. If I marry the
+count, you know why I do it,--you! And you also know that it depended,
+and perhaps, at this moment, still depends upon one single man,
+whether I shall break off that match this very day, now."
+
+As she said this, she looked at him in a manner which would have
+caused a statue to tremble on its marble pedestal.
+
+But he, with his heart full of hatred, remained icy, enjoying the
+revenge which was thus presented to him.
+
+"I will believe whatever you wish to say," he answered in a mocking
+tone, "if you will answer me a single question."
+
+"Ask, sir."
+
+"The other night, when I had left you, where did you go in your
+carriage?"
+
+He expected to see her confused, turning pale, stammer. Not at all.
+
+"What, you know that?" she said, with an accent of admirable candor.
+"Ah! I committed an act of almost as great imprudence as I now do. If
+some fool should see me leave your rooms?"
+
+"Pardon me, Miss Brandon, that is no answer to my question. Where did
+you go?"
+
+And as she kept silent, surprised by Daniel's firmness, he said
+sneeringly,--
+
+"Then you confess that it would be madness to believe you? Let us
+break off here, and pray to God that I may be able to forget all the
+wrong you have done me."
+
+Miss Brandon's beautiful eyes filled with tears of grief or of rage.
+She folded her hands, and said in a suppliant tone,--
+
+"I conjure you, M. Champcey, grant me only five minutes. I must speak
+to you. If you knew"--
+
+He could not turn her out; he bowed profoundly before her, and
+withdrew into his bedroom, closing the door behind him. But he
+immediately applied his eye to the keyhole, and saw Miss Brandon, her
+features convulsed with rage, threaten him with her closed hand, and
+leave the room hastily.
+
+"She was going to dig another pit for me," thought Daniel.
+
+And the idea that he had avoided it made him, for a part of that day
+at least, forget his sorrow. But on the following day he found, when
+he returned home, a formidable document from the navy department, and
+inside two letters.
+
+One informed him that he had been promoted to be a lieutenant.
+
+The other ordered him to report four days hence at Rochefort, on board
+the frigate "Conquest," which was lying in the roadstead waiting for
+two battalions of marines to be transferred to Cochin China.
+
+Daniel had for long years, and with all the eager ambition of a young
+man, desired the promotion which he now obtained. That rank had been
+the supreme goal of all his dreams since the day on which he learned
+at the navy school the rudiments of his perilous vocation. How often,
+as he stood leaning against the monkey-railing, and saw boats passing
+by which carried officers, had he said to himself,--
+
+"When I am a navy lieutenant!"
+
+Well, now he was a lieutenant. But alas! his wishes, thus realized,
+filled him only with disgust and bitterness, like those golden apples,
+which, at a distance, shine brightly in the branches of magic trees,
+and under the touch of the hand turn into dust and ashes.
+
+For with the news of his promotion came also the fatal order to a
+distant shore. Why did they send such an order to him, who had at the
+department an office in which he could render valuable services, while
+so many of his comrades, waiting idly in port, watched anxiously, and
+with almost feverish impatience, for a chance to go into active
+service?
+
+"Ah!" he said to himself, his heart filled with rage, "how could I
+fail to recognize in this abominable treachery Miss Brandon's cunning
+hand?"
+
+First she had closed against him the gates of Count Ville-Handry's
+palace, and thus separated him from his beloved Henrietta, so that
+they could not meet nor speak to each other.
+
+But this was not enough for the accursed adventuress. She wanted to
+raise a barrier between them which should be more than a mere moral
+and social obstacle, one of those difficulties which no human power,
+no lover's ingenuity, could overcome,--the ocean and thousands of
+miles.
+
+"Oh, no!" he cried in his anguish, "a thousand times no! Rather give
+up my career, rather send in my resignation."
+
+Hence, the very next day, he put on his uniform, determined to lay the
+matter, first before that officer who was his immediate superior, but
+resolved, if he should not succeed there, to go up to the minister
+himself.
+
+He had never worn that uniform since the night of a large court-ball,
+where he had danced with Henrietta. It was nearly a year ago, a few
+weeks before the death of the Countess Ville-Handry. As he compared
+his happiness in those days with his present desperate condition, he
+was deeply moved; and his eyes were still brimful of tears when he
+reached the navy department, towards ten o'clock in the morning.
+
+The officer whom he called upon was an old captain, an excellent man,
+who had practised the appearance of a grim, stern official so long,
+that he had finally become in reality what he only wished to appear.
+
+Seeing Daniel enter his office, he thought he came to inform him of
+his promotion, and made a great effort to smile as he hailed him with
+the words,--
+
+"Well, Lieut. Champcey, we are satisfied, I hope?"
+
+And, perceiving that Daniel did not wear the epaulets of his new rank,
+he added,--
+
+"But how is that, lieutenant? Perhaps you have not heard yet?"
+
+"I beg your pardon, captain."
+
+"Why on earth, then, have you no epaulets?"
+
+And he began to frown terribly, considering that such carelessness
+augured ill for the service. Daniel excused himself as well as he
+could, which was very little, and then boldly approached the purpose
+of his call.
+
+"I have received an order for active service."
+
+"I know,--on board 'The Conquest,' in the roadstead at Rochefort, for
+Cochin China."
+
+"I have to be at my post in four days."
+
+"And you think the time too short? It is short. But impossible to
+grant you ten minutes more."
+
+"I do not ask for leave of absence, captain; I want the favor--to be
+allowed to keep my place here."
+
+The old officer could hardly keep his seat.
+
+"You would prefer not going on board ship," he exclaimed, "the very
+day after your promotion? Ah, come, you are mad!"
+
+Daniel shook his head sadly.
+
+"Believe me, captain," he replied, "I obey the most imperative duty."
+
+Leaning back in his chair, his eyes fixed on the ceiling, the captain
+seemed to look for such a duty; then he asked suddenly,--
+
+"Is it your family that keeps you?"
+
+"If my place can really not be filled by one of my comrades, I shall
+be compelled to send in my resignation."
+
+The old sailor bounded as he heard that word, and said furiously,--
+
+"I told you you were a fool!"
+
+In spite of his determination, Daniel was too much troubled not to
+commit a blunder. He insisted,--
+
+"It is a matter of life and death with me, captain. And if you only
+knew my reasons; if I could tell them"--
+
+"Reasons which cannot be told are always bad reasons, sir. I insist
+upon what I have told you."
+
+"Then, captain, I shall be compelled, to my infinite sorrow, to insist
+upon offering my resignation."
+
+The old sailor's brow became darker and darker. He growled.
+
+"Your resignation, your resignation! You talk of it very lightly. It
+remains to be seen whether it will be accepted. 'The Conquest' does
+not sail on a pleasure-party; she is sent out on a serious campaign,
+and will probably be absent for some time. We have unpleasant
+complications down there and are sending out reinforcements. You are
+still in France; but you are actually under orders to meet the enemy;
+Men do not resign in the face of the enemy, Lieut. Champcey!"
+
+Daniel had turned very pale.
+
+"You are severe, captain," he said.
+
+"I have no idea, I assure you, of being gentle; and, if that can
+induce you to change your mind"--
+
+"Unfortunately, I cannot alter my decision."
+
+The old sailor rose violently, and walked up and down the room several
+times, giving vent to his anger in oaths of various kinds; then he
+returned to Daniel, and said in his driest tone,--
+
+"If that is so, the case is serious; I must report it to the secretary
+of the navy. What time is it? Eleven o'clock. Come here again at half-
+past twelve. I shall have settled the matter then."
+
+Quite certain that his superior would say nothing in his favor, Daniel
+retired, walking hurriedly through the narrow passages, when a joyous
+voice hailed him, calling out, "Champcey!"
+
+He turned, and found himself face to face with two of his comrades,
+with whom he had been most intimate at school. They said eagerly,--
+
+"So you are our superior now?"
+
+And, with the utmost sincerity, they began to congratulate him,
+delighted, as they said, that such good luck should have fallen upon a
+man like him, whom everybody thought worthy of the distinction, and
+who reflected honor upon the service. No enemy could have inflicted
+such suffering upon Daniel as these two friends did. There was not one
+of their good wishes which did not amount to a bitter sarcasm; every
+word they said told upon him.
+
+"You must confess, however," they continued, "that you are a lucky
+man, like no other. One day you are made a lieutenant; and the next
+day they offer you active service. The next time we meet, you will be
+a captain in command of a frigate."
+
+"I am not going out," replied Daniel, fiercely. "I have handed in my
+resignation."
+
+And, leaving his two friends looking utterly amazed, he went away at a
+rapid pace.
+
+Certainly, he had not foreseen all these difficulties; and in his
+blind wrath he charged his chief with injustice and tyranny. He
+said,--
+
+"I must stay in Paris; and I will stay."
+
+Reflection, far from calming him, only excited him the more. Having
+left home with the intention of offering his resignation only in an
+extreme case, he was now determined to adhere to his plan, even if
+they should offer him full satisfaction. Had he not an ample income of
+his own? and could he not always find an honorable occupation? That
+would be far better than to continue in a profession where one is
+never his own master, but lives eternally under the dread of some
+order that may send him, at a moment's warning, to heaven knows what
+part of the world.
+
+That was the way he reasoned with himself while breakfasting at a
+tavern not far off; and when he returned to the department, a little
+after twelve, he looked upon himself as already no longer belonging to
+the navy, and in his imagination caring little for the final decision.
+
+It was the hour for receptions, when everybody who had any business at
+the department came to look after his interests; and the anteroom was
+filled with officers of every grade, some in uniform, others in
+citizen's dress.
+
+The conversation was very animated; for Daniel heard the sounds from
+the outer passage.
+
+He entered; and there was silence,--sudden, deep, chilling silence.
+
+Evidently they had been talking about him.
+
+Even if he could have doubted it for a moment, he read it in the faces
+turned aside, the forced smiles, and the cautious glances with which
+he was received. He thought, very much troubled,--
+
+"What can this mean?"
+
+In the meantime a young man in citizen's dress, whom he did not know,
+called out from one side of the room to the other, to an old officer
+in a seedy uniform, with blackened epaulets (a real sea-dog), lean,
+bronzed, wrinkled, and with eyes bearing the traces of recent
+ophthalmy,--
+
+"Why do you stop, lieutenant? We were much interested, I assure you."
+
+The lieutenant seemed to hesitate, as if he were making up his mind to
+do a disagreeable thing, which still did not depend on his choice; and
+then he resumed his account,--
+
+"Well, we got there, convinced that we had taken all the necessary
+precautions, and that there was, consequently, nothing to fear,--fine
+precautions they turned out to be! In the course of a week the whole
+crew was laid up; and as to the staff, little Bertram and I were the
+only officers able to appear on deck. Moreover, my eyes were in a
+state. You see what they say now. The captain was the first to die;
+the same evening five sailors followed suit, and seven the next day;
+the day after the first lieutenant and two of the noncommissioned
+officers. The like was never seen before."
+
+Daniel turned to his neighbor.
+
+"Who is that officer?" he asked.
+
+"Lieut. Dutac of 'The Valorous,' just returned from Cochin China."
+
+Light broke upon Daniel's mind; it was a painful light.
+
+"When did 'The Valorous' come in?" he asked again.
+
+"Six days ago she made the harbor of Brest."
+
+The other man went on,--
+
+"And thus, you see, we left a goodly portion of our crew out there.
+That is a campaign! As to my own notions, this is what I think,--a
+nasty country, a wretched climate, a people fit for the gallows."
+
+"Certainly," said the young man in citizen's dress, "things are not
+pleasant in Cochin China."
+
+"Ah, but still"--
+
+"What if you were ordered back?"
+
+"I would go, of course. Somebody must go, you know, and carry
+reinforcements there; but I should not care if somebody else"--
+
+He shrugged his shoulders, and said stoically,--
+
+"And besides, since we navy men must be eaten by the fish some time or
+other, it does not matter very much when that takes place."
+
+Was not that, in a trivial, but terribly impressive manner, precisely
+the same thing that Daniel had been told by his captain? People do not
+resign when they face the enemy.
+
+It was very evident that the officers who were there assembled doubted
+his courage, and were discussing the fact when he entered. It was
+clear that they attributed his resignation to fear.
+
+At this idea, that he might be suspected of cowardice, Daniel trembled
+all over. What could he do to prove that he was not a coward? Should
+he challenge every one of these men, and fight one, two, ten duels?
+Would that prove that he had not shrunk from the unknown perils of a
+new country, from the dangers of an armed invasion, and a fatal
+climate? No; unless he was willing to remain a marked man for life, he
+must go; yes, go, since out there dangers awaited him of which he was
+held to be afraid.
+
+He went up, therefore, to the old lieutenant, and said, in a voice
+loud enough to be heard by every one in the room,--
+
+"My good comrade, I had just been ordered to the place you come from,
+and I had sent in my resignation; but after what you have said,--
+things I knew nothing of,--I shall go."
+
+There was a murmur of approbation. And one voice said, "Ah! I was sure
+of it!" and that was all. But it was quite enough to prove to Daniel
+that he had chosen the only way to save his honor, which had been in
+imminent peril. But, simple as the whole scene was in itself, it was
+very extraordinary, in view of the usual reserve which prevails among
+sailors. And, besides, does it not happen almost every day, that an
+officer ordered to some station requests and obtains leave to exchange
+with some one else, and nothing is said?
+
+Daniel felt that underneath the whole affair there was some diabolic
+intrigue. If Miss Brandon had really procured this order to active
+service, was it not likely that she would have taken her measures, so
+that he could not possibly avoid going? Were all these men in
+citizen's dress whom he saw there really navy officers? The young man
+who had asked Lieut. Dutac to go on in his story had disappeared.
+Daniel went from one to the other, inquiring who that clever young man
+was, but in vain. Soon a summons came for him to appear in the
+superior's office. He hastened there; and, as he opened the door, he
+said,--
+
+"I'll follow your advice, captain. In three days I shall be on board
+'The Conquest.'"
+
+The captain's stern face cleared up, and he said approvingly,--
+
+"All right! You did well to change your mind; for your business began
+to look very ugly. The minister is very angry with you."
+
+"The minister? And why?"
+
+"/Primo/, he had charged you with a very important duty."
+
+"To be sure," stammered Daniel, hanging his head; "but I have been so
+severely suffering!"
+
+The fact is, he had totally forgotten that unlucky work.
+
+"/Secundo/," continued the old officer, "he was doubtful whether you
+were in your right senses, and I agree with him, since he has told me
+that you yourself have solicited this appointment on foreign service
+in the most urgent terms."
+
+Daniel was stunned, and stammered out,--
+
+"His Excellency is mistaken."
+
+"Ah! I beg your pardon, M. Champcey; I have myself seen your letter."
+
+But already a sudden inspiration had, like a flash of lightning,
+cleared up the mystery in Daniel's mind.
+
+"Ah! I wish I could see it too! Captain, I beseech you show me that
+letter!"
+
+The old officer began almost to think that Champcey was really not in
+his right mind. He answered,--
+
+"I do not have it; but it is among your papers in the bureau for
+Personal Affairs."
+
+In a minute Daniel was in the office where those papers were kept, and
+obtained, not without much trouble, and under certain conditions only,
+leave to look at his papers. He opened the parcel with feverish haste;
+and the very first paper that fell in his hands was a letter, dated
+the day before, in which he urgently requested the minister to grant
+him the special favor of being sent out with the expedition to Cochin
+China on board the frigate "Conquest."
+
+Daniel was, of course, perfectly sure that he had written no such
+letter.
+
+But the handwriting was so precisely like his own, letter for letter,
+and even his signature was so admirably imitated, that he felt for a
+moment utterly bewildered, mistrusting, for a second, his own eyes,
+his own reason. The whole was done so exceedingly well, that if the
+matter had been one of ordinary importance, and the date of the letter
+had gone back to a fortnight or so ago, he would certainly have
+suspected his memory rather than the letter before him.
+
+Overcome by the atrocity of such a trick, he exclaimed,--
+
+"It is almost incredible!"
+
+It was, however, only too certain, too indisputable, that the letter
+could not have been dictated by any one but Miss Brandon. No doubt,
+one of her accomplices, perhaps the great Sir Thorn himself, had
+written it. Ah! now Daniel understood the insolent assurance of Miss
+Brandon, when she insisted upon his taking poor Malgat's letters, and
+repeatedly said, "Go and show them to the clerks who have known that
+unhappy man for long years, and they will tell you if they are his
+own." Most assuredly he would have met with no one bold enough to say
+the contrary, if Malgat's handwriting had been copied with the same
+distressing perfection as his own.
+
+Still he might, perhaps, profit by this strange event; but how?
+
+Ought he to mention his discovery? What would have been the use? Would
+they believe him, if he accused her of forgery, of a trick unsurpassed
+in boldness and wickedness? Would they even consent to an
+investigation; and, if they instituted one, what would be the result?
+Where would they find an expert ready to swear that this letter was
+not written by him, when he himself, if each line had been presented
+to him separately, would have felt bound to acknowledge it as his own?
+
+Was it not far more probable, on the contrary, that, after what he had
+done in the morning, they would have ascribed his charges to a
+mistake, or seen in them a weak invention in order to cover his
+retreat? Therefore it was a thousand times better to keep silence, to
+be resigned to postpone to another day every attempt to avenge himself
+in a manner corresponding to the injury he had suffered, and all the
+more effectively, as his vengeance would have been carefully matured.
+
+But he did not wish that false letter, which might become a formidable
+piece of evidence against him, to remain among his papers; no doubt
+Miss Brandon would soon find an opportunity of having it withdrawn. He
+asked, therefore, for leave to copy it, obtained permission, went to
+work, and succeeded, without being seen by anybody, in substituting
+his copy for the original.
+
+When this was done, knowing that he had not a minute to lose, he
+instantly left the department, and, jumping into a carriage, drove to
+M. de Brevan.
+
+
+
+                                 XII.
+
+Like all energetic natures, Daniel felt a wonderful relief as soon as
+he had formed an irrevocable decision. He would even have enjoyed the
+peace that had once more returned to his mind, but for the savage
+hatred which had accumulated in his heart, and which confused his
+thoughts whenever he remembered Miss Brandon.
+
+Providentially, it seemed to him, Maxime had not gone out, or, rather,
+having been to breakfast at the English cafe with some of his friends,
+he had just returned.
+
+In ten words Daniel had told him every thing, and even shown him that
+masterpiece of forgery, which he attributed to Miss Brandon's mind,
+and M. Elgin's skill. Then, without heeding Maxime's exclamations of
+wonder and indignation, loud and deep as they were, he continued,--
+
+"Now, my dear Maxime, listen to me. It may be my last will which I am
+going to give in your charge."
+
+And, when his friend tried to remonstrate, he insisted,--
+
+"I know what I am saying. I am sure I hope I shall not be buried out
+there; but the climate is murderous, and I may encounter a cannon-
+ball. It is always better to be prepared."
+
+He paused a moment to collect his thoughts; and then he went on.
+
+"You alone, in this world, Maxime, know all my private affairs. I have
+no secret from you. I have friends whom I have known longer than you;
+but I have none in whom I feel more confidence. Besides, my old
+friends are all sailors,--men, who, like myself, may at any moment be
+sent, Heaven knows where. Now I want a reliable, safe, and experienced
+man, possessed of prudence and energy, and sure not to leave Paris.
+Will you be that man, Maxime?"
+
+M. de Brevan, who had remained in his chair, rose, and, putting his
+hand on his heart, said,--
+
+"Between us, Daniel, oaths are useless; don't you think so? I say,
+therefore, simply, you may count upon me."
+
+"And I do count upon you," exclaimed Daniel,--"yes, blindly and
+absolutely; and I am going to give you a striking proof of it."
+
+For a few moments it looked as if he were trying to find some brief
+and yet impressive form for his communication; and then he said,
+speaking very rapidly,--
+
+"If I leave in despair, it is because I leave Henrietta in the hands
+of the enemy. What persecution she will have to endure! My heart
+bleeds at the mere thought. Miss Brandon must be meditating some
+terrible blow, or she would not have been so anxious to keep me at a
+distance."
+
+He sobbed almost, so great was his excitement; but he instantly became
+master again of his emotion, and continued,--
+
+"Well, Maxime, I shall ask you to watch over Henrietta. I intrust her
+to you as I would intrust her to my brother, if I had one."
+
+M. de Brevan was about to state some objections; but Daniel cut him
+short, saying,--
+
+"I will tell you how and in what manner you can watch over Miss Ville-
+Handry. To-morrow evening I shall see her, and tell her the new
+misfortune which has befallen us. I shall take leave of her then. I
+know she will be terrified; but then, to reassure her, I shall explain
+to her that I leave her a friend, another myself, ready, like myself,
+to assist her at her first summons, and ready, like myself, to run any
+danger in order to succor her. I shall tell her to appeal to you as if
+it were to myself; to write to you as she used to write to me; to keep
+you informed of all they may attempt to do; to consult and to obey you
+without hesitation.
+
+"As to what you will have to do, Maxime, I cannot tell you that, even
+in a general way, as I know nothing of Miss Brandon's plans. I rely
+upon your experience to do what is most expedient. Still there are two
+alternatives which I can foresee. It may be that her father's house
+becomes impossible for Henrietta, and that she should wish to leave
+it. It may also be, that, under certain circumstances, you may think
+it inexpedient for her to remain there, and that you have to advise
+her to escape. In either case, you will take Henrietta to an old lady,
+a relative of mine, who lives at the Rosiers, a little village in the
+department of Maine-et-Loire, and whose address I will give you, while
+I will inform her beforehand of what may happen."
+
+He paused, trying to remember if there was any thing else, and,
+recalling nothing, he said,--
+
+"This, my dear Maxime, is all I expect you to do for me."
+
+With open brow, a clear eye, and grave face, M. de Brevan replied in a
+solemn tone of voice, speaking like a man who feels that he deserves
+such confidence,--
+
+"Friend Daniel, you may sail without fear."
+
+But Daniel had not done yet.
+
+Pressing his friend's hand heartily, he thanked him, and then with a
+careless air, under which he very imperfectly concealed his real
+embarrassment, he said,--
+
+"There remains only to provide the means for carrying out these
+measures, and for possible contingencies. You are not rich, my dear
+Maxime, I mean rich in comparison with the people who are your
+friends; you have told me so more than once."
+
+He touched a wound which was always open, and always bleeding.
+
+"Certainly," replied M. de Brevan, "in comparison with a number of my
+friends, with men like Gordon Chalusse, for instance, I am only a poor
+devil."
+
+Daniel did not notice the bitterness of this reply.
+
+"Now," he said, "suppose, at a given moment, Miss Henrietta's safety
+should make a certain sum of money necessary,--perhaps a very large
+sum,--are you sure you will always have enough in your drawer, and be
+able to dispose of it without inconvenience?"
+
+"Ah! you expect too much of me; but I have friends."
+
+"And you would ask them! you would expose yourself to the humiliation
+of hearing those set excuses which serve to conceal refusals! I could
+never permit that."
+
+"I assure you"--
+
+"Let me tell you that I have forgotten nothing. Although my means are
+modest, I can, by selling out some bonds, realize enough to secure you
+against any embarrassment on that score. I also own property in Anjou
+which is valued at fifty or sixty thousand dollars, and I mean to sell
+it."
+
+The other man opened his eyes wide.
+
+"You mean," he said slowly.
+
+"To sell it, yes. You heard right. Except, however, my home, my
+father's house, with the little garden in front, the orchard, and the
+meadow adjoining the house. In that house my father and my mother have
+lived and died. I find them there, so to /say/, whenever I go in;
+their thoughts are still filling the rooms, after so many years. The
+garden and the orchard are the first little bits of land my father
+bought from his earnings as ploughboy. He cultivated them in his
+leisure hours, and there is literally not a foot of soil which he has
+not moistened with the sweat of his brow. They are sacred to me; but
+the rest--I have already given orders."
+
+"And you expect to sell every thing in the three days before your
+departure?"
+
+"Oh, no! But you are here."
+
+"What can I do?"
+
+"Take my place, I should think. I will leave you a power-of-attorney.
+Perhaps, if you make haste, you can get fifty thousand dollars for the
+property. You will invest that so as to be able to use it any moment.
+And, if ever Miss Henrietta should be compelled to leave her father's
+house, you will hand the money over to her."
+
+M. de Brevan had turned very pale.
+
+"Excuse me," he said, "excuse me."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Well, it seems to me it would be more suitable to leave some one else
+in charge of that."
+
+"Whom?"
+
+"Oh! I do not know,--a more experienced man! It may be that the
+property will not bring as much as you expect. Or I might invest the
+money in the wrong funds. Money questions are so delicate!"
+
+But Daniel said, shrugging his shoulders,--
+
+"I do not understand why you should hesitate to undertake so simple a
+thing, when you have already consented to render me so signal and so
+difficult a service."
+
+So simple! M. de Brevan did not look upon it in that light.
+
+A nervous shiver, which he could hardly conceal, ran down his
+backbone; drops of perspiration broke out on his temples; and he
+turned deadly pale.
+
+"Fifty thousand dollars! That is an enormous sum."
+
+"Oh, yes!" replied Daniel in the most careless manner.
+
+And, looking at the clock, he added,--
+
+"Half-past three. Come, Maxime, be quick. My carriage is waiting. The
+notary expects us between three and four o'clock."
+
+This notary was an exceptional man. He took an interest in the affairs
+of his clients, and sometimes even listened to hear their
+explanations. When Daniel had told him what he intended doing, he
+replied,--
+
+"You have nothing to do, M. Champcey, but to give M. de Brevan a
+power-of-attorney in proper form."
+
+"Would it be possible," asked Daniel, "to have it drawn up at once?"
+
+"Why not? It can be recorded this evening; and to-morrow"--
+
+"Well, then, lose no time."
+
+The notary called his chief clerk, gave him briefly his instructions,
+then, making a sign to Daniel, he drew him into a kind of recess
+resembling an enormous cupboard, adjoining his office, in which he
+"confessed" his clients, as he called it. When they were there, he
+said,--
+
+"How is it, M. Champcey, do you really owe this M. de Brevan so much
+money?"
+
+"Not a cent."
+
+"And you leave your entire fortune thus in his hands! You must have
+marvellous confidence in the man."
+
+"As much as in myself."
+
+"That is a good deal. And if he should, during your absence, run away
+with the fifty thousand dollars?"
+
+Daniel was a little shaken; but he remained firm.
+
+"Oh!" he said, "there are still some honest people in the world."
+
+"Ah?" laughed the notary.
+
+And, from the manner in which he shook his head, it was clearly seen
+that experience had made him very sceptical on that subject.
+
+"If you would only listen to me," he resumed, "I could prove to you"--
+
+But Daniel interrupted him, and said,--
+
+"I have no desire, sir, to change my mind; but, even if I should wish
+to do so, I cannot retract my word. There are particular circumstances
+in this case which I cannot explain to you in so short a time."
+
+The notary raised his eyes to the ceiling, and said in a tone of great
+pity,--
+
+"At least, let me make him give you a deed of defeasance."
+
+"Very well, sir."
+
+This was done, but in such carefully guarded terms, that even the most
+exquisite susceptibility on the part of Maxime could not have been
+hurt. It was five o'clock, when the power-of-attorney and the deed
+were signed, and the two friends left the worthy notary's office. It
+was too late now for Daniel to write to Henrietta to send him for that
+same evening the key to the little garden-gate; but he wrote to get it
+for the next evening.
+
+After that, having dined with M. de Brevan, he went all over Paris in
+search of the thousand little things which are necessary for such a
+long and perilous voyage. He came home late, and was fortunate enough
+to fall asleep as soon as he had lain down. The next morning he
+breakfasted in his rooms, for fear of being out of the house when they
+should bring him the key.
+
+It came towards one o'clock. It was brought by a large girl, nearly
+thirty years old, with a cross expression of face, and eyes more than
+modestly seeking the ground, and with narrow lips which seemed to be
+perpetually engaged in reciting prayers. This was Clarissa, whom
+Henrietta considered the safest of her waiting-women, and whom she had
+taken into her confidence.
+
+"Miss Henrietta," she said to Daniel, "has given me this key and this
+letter for you, sir. She expects an answer."
+
+Daniel tore the envelope, and read,--
+
+
+ "Take care, O my darling friend! to resort to this dangerous
+  expedient which we ought to reserve for the last extremity. Is
+  what you have to tell me really so important as you say? I can
+  hardly believe it; and yet I send you the key. Tell Clarissa the
+  precise hour at which you will be here."
+
+
+Alas! the poor girl had no idea of the terrible news that was in store
+for her.
+
+"Request Miss Henrietta," said Daniel to the maid, "to expect me at
+seven o'clock."
+
+Sure now of seeing Henrietta, Daniel slipped the key in his pocket,
+and hurried away. He had only a short afternoon to himself, and there
+were still a thousand things to get, and countless preparations to
+make.
+
+At his notary's, where he went first, he found the papers ready; all
+the formalities had been fulfilled. But, at the moment when the deed
+was placed before him, the worthy lawyer said in a prophetic voice,--
+
+"M. Champcey, take care, reflect! I call that tempting a man pretty
+strongly when you hand over to him fifty thousand dollars the day
+before you start on a long and dangerous expedition."
+
+"Ah! What matters my fortune, if I only see my Henrietta again?"
+
+The notary looked discouraged.
+
+"Ah! if there is a woman in the affair, I have nothing more to say."
+
+It was as well. The next moment Daniel had forgotten him and his
+sombre presentiments.
+
+Seated in M. de Brevan's little sitting-room, he was handing over his
+deeds and papers to his faithful confidant, explaining to him how he
+might make the most of the different parcels of land which he owned;
+how certain woods might be sold together; how, on the other hand, a
+large farm, now held by one tenant, might be advantageously divided
+into small lots, and sold at auction.
+
+M. de Brevan did not look so pale now. He had recovered his self-
+possession, and laid aside his usual reserve in order to show himself
+all eagerness for his friend.
+
+He declared that he would see to it that his friend Daniel should not
+be robbed. He intended, therefore, to go himself to Anjou to call upon
+those who were likely to purchase, and to be present at the sale. In
+his opinion, it would be wiser to sell piecemeal, without hurry. If
+money was needed, why, one could always get it at the bank.
+
+Daniel was deeply touched by the devotion of his friend, whose intense
+selfishness he had noticed but too often. Nor was this all. Capable of
+the greatest sacrifices where Daniel's interests were at stake, M. de
+Brevan had formed a grand resolution. He proposed to overcome his
+aversion to Miss Brandon, and to seek, immediately after her marriage,
+an introduction at Count Ville-Handry's palace, for the purpose of
+going there constantly. He might have to play a disagreeable part, he
+admitted; but he would thus be enabled to see Miss Henrietta
+frequently; he would hear every thing that happened, and be at hand
+whenever she should need advice or assistance.
+
+"Dear Maxime," repeated Daniel, "dear, excellent friend, how can I
+ever thank you for all you are doing for me!"
+
+As the day before, they dined together at one of the restaurants on
+the boulevard; and after dinner M. de Brevan insisted upon
+accompanying his friend back to Count Ville-Handry's house. As they
+reached it long before the appointed hour, they walked up and down on
+the sidewalk which runs along the wall of the immense park belonging
+to the palace. It was a cold but perfectly clear night. There was not
+a cloud in the sky, no mist nor haze; and the moon was shining so
+brightly, that one could have read by its light.
+
+In the meantime seven o'clock struck at a neighboring convent.
+
+"Come, courage, my friend!" said M. de Brevan.
+
+And, pressing his hand once more cordially, he walked off rapidly in
+the direction of the Invalides.
+
+Daniel had not answered a word. Terribly excited, he had drawn near
+the small door, examining anxiously all the surroundings. The street
+was deserted. But he trembled so violently, that for a moment he
+thought he would never be able to turn the key in the rusty lock. At
+last he succeeded in opening it, and he slipped into the garden.
+
+No one there. He was the first on the spot.
+
+Looking for some dark place under the tall trees, he hid himself
+there, and waited. It seemed to him a century. He had counted sixty by
+the beating of his pulse ever so many times, and was beginning to be
+very anxious, when at last he heard some dry branches crackling under
+rapid footsteps. A shadow passed between the trees. He went forward,
+and Henrietta was standing before him.
+
+"What is it now, great God!" she said anxiously. "Clarissa said you
+looked so pale and undone, that I have been terribly frightened."
+
+Daniel had come to the conclusion that the plain truth would be less
+cruel than the most skilful precautions.
+
+"I have been ordered on active service," he replied, "and I must be on
+board ship the day after tomorrow."
+
+And then, without concealing any thing, he told her all he had
+suffered since the day before. Miss Ville-Handry felt as if she had
+been stunned by a crushing blow. She was leaning against a tree. Did
+she even hear Daniel? Yes; for, suddenly rousing herself, she said,--
+
+"You will not obey! It is impossible for you to obey!"
+
+"Henrietta, my honor is at stake."
+
+"Ah, what does it matter?"
+
+He was about to reply; but she continued in a broken voice,--
+
+"You will certainly not go when you have heard me. You think I am
+strong, brave, and capable to breast the storm? You are mistaken. I
+was only drawing upon your energy, Daniel. I am a child, full of
+daring as long as it rests on its mother's knee, but helpless as soon
+as it feels that it is left to itself; I am only a woman, Daniel; I am
+weak."
+
+The unhappy man felt his strength leaving him; he could no longer bear
+the restraint which he had imposed upon himself.
+
+"You insist upon sending me off in utter despair?" he asked her. "Ah,
+I have hardly courage enough for myself!"
+
+She interrupted him with a nervous laugh, and said in bitter
+sarcasm,--
+
+"It would be courage to stay, to despise public opinion."
+
+And, as any thing appeared to her preferable to such a separation, she
+added,--
+
+"Listen! If you will stay, I will yield. Let us go together to my
+father, and I will tell him that I have overcome my aversion to Miss
+Brandon. I will ask him to present me to her; /I/ will humble myself
+before her."
+
+"That is impossible, Henrietta."
+
+She bent towards him, joining her hands; and in a suppliant voice she
+repeated,--
+
+"Stay, I beseech you, in the name of our happiness! If you have ever
+loved me, if you love me now, stay!"
+
+Daniel had foreseen this heartrending scene; but he had vowed, that,
+if his heart should break, he would have the fortitude to resist
+Henrietta's prayers and tears.
+
+"If I were weak enough to give way now, Henrietta," he said, "you
+would despise me before the month is over; and I, desperate at having
+to drag out a life of disgrace, would blow out my brains with a curse
+on you."
+
+With her arms hanging listlessly by her side, her hands crossed behind
+her, Miss Ville-Handry stood there motionless, like a statue. She felt
+in her heart that Daniel's resolution was not to be shaken.
+
+Then he said in a gentle voice,--
+
+"I am going, Henrietta; but I leave you a friend of mine,--a true and
+noble friend, who will watch over you. You have heard me speak of him
+often,--Maxime de Brevan. He knows my wishes. Whatever may happen,
+consult him. Ah! I should leave more cheerfully if you would promise
+me to trust this faithful friend, to listen to his advice, and to
+follow his directions."
+
+"I promise you, Daniel, I will obey him."
+
+But a rustling of the dry leaves interrupted them.
+
+They turned round. A man was cautiously approaching them.
+
+"My father!" cried Henrietta.
+
+And, pushing Daniel towards the gate, she begged him to flee.
+
+To remain would only have been to risk a painful explanation, insults,
+perhaps even a personal collision. Daniel understood that but too
+well.
+
+"Farewell," he said to Henrietta, "farewell! Tomorrow you will receive
+a letter from me."
+
+And he escaped, but not so promptly that he should not have heard the
+count's angry voice, as he said,--
+
+"Ah, ah! Is this the virtuous young lady who dares to insult Miss
+Sarah?"
+
+As soon as Daniel had locked the door again, he listened for a moment,
+hoping that he might hear something of importance. But he could only
+make out a few indistinct exclamations, then nothing, nothing more.
+
+It was all over now. He would have to sail without seeing Henrietta
+again, without enjoying that bitter happiness of holding her once more
+in his arms. And yet he had told her nothing of all he had to tell
+her; he had not spoken to her of half his recommendations, nor given
+her a thousandth part of his tender farewells.
+
+How had they been surprised? How came it about that the count had
+stayed at home, instead of hurrying off immediately after dinner, as
+was his custom? Why should he have inquired after his daughter, he who
+generally took no more trouble about her than if she had not existed?
+
+"Ah, we have been betrayed!" thought the unhappy man.
+
+By whom? By that unpleasant maid evidently, whom he had seen that
+morning; by that very Clarissa in whom Henrietta put such confidence.
+If that was so,--and it was but too probable,--to whom should he send
+his letters hereafter? Here, again, he saw himself reduced to Maxime
+de Brevan as the only one who could convey news from him to Henrietta.
+Ah! he recognized but too clearly the execrable but most cunning
+policy of Miss Brandon.
+
+"The wretch!" he swore; "the infamous woman!"
+
+Wrath, mad wrath, set his brains on fire. And he could do nothing
+against that woman!
+
+"But she does not stand alone!" he suddenly exclaimed. "There is a man
+there who shelters her under his responsibility,--Sir Thorn!"
+
+M. Elgin might be insulted; he might be struck in the face, and thus
+be compelled to fight.
+
+And, without considering this absurd plan, he hurried to Circus
+Street. Although it was barely eight o'clock, Miss Brandon's house
+looked as if everybody were asleep. He rang the bell, however; and,
+when a servant came to the door, he inquired,--
+
+"M. Thomas Elgin?"
+
+"M. Elgin is absent," replied the servant.
+
+"At what hour will he be back?"
+
+"He is not coming home to-night."
+
+And whether he had received special instructions, or was only acting
+upon general orders, he added,--
+
+"Mrs. Brian is at the theatre; but Miss Brandon is at home."
+
+Daniel's wrath changed into a kind of cold fury.
+
+"They expected me," he thought.
+
+And he hesitated. Should he see Miss Brandon? But for what end? He was
+just turning away, when a sudden thought occurred to him. Why should
+he not talk with her, come to an understanding, and perhaps make a
+bargain with her?
+
+"Show me to Miss Brandon's room," he said to the servant.
+
+She sat, as she always did when left alone in the house, in the little
+boudoir, where Daniel had already once been carried by her. Dressed in
+a long dressing-wrapper of pale-blue cashmere, her hair scarcely taken
+up at all, she was reading, reclining on a sofa.
+
+As the door opened, she raised herself carelessly a little, and,
+without turning around, asked,--
+
+"Who is that?"
+
+But, when the servant announced the name of M. Champcey, she rose with
+a bound, almost terrified, dropping the book which she had in her
+hand.
+
+"You!" she murmured as soon as the servant had left. "Here, and of
+your own accord?"
+
+Firmly resolved this time to remain master of his sensations, Daniel
+had stopped in the middle of the room, as stiff as a statue.
+
+"Don't you know, madam, what brings me here? All your combinations
+have succeeded admirably; you triumph, and we surrender."
+
+She looked at him in perfect amazement, stammering--
+
+"I do not understand you. I do not know what you mean."
+
+He shrugged his shoulders, and continued in an icy tone,--
+
+"Do me the honor to think that I am not altogether a fool. I have seen
+the letter which you have sent to the minister, signed with my name. I
+have held that masterpiece of forgery in my hand and know now how you
+free yourself of my presence!"
+
+Miss Brandon interrupted him with an angry gesture,--
+
+"Then it is really so! He has done it; he has dared do it!"
+
+"Who is this he? M. Thomas Elgin, no doubt?"
+
+"No, not he; another man."
+
+"Name him!"
+
+She hesitated, hung her head, and then said with a great effort,--
+
+"I knew they wished to separate us; and, without knowing precisely
+what means they would employ, I suspected them. And, when I came to
+you the other day, I wanted to say to you, 'Have a care!' and you, M.
+Champcey, you drove me from you."
+
+He looked upon her with such an ironical smile that she broke off, and
+cried,--
+
+"Ah, he does not believe me! Tell me that you do not believe me!"
+
+He bowed ceremoniously, and replied in his gravest manner,--
+
+"I believe, Miss Brandon, that you desire to become Countess Ville-
+Handry; and you clear everything out of your path that can hinder you
+in your plans."
+
+She was about to answer; but he did not give her time, and
+continued,--
+
+"Mark, I pray, that I make no charges. Come, let us play openly. You
+are too sensible and too practical to hate us--Miss Henrietta and
+myself--from gratuitous and purely platonic motives. You hate us
+because we are in your way. How are we in your way? Tell me; and, if
+you will promise to help us, we--Henrietta and I--pledge ourselves not
+to stand in your way."
+
+Miss Brandon looked as if she could not trust her ears.
+
+"But, sir, this is a bargain, I should say, which you propose?"
+
+"Yes, indeed! And, that there may be no misunderstanding, I will
+mention the precise terms: if you will swear to be kind to Henrietta
+during my absence, to protect her against violence on the part of her
+father, and never to force her to act contrary to her sentiments for
+me, I will give you, in return, my word that I shall give up to you,
+without dispute and without reserve, the whole immense fortune
+possessed by Count Ville-Handry."
+
+Succumbing to her grief, Miss Brandon seemed to be almost fainting;
+and big tears rolled down her cheeks.
+
+"Have I not yet been humiliated sufficiently?" she said in a low
+voice. "Must you add shame to shame? Daniel, you think I am very
+mean."
+
+And, checking the sobs which impeded her words, she went on,--
+
+"And yet I cannot blame you for it, I cannot. No, you are right! Every
+thing is against me; every thing bears witness against me. Yes, I must
+appear a very wicked girl in your eyes. If you knew the truth,
+however, Daniel--if I could, if I dared, tell you all!"
+
+She drew nearer to him, all trembling; and then continued in a still
+lower tone of voice, as if she feared to be overheard,--
+
+"Do you not understand yet that I am no longer my own? Unfortunate as
+I am, they have taken me, bound me, fettered me. I have no longer the
+right to have a will of my own. If they say, 'Do this!' I must needs
+do it. What a life I lead! Great God! Ah, if you had been willing,
+Daniel! If you were willing even now!"
+
+She became excited almost to exaltation; her eyes, moist with tears,
+shone with matchless splendor; passing blushes colored her face; and
+her voice had strange, weird vibrations.
+
+Was she forgetting herself? Was she really about to betray her secret?
+or was she merely inventing a new falsehood? Why should he not let her
+go on?
+
+"That is no answer, Miss Brandon," at last said Daniel. "Will you
+promise me to protect Henrietta?"
+
+"Do you really love her so dearly, your Henrietta?"
+
+"Better than life!"
+
+Miss Brandon turned as white as the lace on her dress; a flash of
+indignation shot through her eyes; and, drying her tears, she said
+curtly,--
+
+"Oh!"
+
+Then Daniel replied,--
+
+"You will give me no answer, madam?"
+
+And, as she persisted in her silence, he resumed,--
+
+"Very well, then, I understand. You declare open war. Be it so! Only
+listen to me carefully. I am setting out on a dangerous expedition,
+and you hope I shall never return. Undeceive yourself, Miss Brandon; I
+shall return. With a passion like mine, with so much love in one's
+heart, and so much hatred, a man can defy every thing. The murderous
+climate will not touch me; and, if I had ten rifle-balls in my body, I
+should still have the strength to return, and hold you to an account
+for what you have done to Henrietta. And if you have touched a hair on
+her head, if you have made her shed a single tear, by all that is
+holy, it will bring ill luck to you, and ill luck to others!"
+
+He was going to leave her, when a thought struck him.
+
+"I ought to tell you, moreover," he added, "that I leave a faithful
+friend behind me; and, if the count or his daughter should die very
+suddenly, the coroner will be informed. And now, madam, farewell--or,
+rather, till we meet again!"
+
+At eight o'clock on the evening of the next day, after having left in
+M. de Brevan's hands a long letter for Henrietta, and after having
+given him his last instructions, Daniel took his seat in the train
+which was to take him to his new post.
+
+
+
+                                XIII.
+
+It was a week after Daniel's departure, a Wednesday, and about half-
+past eleven o'clock.
+
+Some thirty carriages, the most elegant, by all means, that Paris
+could boast of, were standing alongside of the Church of St.
+Clothilda. In the pretty little square before the building, some
+hundred and fifty or two hundred idlers were waiting with open mouths.
+The passers-by, noticing the crowd, went up and asked,--
+
+"What is going on?"
+
+"A wedding," was the answer.
+
+"And a grand wedding, apparently."
+
+"Why, the grandest thing you ever saw. It is a nobleman, and an
+immensely rich one, who is going to be married,--Count Ville-Handry.
+He marries an American lady. They have been in the church now for some
+time, and they will soon come out again."
+
+Under the porch a dozen men, in the orthodox black costume, with
+yellow kid gloves, and white cravats showing under their overcoats,
+evidently men belonging to the wedding-party, were chatting merrily
+while they were waiting for the end of the ceremony. If they were
+amused, they hardly showed it; for some made an effort to hide their
+yawning, while others kept up a broken conversation, when a small
+/coupe/ drove up, and stopped at the gate.
+
+"Gentlemen," said a young man, "I announce M. de Brevan."
+
+It was he really.
+
+He stepped leisurely out of his carriage, and came up in his usual
+phlegmatic manner. He knew the majority, perhaps, of the young men in
+the crowd; and so he commenced at once shaking hands all around, and
+then said in an easy tone of voice,--
+
+"Who has seen the bride?"
+
+"I!" replied an old beau, whose perpetual smile displayed all the
+thirty-two teeth he owed to the dentist.
+
+"Well, what do you think of her?"
+
+"She is always sublime in her beauty, my dear. When she walked up the
+aisle to kneel down at the altar, a murmur of admiration followed her
+all the way. Upon my word of honor, I thought they would applaud."
+
+This was too much enthusiasm. M. de Brevan cut it short, asking,--
+
+"And Count Ville-Handry?"
+
+"Upon my word," replied the old beau ironically, "the good count can
+boast of a valet who knows almost as much as Rachel, the famous
+English enameller. At a little distance you would have sworn that he
+was sixteen years old, and that he was going, not to be married, but
+to be confirmed."
+
+"And how did he look?"
+
+"Restless, I think."
+
+"He might well be," observed a stout, elderly gentleman, who was said
+not to be very happily married.
+
+Everybody laughed; but a very young man, a mere youth, who did not
+catch the joke, said,--
+
+"Why so?"
+
+A man of about thirty years, a perfect model of elegance, whom the
+others called, according to the degree of intimacy which they could
+claim, either "Your Grace," or "Duke" simply replied,--
+
+"Because, my dear viscount, Miss Brandon is one of those ladies who
+never are married. They are courted; they are worshipped; they make us
+commit a thousand follies for their sakes; they allow us to ruin
+ourselves, and, finally, to blow our brains out for them, all right!
+But to bear our name, never!"
+
+"It is true," said Brevan, "that they tell a number of stories about
+her; but it is all gossip. However"--
+
+"You certainly would not ask," replied the duke, "that I should prove
+her to have been brought before a police-court, or to have escaped
+from the penitentiary?"
+
+And, without permitting himself to be interrupted, he went on,--
+
+"Good society in France, they say, is very exclusive. It does not
+deserve that reputation. Except, perhaps, a score of houses, where old
+traditions are still preserved, all other houses are wide open to the
+first-comer, man or woman, who drives up in a carriage. And the number
+of such first-comers is prodigiously large. Where do they come from?
+No one knows. From Russia, from Turkey, from America, from Hungary,
+from very far, from everywhere, from below, I do not count the
+impudent fellows who are still muddy from the gutter in which they
+have been lying. How do all these people live? That is a mystery. But
+they do live, and they live well. They have, or at least seem to have,
+money; and they shine, they intrigue, they conspire, they make
+believe, and they extort. So that I verily believe all this high-life
+society, by dint of helping one another, of pushing and crowding in,
+will, in the end, be master of all. You may say that I am not in the
+crowd. Very true. I willingly shake hands with the workmen who work
+for me, and who earn their living worthily; but I do not shake hands
+with these ambiguous personages in yellow kids, who have no title but
+their impudence, and no means of living but their underhand
+intrigues."
+
+He addressed himself apparently to no one, following, with his absent-
+minded glance, the crowd in the garden; and yet, by his peculiar
+manner, you would have known that he was speaking at some one among
+the listeners.
+
+However, it was evident that he had no success, and that his doctrine
+seemed to be utterly out of season, and almost ridiculous. A young man
+with a delicate black mustache, and extremely well dressed, even
+turned to his neighbor, and asked,--
+
+"Who is our friend, the preacher?"
+
+"What! don't you know him?" replied the other.
+
+"That is the Duke of Champdoce, you know, who has married a princess
+of Mussidan. Quite an original."
+
+M. de Brevan, however, had remained perfectly impassive, and now
+said,--
+
+"At all events, I suppose it was not altogether a question of interest
+which made Miss Brandon marry the count."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because she is immensely rich."
+
+"Pshaw!"
+
+An old gentleman came up, and said,--
+
+"She must needs be perfectly disinterested; for I have it from the
+count himself that none of the property is to be settled upon Miss
+Brandon."
+
+"That certainly is marvellously disinterested."
+
+Having said what he meant to say, the duke had entered the church; and
+the old beau now took the word.
+
+"The only thing that is clear to me in this matter is, that I think I
+know the person whom this wedding will not please particularly."
+
+"Whom do you mean?"
+
+"Count Ville-Handry's daughter, a young girl, eighteen years old, and
+wondrously pretty. Just imagine! Besides, I have looked for her all
+over the church, and she is not there."
+
+"She is not present at the wedding," replied the old gentleman, the
+friend of Count Ville-Handry, "because she was suddenly taken ill."
+
+"So they say," interposed the young man; "but the fact is, that a
+friend of mine has just seen her driving out in her carriage in full
+dress."
+
+"That can hardly be so."
+
+"My friend was positive. She intended this pretty piece of scandal as
+a wedding-present for her stepmother."
+
+M. de Brevan shrugged his shoulders, and said in an undertone,--
+
+"Upon my word, I should not like to stand in the count's shoes."
+
+As a faithful echo of the gossip that was going on in society, this
+conversation, carried on in broken sentences, under the porch of St.
+Clothilda, made it quite clear that public opinion was decidedly in
+favor of Miss Brandon. It would have been surprising if it should have
+been otherwise. She triumphed; and the world is always on the side of
+the victor. That Duke of Champdoce, an original, was the only one
+there who was disposed to remember the past; the others had forgotten
+it. The brilliancy of her success was even reflected on those who
+belonged to her; and a young man who copied to exaggeration English
+fashions was just singing the praises of M. Thomas Elgin and Mrs.
+Brian, when a great commotion was noticed under the porch.
+
+People came out, and said,--
+
+"It is all over. The wedding-guests are in the vestry now to sign
+their names."
+
+The conversation stopped at once. The old beau alone exclaimed,--
+
+"Gentlemen, if we wish to present our respects to the newly-married
+couple, we must make haste."
+
+And with these words he hurried into the church, followed by all the
+others, and soon reached the vestry, which was too small to hold all
+the guests invited by Count Ville-Handry. The parish register had been
+placed upon a small table; and every one approached, as his turn came,
+taking off his gloves before seizing the pen. Fronting the door, and
+leaning against one of the cupboards in which the holy vessels are
+kept, stood Miss Brandon, now Countess Ville-Handry, having at her
+side grim Mrs. Brian, and tall, stiff M. Elgin.
+
+Her admirers had exaggerated nothing. In her white bridal costume she
+looked amazingly beautiful; and her whole person exhaled a perfume of
+innocence and ingenuous purity.
+
+She was surrounded by eight or ten young persons, who overwhelmed her
+with congratulations and compliments. She replied with a slightly
+tremulous voice, and casting down her eyes with the long, silky
+eyelashes. Count Ville-Handry stood in the centre of the room,
+swelling with almost comic happiness; and at every moment, in replying
+to his friends, used the words, "My wife," like a sweet morsel which
+he rolled on his tongue.
+
+Still a careful observer might have noticed underneath his victorious
+airs a trace of almost painful restraint. From time to time his face
+darkened as one of those unlucky, awkward people, who turn up
+everywhere, asked him,--
+
+"I hope Miss Henrietta is not complaining much? How very sorry she
+must be to be detained at home!"
+
+It is true, that, among these unlucky ones, there were not a few
+malicious ones. Nobody was ignorant that something unpleasant had
+happened in the count's family. They had suspected something from the
+beginning of the ceremony.
+
+For the count had hardly knelt down by Miss Brandon's side, on a
+velvet cushion, when a servant wearing his livery had come up, and
+whispered a few words in his ear. The guests who were nearest had seen
+him turn pale, and utter an expression of furious rage.
+
+What had the servant told him?
+
+It became soon known, thanks to the Countess Bois, who went about
+telling everybody with inexhaustible volubility, that she had just met
+Miss Ville-Handry in the street.
+
+When the last name had been signed, nobody was, therefore, surprised
+at seeing Count Ville-Handry give his arm to his wife, and hand her
+hurriedly to her carriage,--a magnificent state-carriage. He had
+invited some twenty people, former friends of his, to a great wedding-
+breakfast; but he seemed to have forgotten them. And once in his
+carriage, alone with Mrs. Brian, M. Elgin, and the young countess, he
+broke forth in incoherent imprecations and absurd threatenings.
+
+When they reached the palace, he did not wait for the coachman to
+drive as usually around the yard, but jumped out, and, rushing up to
+the vestibule, cried out,--
+
+"Ernest! send Ernest here!"
+
+Ernest was his own valet, the clever artist to whom he was indebted
+for the roses of his complexion. As soon as he appeared, he asked,--
+
+"Where is the young lady?"
+
+"Gone out."
+
+"When?"
+
+"Immediately after you, sir."
+
+The young countess, Mrs. Brian, and M. Elgin, had, in the meantime,
+come up, and gone into the room in the lower story, where this scene
+took place.
+
+"Do you hear that?" he asked them.
+
+Then, turning again to the valet, he asked,--
+
+"How did it happen?"
+
+"Very naturally. The gates had not been closed behind your carriage,
+sir, when the young lady rang the bell. They went up to see what she
+wanted, and she ordered the landau to be brought round. She was told
+very respectfully, that all three coachmen were out, and that there
+was no one there to drive her. 'If that be so,' she answered, 'I want
+you to run and get me a hired carriage.' And, when the servant to whom
+she gave the order hesitated, she added, 'If you do not go instantly,
+I shall go myself.'"
+
+The count trembled with rage.
+
+"And then?" he asked, seeing that the man was hesitating.
+
+"Then the servant was frightened, and did what she wanted."
+
+"He is dismissed, the fool!" exclaimed Count Ville-Handry.
+
+"But allow me to /say/," commenced Ernest.
+
+"No! Let his wages be paid. And you go on."
+
+Without showing any embarrassment, the valet shrugged his shoulders,
+and continued in a lazy tone,--
+
+"Then the hack came into the court-yard; and we saw the young lady
+come down in a splendid toilet, such as we have never seen her wear
+before,--not pretty exactly, but so conspicuous, that it must have
+attracted everybody's attention. She settled herself coolly on the
+cushions, while we looked at her, utterly amazed; and, when she was
+ready, she said, 'Ernest, you will tell my father that I shall not be
+back for breakfast. I have a good many visits to make; and, as the
+weather is fine, I shall afterwards go to the Bois de Boulogne.'
+Thereupon the gates were opened, and off they went. It was then that I
+took the liberty to send you word, sir."
+
+In all his life Count Ville-Handry had not been so furious. The veins
+in his neck began to swell; and his eyes became bloodshot, as if he
+had been threatened with a fit of apoplexy.
+
+"You ought to have kept her from going out," he said hoarsely. "Why
+did you not prevent her? You ought to have made her go back to her
+room, use force if necessary, lock her up, bind her."
+
+"You had given no orders, sir."
+
+"You ought to have required no orders to do your duty. To let a mad
+woman run about! an impudent girl whom I caught the other day in the
+garden with a man!"
+
+He cried out so loud, that his voice was heard in the adjoining room,
+where the invited guests were beginning to assemble. The unhappy man!
+He disgraced his own child. The young countess at once came up to him
+and said,--
+
+"I beseech you, my dear friend, be calm!"
+
+"No, this must end; and I mean to punish the wicked girl."
+
+"I beseech you, my dear count, do not destroy the happiness of the
+first day of our married life. Henrietta is only a child; she did not
+know what she was doing."
+
+Mrs. Brian was not of the same opinion. She declared,--
+
+"The count is right. The conduct of this young lady is perfectly
+shocking."
+
+Then Sir Thorn interrupted her, saying,--
+
+"Ah, ah! Brian, where is our bargain? Was it not understood that we
+would have nothing to do with the count's private affairs?"
+
+Thus every one took up at once his assigned part. The countess
+advocated forbearance; Mrs. Brian advised discipline; and Sir Thorn
+was in favor of silent impartiality.
+
+Besides, they easily succeeded in calming the count. But, after such a
+scene, the wedding breakfast could not be very merry. The guests, who
+had heard nearly all, exchanged strange looks with each other.
+
+"The count's daughter," they thought, "and a lover? That can hardly
+be!"
+
+In vain did the count try to look indifferent; in vain did the young
+countess display all her rare gifts. Everybody was embarrassed; nobody
+could summon up a smile; and every five minutes the conversation gave
+out. At half-past four o'clock, the last guest had escaped, and the
+count remained alone with his new family. It was growing dark, and
+they were bringing in the lamps, when the rolling of carriage-wheels
+was heard on the sand in the court-yard. The count rose, turning pale.
+
+"Here she comes!" he said. "Here is my daughter!"
+
+It was Henrietta.
+
+How could a young girl, usually so reserved, and naturally so timid,
+make up her mind to cause such scandal? Because the most timid people
+are precisely the boldest on certain occasions. Forced to abandon
+their nature, they do not reason, and do not calculate, and, losing
+all self-possession, rush blindly into danger, impelled by a kind of
+madness resembling that of sheep when they knock their heads against
+the walls of their stable.
+
+Now, for nearly a fortnight, the count's daughter had been upset by so
+many and so violent emotions, that she was no longer herself. The
+insults which her father heaped upon her when he surprised her with
+Daniel had unsettled her mind completely.
+
+For Count Ville-Handry, acting under a kind of overexcitement, had
+that day lost all self-control, and forgot himself so far as to treat
+his daughter as no gentleman would have treated his child while in his
+senses, and that in the presence of his servants!
+
+And then, what tortures she had had to endure in the week that
+followed! She had declared that she would not be present at the
+reading of the marriage-contract, nor at the ceremonies of the civil
+marriage, nor at church; and her father had tried to make her change
+her intentions. Hence every day a new lamentable scene, as the
+decisive moment drew nearer.
+
+If the count had at least used a little discretion, if he had tried
+the powers of persuasion, or sought to touch his daughter's heart by
+speaking to her of herself, of her future, of her happiness, of her
+peace!
+
+But no! He never came to her room without a new insult, thinking of
+nothing, as he acknowledged himself, but of sparing Miss Brandon's
+feelings, and of saving her all annoyance. The consequence was, that
+his threats, so far from moving Henrietta, had only served to
+strengthen her in her determination.
+
+The marriage-contract had been read and signed at six o'clock, just
+before a grand dinner. At half-past five, the count had once more come
+to his daughter's room. Without telling her any thing of it, he had
+ordered her dressmaker to send her several magnificent dresses; and
+they were lying about now, spread out upon chairs.
+
+"Dress yourself," he said in a tone of command, "and come down!"
+
+She, the victim of that kind of nervous exaltation which makes
+martyrdom appear preferable to yielding, replied obstinately,--
+
+"No, I shall not come down."
+
+She did not care for any subterfuge or excuse; she did not even
+pretend to be unwell; she said resolutely--
+
+"I will not!"
+
+And he, finding himself unable to overcome this resistance, maddened
+and enraged, broke out in blasphemies and insane threats.
+
+A chambermaid, who had been attracted by the loud voice, had come,
+and, putting her ear to the keyhole, had heard every thing; and the
+same evening she told her friends how the count had struck his
+daughter, and that she had heard the blows.
+
+Henrietta had always denied the charge.
+
+Nevertheless, it was but too true, that, in consequence of these last
+insults, she had come to the determination to make her protest as
+public as she could by showing herself to all Paris while her father
+was married at St. Clothilda to Miss Brandon. The poor girl had no one
+to whom she could confide her griefs, no one to tell her that all the
+disgrace would fall back upon herself.
+
+So she had carried out her plan bravely. Putting on a very showy
+costume, so as to attract as much attention as possible, she had spent
+the day in driving about to all the places where she thought she would
+meet most of her acquaintances. Night alone had compelled her to
+return, and she felt broken to pieces, exhausted, upset by unspeakable
+anguish of soul, but upheld by the absurd idea that she had done her
+duty and shown herself worthy of Daniel.
+
+She had just alighted, and was about to pay the coachman, when the
+count's valet came up, and said to her in an almost disrespectful tone
+of voice,--
+
+"My master has ordered me to tell you to come to him as soon as you
+should come home."
+
+"Where is my father?"
+
+"In the large reception-room."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"No. The countess, Mrs. Brian, and M. Elgin are with him."
+
+"Very well. I am coming."
+
+Gathering all her courage, and looking whiter and colder than the
+marble of the statues in the vestibule, she went to the reception-
+room, opened the door, and entered stiffly.
+
+"Here you are!" exclaimed Count Ville-Handry, restored to a certain
+degree of calmness by the very excess of his wrath,--"here you are!"
+
+"Yes, father."
+
+"Where have you been?"
+
+She had at a glance taken in the whole room; and at the sight of the
+new countess, and those whom she called her accomplices, all her
+resentment arose. She smiled haughtily, and said carelessly,--
+
+"I have been at the Bois de Boulogne. In the morning I went out to
+make some purchases; later, knowing that the Duchess of Champdoce is a
+little unwell, and does not go out, I went to lunch with her; after
+that, as the weather was so fine"--
+
+Count Ville-Handry could endure it no longer.
+
+Seizing his daughter by the wrists, he lifted her bodily, and,
+dragging her up to the Countess Sarah, he hurled out,--
+
+"On your knees, unhappy child! on your knees, and ask the best and
+noblest of women to pardon you for all these insults!"
+
+"You hurt me terribly, father," said the young girl coldly.
+
+But the countess had already thrown herself between them.
+
+"For Heaven's sake, madam," she said, "spare your father!"
+
+And, as Henrietta measured her from head to foot with an insulting
+glance, she went on,--
+
+"Dear count, don't you see that your violence is killing me?"
+
+Promptly Count Ville-Handry let his daughter go, and, drawing back, he
+said,--
+
+"Thank her, thank this angel of goodness who intercedes in your
+behalf! But have a care! my patience is at an end. There are such
+things as houses of correction for rebellious children and perverse
+daughters."
+
+She interrupted him by a gesture, and exclaimed with startling
+energy,--
+
+"Be it so, father! Choose among all these houses the very strictest,
+and send me there. Whatever I may have to suffer there, it will be
+better than being here, as long as I see in the place of my mother
+that--woman!"
+
+"Wretch!" howled the count.
+
+He was suffocating. By a violent effort he tore off his cravat; and,
+conscious that he was no longer master of himself, he cried to his
+daughter,--
+
+"Leave me, leave me! or I answer for nothing." She hesitated a moment.
+
+Then, casting upon the countess one more look full of defiance, she
+slowly went out of the room.
+
+
+
+                                 XIV.
+
+"Well, I am sure the count can boast that he has had a curious
+wedding-day."
+
+This was the way the servants spoke at the moment when Henrietta left
+the reception-room. She heard it; and without knowing whether they
+approved her conduct, or laughed at it, she felt gratified, so eager
+is passion for encouragement from anywhere.
+
+But she had not yet gone half-way up the stairs which led to her own
+rooms, when she was held at the place by the sound of all the bells of
+the house, which had been set in motion by a furious hand. She bent
+over the balusters to listen. The servants were rushing about; the
+vestibule resounded with hurried steps; and she distinguished the
+imperious voice of M. Ernest, the count's valet, who called out,--
+
+"Salts, quick! Fresh water. The countess has a nervous attack."
+
+A bitter smile curled Henrietta's lips.
+
+"At least," she said to herself, "I shall have poisoned this woman's
+joy." And, fearing to be caught thus listening, she went up stairs.
+
+But, when she was alone once more, the poor girl failed not to
+recognize the utter futility of her fancied triumph. Whom had she
+wounded, after all? Her father.
+
+However unwell the countess might be to-night,--and perhaps she was
+not really unwell,--she would certainly be well again in the morning;
+and then what would be the advantage of the scandal she had attempted
+in order to ruin her? Now Henrietta saw it very clearly,--now, when it
+was too late.
+
+Worse than that! She fancied that what she had done to-day pledged her
+for the future. The road upon which she had started evidently led
+nowhere. Never mind, it seemed to her miserable cowardice to shrink
+from going on.
+
+Rising with the sun, she was deliberating on what weak point she might
+make her next attack, when there came a knock at the door, and
+Clarissa, her own maid, entered.
+
+"Here is a letter for you, miss," she said. "I have received it this
+moment, in an envelope addressed to me."
+
+Henrietta examined the letter for a long time before opening it,
+studying the handwriting, which she did not know. Who could write to
+her, and in this way, unless it was Maxime de Brevan, to whom Daniel
+had begged her to intrust herself, and who, so far, had given no sign
+of life of himself?
+
+It was M. de Brevan who wrote thus,--
+
+
+ "Madam,--Like all Paris, I also have heard of your proud and noble
+  protest on the day of your father's unfortunate marriage. Egotists
+  and fools will perhaps blame you. But you may despise them; for
+  all the best men are on your side. And my dear Daniel, if he were
+  here, would approve and admire your courage, as I do myself."
+
+
+She drew a full breath, as if her heart had been relieved of a heavy
+burden.
+
+Daniel's friend approved her conduct. This was enough to stifle
+henceforth the voice of reason, and to make her disregard every idea
+of prudence. The whole letter of M. de Brevan was, moreover, nothing
+but a long and respectful admonition to resist desperately.
+
+Farther on he wrote,--
+
+
+ "At the moment of taking the train, Daniel handed me a letter, in
+  which he expresses his innermost thoughts. With a sagacity worthy
+  of such a heart, he foresees and solves in advance all the
+  difficulties by which your step-mother will no doubt embarrass you
+  hereafter. This letter is too precious to be intrusted to the
+  mail, I shall, therefore, get myself introduced at your father's
+  house before the end of the week, and I shall have the honor to
+  put that letter into your own hands."
+
+
+And again,--
+
+
+ "I shall have an opportunity, tomorrow, to send Daniel news from
+  here. If you wish to write to him, send me your letter to-day, Rue
+  Laffitte, No. 62, and I will enclose it in mine."
+
+
+Finally, there came a postscript in these words,--
+
+
+ "Mistrust, above all, M. Thomas Elgin."
+
+
+This last recommendation caused Henrietta particular trouble, and made
+her feel all kinds of vague and terrible apprehensions.
+
+"Why should I mistrust him," she said to herself, "more than the
+others?"
+
+But a more pleasing anxiety soon came to her assistance. What? Here
+was an opportunity to send Daniel news promptly and safely, and she
+was running the risk, by her delays, of losing the chance? She
+hastened to dress; and, sitting down before her little writing-table,
+she went to work communicating to her only friend on earth all her
+sufferings since he had so suddenly left her, her griefs, her
+resentments, her hopes.
+
+It was eleven o'clock when she had finished, having filled eight large
+pages with all she felt in her heart. As she was about to rise, she
+suddenly felt ill. Her knees gave way under her, and she felt as if
+every thing was trembling around her. What could this mean? she
+thought. And now only she remembered that she had eaten nothing since
+the day before.
+
+"I must not starve myself," she said almost merrily to herself. Her
+long chat with Daniel had evidently rekindled her hopes.
+
+She rang the bell; and, when her maid appeared, she said,--
+
+"Bring me some breakfast!"
+
+Miss Ville-Handry occupied three rooms. The first, her sitting-room,
+opened upon the hall; on the right was her bed-chamber; and on the
+left a boudoir with her piano, her music, and her books. When
+Henrietta took her meals up stairs, which of late had happened quite
+often, she ate in the sitting-room.
+
+She had gone in there, and was clearing the table of the albums and
+little trifles which were lying about, so as to hasten matters, when
+the maid reappeared with empty hands.
+
+"Ah, miss!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"The count has given orders not to take any thing up stairs."
+
+"That cannot be."
+
+But a mocking voice from without interrupted her, saying,--
+
+"It is so!"
+
+And immediately Count Ville-Handry appeared, already dressed, curled,
+and painted, bearing the appearance of a man who is about to enjoy his
+revenge.
+
+"Leave us!" he said to the maid-servant.
+
+And, as soon as Clarissa had left the room, he turned to Henrietta
+with these words,--
+
+"Yes, indeed, my dear Henrietta, I have given strict orders not to
+bring you up any thing to eat. Why should you indulge such fancies? I
+ask you. Are you unwell? If you are, we will send for the doctor. If
+not, you will do me the favor to come down and take your meals in the
+dining-room with the family,--with the countess and myself, M. Elgin
+and Mrs. Brian."
+
+"But, father!"
+
+"There is no father who could stand this. The time of weakness is
+past, and so is the time of passion; therefore, you will come down.
+Oh! whenever you feel disposed. You will, perhaps, pout a day, maybe
+two days; but hunger drives the wolf into the village; and on the
+third day we shall see you come down as soon as the bell rings. I have
+in vain appealed to your heart; you see I am forced to appeal to your
+stomach."
+
+Whatever efforts Henrietta might make to remain impassive, the tears
+would come into her eyes,--tears of shame and humiliation. Could this
+idea of starving her into obedience have originated with her father?
+No, he would never have thought of it! It was evidently a woman's
+thought, and the result of bitter, savage hate.
+
+Still the poor girl felt that she was caught; and her heart revolted
+at the ignominy of the means, and the certainty that she would be
+forced to yield. Her cruel imagination painted to her at once the
+exultation of the new countess, when she, the daughter of Count Ville-
+Handry, would appear in the dining-room, brought there by want, by
+hunger.
+
+"Father," she begged, "send me nothing but bread and water, but spare
+me that exposure."
+
+But, if the count was repeating a lesson, he had learned it well. His
+features retained their sardonic expression; and he said in an icy
+tone,--
+
+"I have told you what I desire. You have heard it, and that is
+enough."
+
+He was turning to leave the room, when his daughter held him back.
+
+"Father," she said, "listen to me."
+
+"Well, what is it, now?"
+
+"Yesterday you threatened to shut me up."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"To-day it is I who beseech you to do so. Send me to a convent.
+However harsh and strict the rules may be, however sad life may be
+there, I will find there some relief for my sorrow, and I will bless
+you with all my heart."
+
+He only shrugged his shoulders over and over again; then he said,--
+
+"A good idea! And from your convent you would at once write to
+everybody and everywhere, that my wife had turned you out of the
+house; that you had been obliged to escape from threats and bad
+treatment; you would repeat all the well-known elegies of the innocent
+young girl who is persecuted by a wicked stepmother. Not so, my dear,
+not so!"
+
+The breakfast-bell, which was ringing below, interrupted him.
+
+"You hear, Henrietta," he said. "Consult your stomach; and, according
+to what it tells you, come down, or stay here."
+
+He went out, manifestly quite proud at having performed what he called
+an act of paternal authority, without vouchsafing a glance at his
+daughter, who had sunk back upon a chair; for she felt overcome, the
+poor child! by all the agony of her pride. It was all over: she could
+struggle no longer. People who would not shrink from such extreme
+measures in order to overcome her might resort to the last
+extremities. Whatever she could do, sooner or later she would have to
+succumb.
+
+Hence--why might she not as well give way at once? She saw clearly,
+that, the longer she postponed it, the sweeter would be the victory to
+the countess, and the more painful would be the sacrifice to herself.
+Arming herself, therefore, with all her energy, she went down into the
+dining-room, where the others were already at table.
+
+She had imagined that her appearance would be greeted by some
+insulting remark. Not at all. They seemed hardly to notice her. The
+countess, who had been talking, paused to say, "Good-morning, madam!"
+and then went on without betraying in her voice the slightest emotion.
+
+Henrietta had even to acknowledge that they had been considerate. Her
+plate had not been put by her mother-in-law. A seat had been kept for
+her between Mrs. Brian and M. Elgin. She sat down, and, while eating,
+watched stealthily, and with all her powers of observation, these
+strangers who were henceforth the masters of her destiny, and whom she
+now saw for the first time; for yesterday she had hardly perceived
+them.
+
+She was at once struck, painfully struck, with the dazzling,
+marvellous beauty of Countess Sarah, although she had been shown her
+photograph by her father, and ought thus to have been prepared. It was
+evident that the young countess had barely taken time to put on a
+wrapper before coming down to breakfast. Her complexion was more
+animated than usually. She exhibited all the touching confusion of a
+young bride, and was constantly more or less embarrassed.
+
+Henrietta comprehended but too well the influence such a woman was
+likely to have over an old man who had fallen in love with her. It
+made her tremble. But grim Mrs. Brian appeared to her hardly less
+formidable. She could read nothing in her dull, heavy eye but cold
+wickedness; nothing in her lean, yellow face but an implacable will;
+all the wrinkles seemed to be permanently graven in wax.
+
+She thought, after all, the least to be feared was tall, stiff M.
+Thomas Elgin. Seated by her, he had shown her discreetly some little
+attentions; and, when she observed him more closely, she discovered in
+his eyes something like commiseration.
+
+"And yet," she thought, "it was against him that M. de Brevan warned
+me particularly."
+
+But breakfast was over. Henrietta rose, and having bowed, without
+saying a word, was going back to her room when she met on the stairs
+some of the servants, who were carrying a heavy wardrobe. Upon inquiry
+she learned that, as Sir Thorn and Mrs. Brian were hereafter to live
+in the palace, they were bringing up their furniture.
+
+She shook her head sadly; but in her rooms a greater surprise was
+awaiting her. Three servants were hard at work taking down her
+furniture, under the direction of M. Ernest, the count's valet.
+
+"What are you doing there?" she asked, and "Who has permitted you?"
+
+"We are only obeying the orders of the count, your father," replied M.
+Ernest. "We are getting your rooms ready for Madam Brian."
+
+And, turning round to his colleagues, he said,--
+
+"Go on, men! Take out that sofa; now!"
+
+Overcome with surprise, Henrietta remained petrified where she was,
+looking at the servants as they went on with their work. What? These
+eager adventurers had taken possession of the palace, they invaded it,
+they reigned here absolutely, and that was not enough for them! They
+meant to take from her even the rooms she had occupied, she, the
+daughter of their dupe, the only heiress of Count Ville-Handry! This
+impudence seemed to her so monstrous, that unable to believe it, and
+yielding to a sudden impulse, she went back to the dining-room, and,
+addressing her father, said to him,--
+
+"Is it really true, father, that you have ordered my furniture to be
+removed?"
+
+"Yes, I have done so, my daughter. My architect will transform your
+three rooms into a large reception-room for Mrs. Brian, who had not
+space enough for"--
+
+The young countess made a gesture of displeasure.
+
+"I cannot understand," she said, "how Aunt Brian can accept that."
+
+"I beg your pardon," exclaimed the admirable lady, "this is done
+entirely without my consent."
+
+But the count interposed, saying,--
+
+"Sarah, my darling, permit me to be sole judge in all the arrangements
+that concern my daughter."
+
+Count Ville-Handry's accent was so firm as he said this, that one
+would have sworn the idea of dislodging Henrietta had sprung from his
+own brains. He went on,--
+
+"I never act thoughtlessly, and always take time to mature my
+decisions. In this case I act from motives of the most ordinary
+propriety. Mrs. Brian is no longer young; my daughter is a mere child.
+If one of the two has to submit to some slight inconvenience, it is
+certainly my daughter."
+
+All of a sudden M. Elgin rose.
+
+"I should leave," he began.
+
+Unfortunately the rest of the phrase was lost in an indistinct murmur.
+
+He was no doubt at that moment recalling a promise he had made. And
+resolved not to interfere in the count's family affairs, and, on the
+other hand, indignant at what he considered an odious abuse of power,
+he left the room abruptly. His looks, his physiognomy, his gestures,
+all betrayed these sentiments so clearly, that Henrietta was quite
+touched.
+
+But Count Ville-Handry continued, after a moment's surprise, saying,--
+
+"Therefore, my daughter will hereafter live in the rooms formerly
+occupied by the companion of my--I mean of her mother. They are small,
+but more than sufficient for her. Besides, they have this advantage,
+that they can be easily overlooked from one of our own rooms, my dear
+Sarah; and that is important when we have to deal with an imprudent
+girl, who has so sadly abused the liberty which she enjoyed, thanks to
+my blind confidence."
+
+What should she say? What could she reply?
+
+If she had been alone with her father, she would certainly have
+defended herself; she would have tried to make him reconsider his
+decision; she would have besought him; she might have gone on her
+knees to him.
+
+But here, in the presence of these two women, with the mocking eye of
+Countess Sarah upon her, it was impossible! Ah! she would have died a
+thousand times over rather than to give these miserable adventurers
+the joy and the satisfaction of a new humiliation.
+
+"Let them crush me," she said to herself; "they shall never hear me
+complain, or cry for mercy."
+
+And when her father, who had been quietly watching her, asked,--
+
+"Well?"
+
+"You shall be obeyed this very night," she replied.
+
+And by a kind of miracle of energy, she went out of the room calmly,
+her head on high; without having shed a tear.
+
+But God knew what she suffered.
+
+To give up those little rooms in which she had spent so many happy
+hours, where every thing recalled to her sweet memories, certainly
+that was no small grief: it was nothing however, in comparison with
+that frightful perspective of having to live under the wary eye of
+Countess Sarah, under lock and key.
+
+They would not even leave her at liberty to weep. Her intolerable
+sufferings would not extort a sigh from her that the countess did not
+hear on the other side of the partition, and delight in.
+
+She was thus harassing herself, when she suddenly remembered the
+letter which she had written to Daniel. If M. de Brevan was to have it
+that same day, there was not a moment to lose. Already it was too late
+for the mail; and she would have to send it by a commissionaire.
+
+She rang the bell, therefore, for Clarissa, her confidante, for the
+purpose of sending it to the Rue Laffitte. But, instead of Clarissa,
+one of the housemaids appeared, and said,--
+
+"Your own maid is not in the house. Mrs. Brian has sent her to Circus
+Street. If I can do any thing for you"--
+
+"No, I thank you!" replied Henrietta.
+
+It seemed, then, that she counted for nothing any more in the house.
+She was not allowed to eat in her rooms; she was turned out of her own
+rooms; and the maid, long attached to her service, was taken from her.
+And here she was forced to submit to such humiliations without a
+chance of rebelling.
+
+But time was passing; and every minute made it more difficult to let
+M. de Brevan have her letter in time for the mail.
+
+"Well," said Henrietta to herself, "I will carry it myself."
+
+And although she had, perhaps, in all her life not been more than
+twice alone in the street, she put on her bonnet, wrapped herself up
+in a cloak, and went down swiftly.
+
+The concierge, a large man, very proud of his richly laced livery, was
+sitting before the little pavilion in which he lived, smoking, and
+reading his paper.
+
+"Open the gates!" said Henrietta.
+
+But the man, without taking his pipe out of his mouth, without even
+getting up from his seat, answered in a surly tone,--
+
+"The count has sent me orders never to let you go out without a verbal
+or written permission; so that"--
+
+"Impudence!" exclaimed Henrietta.
+
+And resolutely she went up to the ponderous gates of the court-yard,
+stretching out her hand to pull the bolt. But the man, divining her
+intention, and quicker than she, had rushed up to the gate, and,
+crying out as loud as he could, he exclaimed,--
+
+"Miss, miss! Stop! I have my orders, and I shall lose my place."
+
+At his cries a dozen servants who were standing idly about in the
+stables, the vestibule, and the inner court, came running up. Then Sir
+Thorn appeared, ready to go out on horseback, and finally the count
+himself.
+
+"What do you want? What are you doing there?" he asked his daughter.
+
+"You see, I want to go out."
+
+"Alone?" laughed the count. Then he continued harshly, pointing at the
+concierge,--
+
+"This man would be instantly dismissed if he allowed you to leave the
+house alone. Oh, you need not look at me that way! Hereafter you will
+only go out when, and with whom, it pleases me. And do not hope to
+escape my watchful observation. I have foreseen every thing. The
+little gate to which you had a key has been nailed up. And, if ever a
+man should dare to steal into the garden, the gardeners have orders to
+shoot him down like a dog, whether it be the man with whom I caught
+you the other day, or some one else."
+
+Under this mean and cowardly insult Henrietta staggered; but,
+immediately collecting herself, she exclaimed,--
+
+"Great God! Am I delirious? Father, are you aware of what you are
+saying?"
+
+And, as the suppressed laughter of the servants reached her, she added
+with--almost convulsive vehemence,--
+
+"At least, say who the man was with whom I was in the garden, so that
+all, all may hear his name. Tell them that it was M. Daniel Champcey,
+--he whom my sainted mother had chosen for me among all,--he whom for
+long years you have daily received at your house, to whom you have
+solemnly promised my hand, who was my betrothed, and who would now be
+my husband, if we had chosen to approve of your unfortunate marriage.
+Tell them that it was M. Daniel Champcey, whom you had sent off the
+day before, and whom a crime, a forgery committed by your Sarah,
+forced to go to sea; for he had to be put out of the way at any
+/hazard/. As long as he was in Paris, you would never have dared treat
+me as I am treated."
+
+Overcome by this unexpected violence, the count could only stammer out
+a few incoherent words. Henrietta was about to go on, when she felt
+herself taken by the arm, and gently but irresistibly taken up to the
+house. It was Sir Thorn, who tried to save her from her own
+excitement. She looked at him; a big tear was slowly rolling down the
+cheek of the impassive gentleman.
+
+Then, when he had led her as far as the staircase, and she had laid
+hold of the balusters, he said,--
+
+"Poor girl!"
+
+And went away with rapid steps.
+
+Yes, "poor girl" indeed!
+
+Her resolve was giving way under all these terrible blows; and seized
+with a kind of vertigo, out of breath, and almost beside herself, she
+had rushed up the steps, feeling as if she still heard the abominable
+accusations of her father, and the laughter of the servants.
+
+"O God," she sobbed, "have pity on me!"
+
+She felt in her heart that she had no hope left now but God, delivered
+up as she was to pitiless adversaries, sacrificed to the implacable
+hatred of a stepmother, abandoned by all, and betrayed and openly
+renounced by her own father.
+
+Hour by hour she had seen how, by an incomprehensible combination of
+fatal circumstances, the infernal circle narrowed down, within which
+she was wretchedly struggling, and which soon would crush her
+effectually. What did they want of her? Why did they try every thing
+to exasperate her to the utmost? Did they expect some catastrophe to
+result from her despair?
+
+Unfortunately, she did not examine this question carefully, too
+inexperienced as she was to suspect the subtle cunning of people whose
+wickedness would have astonished a criminal judge. Ah, how useful one
+word from Daniel would have been to her at this crisis! But, trembling
+with anguish for his betrothed, the unhappy man had not dared repeat
+to her the terrible words which had escaped M. de Brevan, in his first
+moment of expansion,--
+
+"Miss Brandon leaves the dagger and the poisoned cup to fools, as too
+coarse and too dangerous means to get rid of people. She has safer
+means to suppress those who are in her way--means which justice never
+discovers."
+
+Lost in sombre reflections, the poor girl was forgetting the hour, and
+did not notice that it had become dark already, when she heard the
+dinner-bell ring. She was free not to go down; but she revolted at the
+idea that the Countess Sarah might think her overcome. So she said to
+herself,--
+
+"No. She shall never know how much I suffer!"
+
+Ringing, then, for Clarissa, who had come back, she said,--
+
+"Come, quick, dress me!"
+
+And in less than five minutes she had arranged her beautiful hair, and
+put on one of her most becoming dresses. While changing her dress, she
+noticed the rustling of paper.
+
+"Ah!" she said to herself, "my letter to Daniel. I had forgotten it."
+
+Was it already too late to send it to M. de Brevan? Probably it was.
+But why might she not try, at least? So she gave it to Clarissa,
+saying,--
+
+"You will take a cab, and take this letter immediately to M. de
+Brevan, Rue Laffitte, No. 62. If he is out, you will leave it, telling
+the people to be sure to give it to him as soon as he comes in. You
+can find some excuse, if they should ask you why you are going out. Be
+discreet."
+
+She herself went down stairs, so determined to conceal her emotion,
+that she actually had a smile on her lips as she entered the dining-
+room. The fever that devoured her gave to her features unwonted
+animation, and to her eyes a strange brilliancy. Her beauty,
+ordinarily a little impaired, shone forth once more in amazing
+splendor, so as to eclipse almost that of the countess.
+
+Even Count Ville-Handry was struck by it, and exclaimed, glancing at
+his young wife,--
+
+"Oh, oh!"
+
+Otherwise, this was the only notice which was taken of Henrietta.
+After that, no one seemed to mind her presence, except M. Elgin, whose
+eye softened whenever he looked at her. But what was that to her?
+Affecting a composure which she was far from possessing, she made an
+effort to eat, when a servant entered, and very respectfully whispered
+a few words in the ear of the countess.
+
+"Very well," she said; "I'll be there directly."
+
+And, without vouchsafing an explanation, she left the table, and
+remained perhaps ten minutes away.
+
+"What was it?" asked Count Ville-Handry, with an accent of tenderest
+interest, when his young wife reappeared.
+
+"Nothing, my dear," she replied, as she took her seat again,--
+"nothing, some orders to give."
+
+Still Henrietta thought she noticed under this apparent indifference
+of her step-mother an expression of cruel satisfaction. More than
+that, she fancied she saw the countess and Mrs. Brian rapidly exchange
+looks, one saying, "Well," and the other answering, "All right."
+
+The poor girl, prejudiced as she was, felt as if she had been stabbed
+once more to the heart.
+
+"These wretches," she thought, "have prepared another insult for me."
+
+This suspicion took so powerfully hold of her, that when dinner was
+over, instead of returning to her rooms, she followed her father and
+his new "friends" into the sitting-room. Count Ville-Handry spoke of
+Mrs. Brian and M. Elgin always as "the family."
+
+They did not long remain alone. The count and his young wife had
+probably let it be known that they would be at home that evening; and
+soon a number of visitors came in, some of them old friends of the
+family, but the great majority intimates from Circus Street. Henrietta
+was too busy watching her stepmother to notice how eagerly she herself
+was examined, what glances they cast at her, and how careful the
+married ladies, as well as the young girls, were to leave her alone.
+It required a brutal scene to open her mind to the truth, and to bring
+her thoughts back to the horrible reality of her situation. That scene
+came but too soon.
+
+As the visitors increased, the conversation had ceased to be general,
+and groups had formed; so that two ladies came to sit down close by
+Henrietta. They were apparently friends of the young countess, for she
+did not know them, and one of them had a strong foreign accent. They
+were talking. Instinctively Henrietta listened.
+
+"Why did you not bring your daughter?" asked one of them.
+
+"How could I?" replied the other. "I would not bring her here for the
+world. Don't you know what kind of a woman the count's daughter is? It
+is incredible, and almost too scandalous. On the day of her father's
+marriage she ran away with somebody, by the aid of a servant, who has
+since been dismissed; and they had to get the police to help them
+bring her back. If it had not been for our dear Sarah, who is goodness
+itself, they would have sent her to a house of correction."
+
+A stifled cry interrupted them. They looked round. Henrietta had
+suddenly been taken ill, and had fallen to the ground. Instantly, and
+with one impulse, everybody was up. But the honorable M. Elgin had
+been ahead of them all, and had rushed up with such surprising
+promptness at the very moment when the accident happened, that it
+almost looked as if he had had a presentiment, and was watching for
+the precise time when his assistance would be needed.
+
+Raising Henrietta with a powerful arm, he laid her on a sofa, not
+forgetting to slip a cushion under her head. Immediately the countess
+and the other ladies crowded around the fainting girl, rubbing the
+palms of her hands, moistening her temples with aromatic vinegar and
+cologne, and holding bottles of salts persistently to her nostrils.
+
+Still all efforts to bring her to remained sterile; and this was so
+extraordinary, that even Count Ville-Handry began to be moved,
+although at first he had been heard to exclaim,--
+
+"Pshaw! Leave her alone. It is nothing."
+
+The mad passion of senile love had not yet entirely extinguished in
+him the instincts of a father; and anxiety rekindled the affection he
+had formerly felt for his child. He rushed, therefore, to the
+vestibule, calling out to the servants who were there on duty,--
+
+"Quick! Let some one run for the doctor; never mind which,--the
+nearest!"
+
+This acted as a signal for the guests to scatter at once. Finding that
+this fainting-fit lasted too long, and fearing perhaps a fatal
+termination, a painful scene, and tears, they slyly slipped out, one
+by one, and escaped.
+
+In this way the countess, Mrs. Brian, M. Elgin, and the unhappy father
+found themselves soon once more alone with poor Henrietta, who was
+still unconscious.
+
+"We ought not to leave her here," said Countess Sarah; "she will be
+better in her bed."
+
+"Yes, that is true, you are right!" replied the count. "I shall have
+her carried to her room."
+
+And he was stretching out his hand to pull the bell, when Sir Thorn
+stopped him, saying in a voice of deep emotion,--
+
+"Never mind, count. I'll carry her myself."
+
+And, without waiting for an answer, he took her up like a feather, and
+carried her to her room, followed by Count Ville-Handry, and his young
+wife. He could, of course, not remain in Henrietta's room; but it
+looked as if he could not tear himself away. For some time the
+servants, quite amazed, saw him walk up and down the passage with
+feverish steps, and, in spite of his usual impassiveness, giving all
+the signs of extraordinary excitement. Every ten minutes he paused in
+his walk to ask at the door, with a voice full of anxiety,--
+
+"Well?"
+
+"She is still in the same condition," was the answer.
+
+In the meantime two physicians had arrived, but without obtaining any
+better results than the countess and her friends. They had exhausted
+all the usual remedies for such cases, and began, evidently, to be not
+a little surprised at the persistency of the symptoms. Nor could Count
+Ville-Handry suppress his growing anxiety as he saw them consulting in
+the recess of one of the windows, discussing more energetic means to
+be employed. At last, toward midnight, Sir Thorn saw the young
+countess come out of Henrietta's room.
+
+"How is she?" he cried out.
+
+Then the countess said, speaking very loud, so as to be heard by the
+servants,--
+
+"She is coming to; and that is why I am leaving her. She dislikes me
+so terribly, that poor unhappy child, that I fear my presence might do
+her harm."
+
+Henrietta had indeed recovered her consciousness. First had come a
+shiver running over her whole body; then she had tried painfully and
+repeatedly to raise herself on her pillows, looking around,--
+
+Evidently she did not remember what had happened, and mechanically
+passed her hand to and fro over her brow, as if to brush away the dark
+veil that was hanging over her mind, looking with haggard eyes at the
+doctors, at her father, and at her confidante, Clarissa, who knelt by
+her bedside, weeping.
+
+At last, when, all of a sudden, the horrid reality broke upon her
+mind, she threw herself back, and cried out,--
+
+"O God!"
+
+But she was saved; and the doctors soon withdrew, declaring that there
+was nothing to apprehend now, provided their prescriptions were
+carefully observed. The count then came up to his daughter, and,
+taking her hands, asked her,--
+
+"Come, child. What has happened? What was the matter?"
+
+She looked upon him in utter despair, and then said in a low voice,--
+
+"Nothing! only you have ruined me, father."
+
+"How, how?" said the count. "What do you mean?"
+
+And very much embarrassed, perhaps angry against himself, and trying
+to find an excuse for what he had done, he added, simpering,--
+
+"Is it not your own fault? Why do you treat Sarah so badly, and do all
+you can to exasperate me?"
+
+"Yes, you are right. It is my fault," murmured Henrietta.
+
+She said it in a tone of bitter irony now; but afterwards, when she
+was alone, and more quiet, reflecting in the silence of the night, she
+had to acknowledge, and confess to herself, that it was so. The
+scandal by which she had intended to crush her step-mother had fallen
+back upon herself, and crushed her.
+
+Still, the next morning she was a little better; and, in spite of all
+that Clarissa could say, she would get up, and go down stairs, for all
+her hopes henceforth depended on that letter written by Daniel. She
+had been waiting day after day for M. de Brevan, who was to bring it
+to her; and for nothing in the world would she have been absent when
+he came at last.
+
+But she waited for him in vain that day, and four days after.
+
+Attributing his tardiness to some new misfortune, she thought of
+writing to him, when at last, on Tuesday,--the day which the countess
+had chosen for her reception-day,--but not until the room was already
+quite full of company, the servant announced,--"M. Palmer, M. de
+Brevan!"
+
+Seized with most violent emotions, Henrietta turned round suddenly,
+casting upon the door one of those glances in which a whole soul is
+read at once. At last she was to know him whom her Daniel had called
+his second self. Two men entered: one, quite old, had gray hair, and
+looked as grave and solemn as a member of parliament; the other, who
+might be thirty or thirty-five years old, looked cold and haughty,
+having thin lips and a sardonic smile.
+
+"That is the man!" said Henrietta to herself; "that is Daniel's
+friend!"
+
+At first she disliked him excessively. Upon examining him more
+closely, she thought his composure affected, and his whole appearance
+lacking in frankness. But she never thought for a moment of
+distrusting M. de Brevan. Daniel had blindly recommended him to her;
+and that was enough. She had been too severely punished when she tried
+to follow her own inspirations, ever to think of repeating the
+experiment.
+
+Still she kept him in view. After having been presented to the
+Countess Sarah and her husband, he had thrown himself into the crowd,
+and managed, after a while, to get near to her. He went from one group
+to another, throwing a word to each one, gaining thus, insensibly, and
+without affectation, a small chair, which was vacant, by the side of
+Henrietta.
+
+And the air of perfect indifference with which he took possession of
+it would have made you think he had fully measured the danger of
+risking a confidential talk with a young lady under the eyes of fifty
+or sixty persons. He commenced with some of those set phrases which
+furnish the currency of society, speaking loud enough to be heard by
+the neighbors, and to satisfy their curiosity, if they should have a
+fancy for listening. As he noticed that Henrietta had turned very red,
+and looked overcome, while fixing most anxiously her eyes upon him, he
+even said,--
+
+"I pray you, madam, affect a little more indifference. Smile; we may
+be watched. Remember that we must not know each other; that we are
+perfect strangers to each other."
+
+Then he began in a very loud voice to sing the praise of the last new
+play that had been performed, until finally, thinking that he had put
+all suspicions asleep, he drew a little nearer, and, casting down his
+eyes, he said,--
+
+"It is useless to tell you, madam, that I am M. de Brevan."
+
+"I heard your name announced, sir," replied Henrietta in the same way.
+
+"I have taken the liberty of writing to you, madam, under cover to
+your maid Clarissa, according to Daniel's orders; but I hope you will
+pardon me."
+
+"I have nothing to pardon, sir, but to thank you very much, from the
+bottom of my heart, for your generous devotion."
+
+No man is perfect. A passing blush colored the cheeks of M. de Brevan;
+he had to cough a little; and once or twice passed his hand between
+his collar and his neck, as if he felt troubled in his throat.
+
+"You must have thought," continued Henrietta, "that I was not in great
+haste to avail myself of your kind offer; but--there were difficulties
+--in my way"--
+
+"Oh, yes! I know," broke in M. de Brevan, sadly shaking his head;
+"your maid has told me. For she found me at home, as no doubt you have
+heard; and your letter arrived just in time to be sent on with mine.
+They will gain a fortnight in this way; for the mail for Cochin China
+does not leave more than once a month,--on the /26th/."
+
+But he paused suddenly, or rather raised his voice to resume his
+account of the new drama. Two young ladies had stopped just before
+them. As soon as they were gone, he went on,--
+
+"I bring you, madam, Daniel's letter."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"I have folded it up very small, and I have it here in my hand; if you
+will let your handkerchief fall, I'll slip it into it as I pick it
+up."
+
+The trick was not new; but it was also not very difficult. Still
+Henrietta did it awkwardly enough. Her letting the handkerchief fall
+looked any thing but natural; and, when she took it back again, she
+was all eagerness. Then, when she felt the crisp paper under the folds
+of the linen, she became all crimson in her face. Fortunately, M. de
+Brevan had the presence of mind to rise suddenly, and to move his
+chair so as to help her in concealing her embarrassment. Then, when he
+saw her calm again, he sat down once more, and went on, with an accent
+of deep interest,--
+
+"Now, madam, permit me to inquire after your position here."
+
+"It is terrible."
+
+"Do they harass you?"
+
+"Oh, fearfully!"
+
+"No doubt, your step-mother?"
+
+"Alas! who else would do it? But she dissembles, veiling her malignity
+under the most affected gentleness. In appearance she is all kindness
+to me. And my poor father becomes a willing instrument in her hands,--
+my poor father, formerly so kind, and so fond of me!"
+
+She was deeply moved; and M. de Brevan saw the tears starting in her
+eyes. Quite frightened, he said,--
+
+"Madam, for Heaven's sake control yourself!"
+
+And, anxious to turn Henrietta's thoughts from her father, he asked,--
+
+"How is Mrs. Brian to you?"
+
+"She always takes sides against me."
+
+"Naturally. And Sir Thorn?"
+
+"You wrote me that I should mistrust him particularly, and so I do;
+but, I must confess, he alone seems to be touched by my misfortunes."
+
+"Ah! that is the very reason why you ought to fear him."
+
+"How so?"
+
+M. de Brevan hesitated, and then answered, speaking very rapidly, and
+after having looked around cautiously,--
+
+"Because M. Elgin might very well cherish a hope of replacing Daniel
+in your heart, and of becoming your husband."
+
+"Great God!" exclaimed Henrietta, sinking back in her chair with an
+expression of horror. "Is it possible?"
+
+"I am quite sure of it," replied M. Brevan.
+
+And, as if he had been frightened himself by what he had said, he
+added,--
+
+"Yes, I am quite sure. I have read the heart of that man; and before
+long you will have some terrible evidence of his intentions. But I
+pray, madam, let this remain a secret between us, to be kept
+religiously. Never allow yourself the slightest allusion."
+
+"What can I do?" murmured the poor girl, "what can I do? You alone,
+sir, can advise me."
+
+For some time M. de Brevan continued silent; then he said in a very
+sad voice,--
+
+"My experience, madam, supplies me with but one advice,--be patient;
+say little; do as little as possible; and endeavor to appear
+insensible to their insults. I would say to you, if you will excuse
+the triviality of the comparison, imitate those feeble insects who
+simulate death when they are touched. They are defenceless; and that
+is their only chance of escape."
+
+He had risen; and, while bowing deeply before Henrietta, he added,--
+
+"I must also warn you, madam, not to be surprised if you see me doing
+every thing in my power for the purpose of winning the good-will of
+your step-mother. Believe me, if I tell you that such duplicity is
+very distasteful to my character. But I have no other way to obtain
+the privilege of coming here frequently, of seeing you, and of being
+useful to you, as I have promised your friend Daniel."
+
+
+
+                                 XV.
+
+During the last visits which Daniel had paid to Henrietta, he had not
+concealed from her the fact that Maxime de Brevan had formerly been
+quite intimate with Sarah Brandon and her friends. But still, in
+explaining his reasons for trying to renew these relations, M. de
+Brevan had acted with his usual diplomacy.
+
+But for this, she might have conceived some vague suspicions when she
+saw him, soon after he had left her, enter into a long conversation
+with the countess, then speak with Sir Thorn, and finally chat most
+confidentially with austere Mrs. Brian. But now, if she noticed it
+all, she was not surprised. Her mind was, in fact, thousands of miles
+away. She thought only of that letter which she had in her pocket, and
+which was burning her fingers, so to say. She could think of nothing
+else.
+
+What would she not have given for the right to run away and read it at
+once? But adversity was teaching her gradually circumspection; and she
+felt it would be unwise to leave the room before the last guests had
+departed. Thus it was past two o'clock in the morning before she could
+open the precious letter, after having dismissed her faithful
+Clarissa.
+
+Alas! she did not find what she had hoped for,--advice, or, better
+than that, directions how she should conduct herself. The fact is,
+that in his terrible distress, Daniel no longer was sufficiently
+master of himself to look calmly at the future, and to weigh the
+probabilities. In his despair he had filled three pages with
+assurances of his love, with promises that his last thoughts would be
+for her, and with prayers that she would not forget him. There were
+hardly twenty lines left for recommendations, which ought to have
+contained the most precise and minute details.
+
+All his suggestions, moreover, amounted to this,--arm yourself with
+patience and resignation till my return. Do not leave your father's
+house unless in the last extremity, in case of pressing danger, and
+under no circumstances without first consulting Maxime.
+
+And to fill up the measure, from excessive delicacy, and fearing to
+wound his friend's oversensitive feelings, Daniel had omitted to
+inform Henrietta of certain most important circumstances. Thus he only
+told her, that, if flight became her only means of escape from actual
+danger, she need not hesitate from pecuniary considerations; that he
+had foreseen every thing, and made the needful preparations.
+
+How could she guess from this, that the unlucky man, carried away and
+blinded by passion, had intrusted fifty or sixty thousand dollars, his
+entire fortune, to his friend Maxime? Still the two friends agreed too
+fully on the same opinion to allow her to hesitate. Thus, when she
+fell asleep, she had formed a decision. She had vowed to herself that
+she would meet all the torments they might inflict upon her, with the
+stoicism of the Indian who is bound to the stake, and to be, among her
+enemies, like a dead person, whom no insult can galvanize into the
+semblance of life.
+
+During the following weeks it was not so difficult for her to keep her
+promises. Whether it were weariness or calculation, they seemed to
+forget her. Except at meals, they took no more notice of her than if
+she had not been in existence.
+
+That sudden access of affection which had moved Count Ville-Handry on
+that evening when he thought his daughter in danger had long since
+passed away. He only honored her with ironical glances, and never
+addressed a word to her. The countess observed a kind of affectionate
+reserve, like a well-disposed person who has seen all her advances
+repelled, and who is hurt, but quite ready to be friends at the first
+sign. Mrs. Brian never opened her thin lips but to growl out some
+unpleasant remark, of which a single word was intelligible: shocking!
+There remained the Hon. M. Elgin, whose sympathetic pity showed itself
+daily more clearly. But, since Maxime's warning, Henrietta avoided him
+anxiously.
+
+She was thus leading a truly wretched life in this magnificent palace,
+in which she was kept a prisoner by her father's orders; for such she
+was; she could no longer disguise it from herself. She felt at every
+moment that she was watched, and overlooked most jealously, even when
+they seemed to forget her most completely. The great gates, formerly
+almost always open, were now kept carefully closed; and, when they
+were opened to admit a carriage, the concierge mounted guard before
+them, as if he were the keeper of a jail. The little garden-gate had
+been secured by two additional enormous locks; and whenever Henrietta,
+during her walks in the garden, came near it, she saw one of the
+gardeners watch her with anxious eyes. They were apparently afraid,
+not only that she might escape, but that she might keep up secret
+communications with the outer world. She wanted to be clear about
+that; and one morning she asked her father's permission to send to the
+Duchess of Champdoce, and beg her to come and spend the day with her.
+But Count Ville-Handry brutally replied that he did not want to see
+the Duchess of Champdoce; and that, besides, she was not in Paris, as
+her husband had taken her south to hasten her recovery.
+
+On another occasion, toward the end of February, and when several days
+of fine spring weather had succeeded each other, the poor child could
+not help expressing a desire to go out and breathe a little fresh air.
+Her father said, in reply to her request,--"Every day, your mother and
+I go out and drive for an hour or two in the Bois de Boulogne. Why
+don't you go with us?"
+
+She said nothing. She would sooner have allowed herself to be cut to
+pieces than to appear in public seated by the side of the young
+countess and in the same carriage with her.
+
+Months passed thus without her having put a foot outside of the
+palace, except her daily attendance at mass at eight o'clock on Sunday
+mornings. Count Ville-Handry had not dared to refuse her that; but he
+had added the most painful and most humiliating conditions. On these
+occasions M. Ernest, his valet, accompanied her, with express orders
+not to let her speak to any one whatsoever, and to "apprehend" her
+(this was the count's own expression), and to bring her back forcibly,
+if needs be, if she should try to escape.
+
+But in vain they multiplied the insults; they did not extort a single
+complaint. Her unalterable patience would have touched ordinary
+executioners. And yet she had no other encouragement, no other
+support, but what she received from M. de Brevan.
+
+Faithful to the plan which he had mentioned to her, he had managed so
+well as gradually to secure the right to come frequently to the house.
+He was on the best terms with Mrs. Brian; and the count invited him to
+dinner. At this time Henrietta had entirely overcome her prejudice
+against him. She had discovered in M. de Brevan such a respectful
+interest in her welfare, such almost womanly delicacy, and so much
+prudence and discretion, that she blessed Daniel for having left her
+this friend, and counted upon his devotion as upon that of a brother.
+
+Was it not he, who, on certain evenings, when she was well-nigh
+overcome by despair, whispered to her,--
+
+"Courage; here is another day gone! Daniel will soon be back!"
+
+But the more Henrietta was left to the inspirations of solitude, and
+compelled to live within herself only, the more she observed all that
+was going on around her. And she thought she noticed some very strange
+changes. Never would Count Ville-Handry's first wife have been able to
+recognize her reception-rooms. Where was that select society which had
+been attracted by her, and which she had fashioned into something like
+a court, in which her husband was king? The palace had become, so to
+say, the headquarters of that motley society which forms the "Foreign
+Legion" of pleasure and of scandal.
+
+Sarah Brandon, now Countess Ville-Handry, was surrounded by that
+strange aristocracy which has risen upon the ruins of old Paris,--a
+contraband aristocracy, a dangerous kind of high life, which, by its
+unheard-of extravagance and mysterious splendor, dazzles the
+multitude, and puzzles the police.
+
+The young countess did not exactly receive people notoriously tainted.
+She was too clever to commit such a blunder; but she bestowed her
+sweetest smiles upon all those equivocal Bohemians who represent all
+races, and whose revenues come much less from good acres in the broad
+sunlight than from the credulity and stupidity of mankind.
+
+At first Count Ville-Handry had been rather shocked by this new world,
+whose manners and customs were unknown to him, and whose language even
+he hardly understood. But it had not taken long to acclimatize him.
+
+He was the firm, the receiver of the fortune, the flag that covers the
+merchandise, the master, in fine, although he exercised no authority.
+All these titles secured to him the appearance of profound respect;
+and all vied with each other in flattering him to the utmost, and
+paying him court in the most abject manner. This led him to imagine
+that he had recovered the prestige he had enjoyed in former days,
+thanks to the skilful management of his first wife; and he assumed a
+new kind of grotesque importance commensurate with his revived vanity.
+
+He had, besides, gone to work once more most industriously. All the
+business men who had called upon him before his marriage already
+reappeared now, accompanied by that legion of famished speculators,
+whom the mere report of a great enterprise attracts, like the flies
+settling upon a lump of sugar. The count shut himself up with these
+men in his study, and often spent the whole afternoon with them there.
+
+"Most probably something is going on there," thought Henrietta.
+
+She was quite sure of it when she saw her father unhesitatingly give
+up the splendid suite of apartments in the lower story of the palace,
+which were cut up into an infinite number of small rooms. On the doors
+there appeared, one by one, signs not usually found in such houses;
+as, "Office," "Board Room," "Secretary," "Cashier's Room."
+
+Then office-furniture appeared in loads,--tables, desks, chairs; then
+mountains of huge volumes; and at last two immense safes, as large as
+a bachelor's-lodging.
+
+Henrietta was seriously alarmed, and knowing beforehand that no one in
+the house would answer her questions, she turned to M. de Brevan. In
+the most off-hand manner he assured her that he knew nothing about it,
+but promised to inquire, and to let her know soon.
+
+There was no necessity; for one morning,, when Henrietta was wandering
+about listlessly around the offices, which began to be filled with
+clerks, she noticed an immense advertisement on one of the doors.
+
+She went up to it, and read:--
+
+
+  FRANCO-AMERICAN SOCIETY,
+
+  For the development of Pennsylvania petroleum wells.
+
+  Capital,
+  /Ten Million of Francs./
+  Twenty Thousand Shares of 500 Francs each.
+
+  The Charter may be seen at the
+  Office of M. Lilois, N. P.
+
+  /President/,
+  Count Ville-Handry.
+
+  The books for subscription will be opened
+  on the 25th of March.
+
+  principal office, /Palace of Count Ville-Handry, Rue de Varennes/.
+  branch office, /Rue Lepelletier, No. 1p/.
+
+
+At the foot, in small print, was a full explanation of the enormous
+profits which might be expected, the imperative necessity which had
+led to the establishment of the Pennsylvania Petroleum Society, the
+nature of its proposed operations, the immense services which it would
+render to the world at large, and, above all, the immense profits
+which would promptly accrue to the stockholders.
+
+Then there came an account of petroleum or oil wells, in which it was
+clearly demonstrated that this admirable product represented, in
+comparison with other oils, a saving of more than sixty per cent; that
+it gave a light of matchless purity and brilliancy; that it burnt
+without odor; and, above all, that, in spite of what might have been
+said by interested persons, there was no possible danger of explosion
+connected with its use.
+
+"In less than twenty years," concluded the report in a strain of lyric
+prophecy, "petroleum will have taken the place of all the primitive
+and useless illuminating mediums now employed. It will replace, in
+like manner, all the coarse and troublesome varieties of fuel of our
+day. In less than twenty years the whole world will be lighted and
+heated by petroleum; and the oil-wells of Pennsylvania are
+inexhaustible."
+
+A eulogy on the president, Count Ville-Handry, crowned the whole work,
+--a very clever eulogy, which called him a man sent by Providence;
+and, alluding to his colossal fortune, suggested that, with such a
+manager at the head of the enterprise, the shareholders could not
+possibly run any risk.
+
+Henrietta was overwhelmed with surprise. "Ah!" she said to herself,
+"this is what Sarah Brandon and her accomplices were aiming at. My
+father is ruined!"
+
+That Count Ville-Handry should risk all he possessed in this terrible
+game of speculation was not so surprising to Henrietta. But what she
+could not comprehend was this, that he should assume the whole
+responsibility of such a hazardous enterprise, and run the terrible
+risk of a failure. How could he, with his deeply-rooted aristocratic
+prejudices, ever consent to lend his name to an industrial enterprise?
+
+"It must have cost prodigies of patience and cunning," she thought,
+"to induce him to make such a sacrifice, such a surrender of old and
+cherished convictions. They must have worried him terribly, and
+brought to bear upon him a fearful pressure."
+
+She was, therefore, truly amazed, when, two days afterwards, she
+became accidentally a witness to a lively discussion between her
+father and the countess on this very subject of the famous placards,
+which were now scattered all over Paris and France. The countess
+seemed to be distressed by the whole affair, and presented to her
+husband all the objections which Henrietta herself would have liked to
+have urged; only she did it with all the authority she derived from
+the count's passionate love for her. She did not understand, she said,
+how her husband, a nobleman of ancient lineage, could stoop to "making
+money." Had he not enough of it already? Would he be any happier if he
+had twice or thrice as many thousands a year?
+
+He met all these objections with a sweetish smile, like a great artist
+who hears an ignoramus criticise his work. And, when the countess
+paused, he deigned to explain to her in that emphatic manner which
+betrayed his intense conceit, that if he, the representative of the
+very oldest nobility, threw himself into the great movement, it was
+for the purpose of setting a lofty example. He had no desire for
+"filthy lucre," he assured her; he only desired to render his country
+a great service.
+
+"Too dangerous a service!" replied the countess. "If you succeed, as
+you hope, who will thank you for it? No one. More than that, if you
+speak to them of disinterestedness, they will laugh in your face. If
+the thing fails, on the other hand, who is to pay? You. And they will
+call you a dunce into the bargain."
+
+Count Ville-Handry shrugged his shoulders almost imperceptibly; and
+then he said, taking his wife by the hand,--
+
+"Would you love me less if I were ruined?"
+
+She looked at him with her beautiful eyes as if overflowing with
+affection, and replied in a voice full of emotion,--
+
+"God is my witness, my friend, that I should be delighted to be able
+to prove to you that I did not think of money when I married you."
+
+"Sarah!" cried the count in ecstasy, "Sarah, my darling, that was a
+word worth the whole of that fortune which you blame me for risking."
+
+Even if Henrietta had been more disposed to mistrust appearances, she
+would never have supposed that the whole scene was most cunningly
+devised for the purpose of impressing upon the count's feeble
+intellect this idea more forcibly than ever. She was rather inclined
+to believe, and she did believe, that this Petroleum Society,
+conceived by Sir Thorn, was unpleasant to the countess; and that thus
+discord reigned in the enemy's camp.
+
+The result of her meditations was a long letter to a gentleman for
+whom her mother had always entertained a great esteem, the Duke of
+Champdoce. After having explained to him her situation, she told him
+all that she knew of the new enterprise, and besought him to interfere
+whilst it was yet time.
+
+When she had written her letter, she gave it to Clarissa, urging her
+to carry it immediately to its address. Alas! the poor girl was
+rapidly approaching an incident which was to bring about a crisis.
+
+Having by chance followed the maid down stairs, she saw her go into
+the Countess Sarah's room, and hand her the letter.
+
+Was Henrietta thus betrayed even by the girl whom she thought so fully
+devoted to her interests, and since when? Perhaps from the first day.
+Ah, how many things this explained to her which she had hitherto
+wondered at as perfectly incomprehensible!
+
+This last infamy, however, tempted her to lay aside for once her
+carefully-nursed reserve. She rushed into the room, crimson with shame
+and wrath, and said in a fierce tone,--
+
+"Give me that letter, madam!"
+
+Clarissa had fled when she saw her treachery discovered.
+
+"This letter," replied the countess coldly, "I shall hand to your
+father, madam, as it is my duty to do."
+
+"Ah, take care, madam!" broke in the poor girl with a threatening
+gesture; "take care! My patience has its limits."
+
+Her attitude and her accent were so terrible, that the countess
+thought it prudent to put a table between herself and her victim. But
+suddenly a great revolution had taken place in Henrietta's heart. She
+said roughly,--
+
+"Look here, madam, let us have an explanation while we are alone. What
+do you want me to do?"
+
+"Nothing, I assure you."
+
+"Nothing? Who is it, then, that has meanly slandered me, has robbed me
+of my father's affection, surrounds me with spies, and overwhelms me
+with insults? Who forces me to lead this wretched life to which I am
+condemned?"
+
+The countess showed in her features how deeply she was reflecting. She
+was evidently calculating the effect of a new plan.
+
+"You will have it so," she replied resolutely. "Very well, then, I
+will be frank with you. Yes, I am bent on ruining you. Why? You know
+it as well as I do. I will ask you, in my turn, who is it that has
+done every thing that could possibly be done to prevent my marriage?
+Who has endeavored to crush me? Who would like to drive me from this
+house like an infamous person? Is it not you, always you? Yes, you are
+right. I hate you; I hate you unto death, and I avenge myself!"
+
+"Madam!"
+
+"Wait! What had I done to you before my marriage? Nothing. You did not
+even know me by name. They came and told you atrocious stories
+invented by my enemies, and you believed them. Your father told you,
+'They are wicked libels.' What did you answer? That 'those only are
+libelled who deserve it.' I wanted to prove to you that it is not so.
+You are the purest and chastest of girls whom I know; are you not?
+Very well. I defy you to find a single person around you who does not
+believe that you have had lovers."
+
+Extreme situations have this peculiarity, that the principal actors
+may be agitated by the most furious passions, and still outwardly
+preserve the greatest calmness. Thus these two women, who were burning
+with mortal hatred, spoke with an almost calm voice.
+
+"And you think, madam," resumed Henrietta, "that sufferings like mine
+can be long continued?"
+
+"They will be continued till it pleases me to make an end to them."
+
+"Or till I come of age."
+
+The countess made a great effort to conceal her surprise.
+
+"Oh!" she said to herself. "Oh, oh!"
+
+"Or," continued the young girl, "till he returns whom you have taken
+from me, my betrothed, M. Daniel Champcey."
+
+"Stop, madam. You are mistaken. It was not I who sent Daniel away."
+
+Daniel! the countess said so; said familiarly, Daniel! Had she any
+right to do so? How? Whence this extraordinary impudence?
+
+Still Henrietta saw in it only a new insult; no suspicion entered her
+soul, and she replied in the most ironical tone,--
+
+"Then it was not you who sent that petition to the secretary of the
+navy? It was not you who ordered and paid for that forged document
+which caused M. Champcey to be ordered abroad?"
+
+"No; and I told him so myself, the day before he left, in his own
+room."
+
+Henrietta was stunned. What? This woman had gone to see Daniel? Was
+this true? It was not even plausible.
+
+"In his room?" she repeated,--"in his room?"
+
+"Why, yes, in University Street. I foresaw that trick which I could
+not prevent, and I wished to prevent it. I had a thousand reasons for
+wishing ardently that he should remain in Paris."
+
+"A thousand reasons? You? Tell me only one!"
+
+The countess courtesied, as if excusing herself for being forced to
+tell the truth against her inclination, and added simply,--
+
+"I love him!"
+
+As if she had suddenly seen an abyss opening beneath her feet,
+Henrietta threw herself back, pale, trembling, her eyes starting from
+their sockets.
+
+"You---love--Daniel!" she stammered,--"you love him!"
+
+And, agitated by a nervous tremor, she said, laughing painfully,--
+
+"But he--he? Can you hope that he will ever love you?"
+
+"Yes, any day I may wish for it. And I shall wish it the day when he
+returns."
+
+Was she speaking seriously? or was the whole scene only a bit of cruel
+sport? That is what Henrietta was asking herself, as far as she was
+able to control her thoughts; for she felt her head growing dizzy, and
+her thoughts rushed wildly through her mind.
+
+"You love Daniel!" she repeated once more, "and yet you were married
+the very week after his departure!"
+
+"Alas, yes!"
+
+"And what was my father to you? A magnificent prey, which you did not
+like to let escape,--an easy dupe. After all, you acknowledge it
+yourself, it was his fortune you wanted. It was for his money's sake
+that you married him,--you, the young, marvellously-beautiful woman,--
+the old man."
+
+A smile rose upon the lips of the countess, in which she appeared
+herself in all the deep treachery of her secret calculations. She
+broke in, laughing ironically--
+
+"I? I had coveted the fortune of this dear count, my husband? You do
+not think of it, madam? Have you so completely forgotten the zeal with
+which you heard me, only the other day, try to turn him from this
+enterprise in which he is about to embark all he possesses?"
+
+Henrietta hardly knew whether she was awake or asleep. Was she not,
+perhaps, under the influence of one of those hallucinations which
+fevers produce?
+
+"And you dare tell me all these things, me, Count Ville-Handry's own
+daughter, the daughter of your husband?"
+
+"Why not?" asked the countess.
+
+And, shrugging her shoulders, she added in a careless tone,--
+
+"Do you think I am afraid of your reporting me to him? You are at
+liberty to try it. Listen. I think I hear your father's footstep in
+the vestibule; call him in, and tell him what we have been talking
+about."
+
+And, as Henrietta said nothing, she laughed, and said,--
+
+"Ah! you hesitate. You do not dare do it? Well, you are wrong. I mean
+to hand him your letter, and I shall call him."
+
+There was no need for it; for at the same moment the count entered,
+followed by austere, grim Mrs. Brian. As he perceived his wife and his
+daughter, his face lighted up immediately; and he exclaimed,--
+
+"What? You are here, both of you, and chatting amicably like two
+charming sisters? My Henrietta has come back to her senses, I trust."
+
+They were both silent; and, seeing how they looked at each other with
+fierce glances, he went on in a tone of great bitterness--
+
+"But no, it is not so! I am not so fortunate. What is the matter? What
+has happened?"
+
+The countess shook her head sadly, and replied,--
+
+"The matter is, that your daughter, during your absence, has written a
+letter to one of my most cruel enemies, to that man who, you know, on
+our wedding-day, slandered me meanly; in fine, to the Duke of
+Champdoce!"
+
+"And has any one of my servants dared to carry that letter?"
+
+"No, my friend! It was brought to me in obedience to your orders; and
+the young lady summoned me haughtily to hand her that letter."
+
+"That letter?" cried the count. "Where is that letter?"
+
+The countess gave it to him with these words,--
+
+"Perhaps it would be better to throw it into the fire without reading
+it."
+
+But already he had torn the envelope; and, as he was reading the first
+lines, a crimson blush overspread his temples, and his eyes became
+bloodshot. For Henrietta, sure of the Duke of Champdoce, had not
+hesitated to open her heart to him, describing her situation as it
+really was; painting her step-mother as he had anticipated she would
+be; and at every turn certain phrases were repeated, which were so
+many blows with a dagger to the count.
+
+"This is unheard of!" he growled with a curse. "This is
+incomprehensible! Such perversity has never been known before."
+
+He went and stood before his daughter, his arms crossed, and cried
+with a voice of thunder,--
+
+"Wretch! Will you disgrace us all?"
+
+She made no reply. Immovable like a statue, she did not tremble under
+the storm. Besides, what could she do? Defend herself? She would not
+stoop to do that. Repeat the impudent avowals of the countess? What
+would be the use? Did she not know beforehand that the count would not
+believe her? In the meantime, grim Mrs. Brian had taken a seat by the
+side of her beloved Sarah.
+
+"I," she said, "if I were, for my sins, afflicted with such a
+daughter, I would get her a husband as soon as possible."
+
+"I have thought of that," replied the count; "and I believe I have
+even hit upon an arrangement which"--
+
+But, when he saw his daughter's watchful eye fixed upon him, he
+paused, and, pointing towards the door, said to her brutally,--
+
+"You are in the way here!"
+
+Without saying a word, she went out, much less troubled by her
+father's fury than by the strange confessions which the countess had
+made. She only now began to measure the full extent of her step-
+mother's hatred, and knew that she was too practical a woman to waste
+her time by making idle speeches. Therefore, if she had stated that
+she loved Daniel,--a statement which Henrietta believed to be untrue,
+--if she had impudently confessed that she coveted her husband's
+fortune, she had a purpose in view. What was that purpose? How could
+any one unearth the truth from among such a mass of falsehood and
+deception?
+
+At all events, the scene was strange enough to confound any one's
+judgment. And when Henrietta, that evening, found an opportunity to
+tell M. de Brevan what had happened, he trembled in his chair, and was
+so overwhelmed with surprise, that he forgot his precautions, and
+exclaimed almost aloud,--
+
+"That is not possible!"
+
+There was no doubt that he, usually so impassive, was terribly
+excited. In less than five minutes he had changed color more than ten
+times. You would have thought he was a man who at a single blow sees
+the edifice of all his hopes crumble to pieces. At last, after a
+moment's reflection, he said,--
+
+"Perhaps it would be wise, madam, to leave the house."
+
+But she replied sadly,--
+
+"What? How can I do that? After so many odious calumnies, my honor and
+Daniel's honor oblige me to remain here. He recommends me only to flee
+at the last extremity, and when there is no other resource left. Now,
+I ask you, shall I be more unhappy or more seriously threatened
+to-morrow than I am to-day? Evidently not."
+
+
+
+                                 XVI.
+
+But, this confidence which Henrietta expressed was only apparent. In
+her heart she suffered from the most terrible presentiments. A secret
+voice told her that this scene, no doubt well prepared and carefully
+brought about, was but another step leading to the final catastrophe.
+
+Days, however, passed by, and nothing unusual happened. It looked as
+if they had resolved, after that crisis, to give her a short respite,
+and time to recover.
+
+Even the watch kept upon her movements was not quite as strict as
+heretofore. The countess kept out of her way. Mrs. Brian had given up
+the desire to frighten her by her incessant remarks. Her father she
+saw but rarely; for he was entirely absorbed in the preparations for
+the Pennsylvania Petroleum Society. Thus, a week later, all seemed to
+have entirely forgotten the terrible explosion produced by the letter
+to the Duke of Champdoce.
+
+All? By no means. There was one of the inmates of the palace who
+recalled it daily,--M. Thomas Elgin.
+
+On the very evening after the scene, his generous indignation had so
+far gotten the better of his usual reserve, and his pledge of
+neutrality, that he had taken the Countess Sarah aside, and
+overwhelmed her with sharp reproaches.
+
+"You will have to eat your own words," he had told her, among other
+things, "if you use such abominable means to gratify your hatred."
+
+It is true, that, when he thus took his kinswoman aside, he also took
+pains to be overheard by Henrietta. And besides, for fear, perhaps,
+that she might not fully appreciate his sentiments, he had stealthily
+pressed her hand, and whispered into her ear,--
+
+"Poor, dear girl! But I am here. I shall watch."
+
+This sounded like a promise to afford her protection, which certainly
+would have been efficient if it had been sincere. But was it sincere?
+
+"No; most assuredly not!" said M. de Brevan when he was consulted. "It
+can be nothing but vile hypocrisy and the beginning of an abominable
+farce. You will see, madam."
+
+What Henrietta really saw was, that the Hon. M. Elgin suddenly
+underwent a complete metamorphosis. A new Sir Thorn appeared, whom no
+one would have ever suspected under the cloak of icy reserve which the
+former had worn. His sympathetic pity of former days was succeeded by
+more tender sentiments. It was not pity now, which animated his big,
+blue-china eyes, but the half-suppressed flame of a discreet passion.
+In public he did not commit himself much; but there was no little
+attention which he did not pay Henrietta by stealth. He never left the
+room before her; and, on the reception-evenings, he always took a seat
+by her, and remained there till the end. The most direct result of
+these manoeuvres was to keep M. de Brevan from her. The latter became
+naturally very indignant at this, and began to dislike Sir Thorn to
+such an extent, that he could hardly contain himself.
+
+"Well, madam," he said to Henrietta on one of the few occasions when
+he could speak to her,--"well, what did I tell you? Does the wretch
+show his hand clearly enough now?"
+
+Henrietta discouraged her curious lover as much as she could; but it
+was impossible for her to avoid him, as they lived under the same
+roof, and sat down twice a day at the same table.
+
+"The simplest way," was M. de Brevan's advice, "would be, perhaps, to
+provoke an explanation."
+
+But he did not wait to be asked. One morning, after breakfast, he
+waited for Henrietta in the vestibule; and, when she appeared, he said
+in an embarrassed manner,--
+
+"I must speak to you, madam; it is absolutely necessary."
+
+She did not manifest any surprise, and simply replied,--
+
+"Follow me, sir."
+
+She entered into the parlor, and he came with her. For about a minute
+they remained there alone, standing face to face,--she trying to keep
+up her spirits, although blushing deeply; he, apparently so overcome,
+that he had lost the use of his voice. At last, all of a sudden, and
+as if making a supreme effort, Sir Thorn began in a breathless voice
+to declare, that, according to Henrietta's answer, he would be the
+happiest or the most unfortunate of mortals. Touched by her innocence,
+and the persecutions to which she was exposed, he had at first pitied
+her, then, discovering in her daily more excellent qualities, unusual
+energy, coupled with all the charming bashfulness of a young girl, he
+had no longer been able to resist such marvellous attractions.
+
+Henrietta, still mistress of herself, because she was convinced that
+M. Elgin was only playing a wretched farce, observed him as closely as
+she could, and, when he paused a moment, began,--
+
+"Believe me, sir"--
+
+But he interrupted her, saying with unusual vehemence,--
+
+"Oh! I beseech you, madam, let me finish. Many in my place would have
+spoken to your father; but I thought that would hardly be fair in your
+exceptional position. Still I have reason to believe that Count Ville-
+Handry would look upon my proposals with favor. But then he would
+probably have attempted to do violence to your feelings. Now I wish to
+be indebted to you only, madam, deciding in full enjoyment of your
+liberty; for"--
+
+An expression of intense anxiety contracted the features of his
+usually so impassive face; and he added with great earnestness,--
+
+"Miss Henrietta, I am an honorable man; I love you. Will you be my
+wife?"
+
+By a stroke of instinctive genius, he had found the only argument,
+perhaps, that might have procured credit for his sincerity.
+
+But what did that matter to Henrietta? She began, saying,--
+
+"Believe me, sir. I fully appreciate the honor you do me; but I am no
+longer free"--
+
+"I beseech you"--
+
+"Freely, and among all men, I have chosen M. Daniel Champcey. My life
+is in his hands."
+
+He tottered as if he had received a heavy blow, and stammered with a
+half-extinct voice,--
+
+"Will you not leave me a glimpse of hope?"
+
+"I would do wrong if I did so, sir, and I have never yet deceived any
+one."
+
+But the Hon. M. Elgin was not one of those men who despair easily, and
+give up. He was not discouraged by a first failure; and he showed it
+very soon. The very next day he became a changed man, as if
+Henrietta's refusal had withered the very roots of his life. In his
+carriage, his gestures, and his tone of voice, he betrayed the utmost
+dejection. He looked as if he had grown taller and thinner. A bitter
+smile curled on his lips; and his magnificent whiskers, usually so
+admirably kept, now hung down miserably on his chest. And this intense
+melancholy grew and grew, till it became so evident to all the world,
+that people asked the countess,--
+
+"What is the matter with poor M. Elgin? He looks funereal."
+
+"He is unhappy," was the answer, accompanied by a sigh, which sounded
+as if it had been uttered in order to increase curiosity, and
+stimulate people to observe him more closely. Several persons did
+observe him; and they soon found out that Sir Thorn no longer took his
+seat by Henrietta as formerly, and that he avoided every occasion to
+address her a word.
+
+For all that he was not resigned; far from that. He only laid siege
+from a distance now, spending whole evenings in looking at her from
+afar, absorbed in mute ecstasy. And at all times, incessantly and
+everywhere, she met him, as if he had been her shadow, or as if he had
+been condemned to breathe the air which had been displaced by her
+petticoats. One would have thought him endowed with the gift of
+multiplying himself; for he was inevitably seen wherever she was,--
+leaning against the door-frame, or resting his elbow on the
+mantlepiece, his eyes fixed upon her. And, when she did not see him,
+she felt his looks still weighing her down. M. de Brevan, having been
+made aware of his importunate attentions, seemed to check his
+indignation only with great difficulty. Once or twice he spoke of
+calling out this wretched fellow (so he called Sir Thorn); and, in
+order to quiet him, Henrietta had to repeat to him over and over
+again, that, after such an encounter, he would no longer be able to
+appear at the palace, and would thus deprive her of the only friend to
+whom she could look for assistance.
+
+He yielded; but he said after careful consideration,--
+
+"This abominable persecution cannot go on, madam: this man compromises
+you too dreadfully. You ought to lay your complaint before Count
+Ville-Handry."
+
+She decided to do so, not without great reluctance; but the count
+stopped her at the first word she uttered.
+
+"I think, my daughter, your vanity blinds you. Before M. Elgin, who is
+one of the most eminent financiers in all Europe, should think of a
+little insignificant person like you, he would look a long time
+elsewhere."
+
+"Permit me, father"--
+
+"Stop! If you should, however, not deceive yourself, it would be the
+greatest good luck for you, and an honor of which you ought to be very
+proud indeed. Do you think it would be easy to find a husband for you,
+after all the unpleasant talk to which you have given occasion?"
+
+"I do not wish to marry, father."
+
+"Of course not. However, as such a marriage would meet all my wishes,
+as it would serve to tighten the bonds which unite us with this
+honorable family (if M. Thomas Elgin should really have such
+intentions as you mention), I should know, I think, how to force you
+to marry him. However, I shall speak to him, and see."
+
+He spoke to him indeed, and soon; for the very next morning the
+countess and Mrs. Brian purposely went out, so as to leave Henrietta
+and Sir Thorn alone. The honorable gentleman looked sadder than
+usually. He began thus,--
+
+"Is it really true, madam, that you have made complaint to your
+father?"
+
+"Your pertinacity compelled me to do so," replied Henrietta.
+
+"Is the idea of becoming my wife so very revolting to you?"
+
+"I have told you, sir, I am no longer free."
+
+"Yes, to be sure! You love M. Daniel Champcey. You love him. He knows
+it; for you had told him so, no doubt: and yet he has forsaken you."
+
+Sometimes, in her innermost heart, Henrietta had accused Daniel. But
+what she thought she would permit no one else to think. She replied,
+therefore, haughtily,--
+
+"It was a point of honor with M. Champcey, and it was so with me. If
+he had hesitated, I would have been the first one to say to him, 'Duty
+calls; you must go.'"
+
+Sir Thorn shook his head with a sardonic smile, and said,--
+
+"But he did not hesitate. It is ten months now since he left you; and
+no one knows for how many more months, for how many years, he will be
+absent. For his sake you suffer martyrdom; and, when he returns, he
+may have long since forgotten you."
+
+Her eyes beaming with faith, Henrietta rose to her full height, and
+replied,--
+
+"I believe in Daniel as surely as in myself."
+
+"And if they convinced you that you were mistaken?"
+
+"They would render me a very sad service, which would bring no reward
+to any one."
+
+Sir Thorn's lips moved, as if he were about to answer. A thought
+seemed to stop him. Then in a stifled voice, with a gesture of
+despair, he added,--
+
+"Keep your illusions, madam; and farewell."
+
+He was going to leave the room; but she threw herself in his way,
+crossed her arms, and said to him in an imperative tone,--
+
+"You have gone too far, sir, to retrace your steps. You are bound now
+to justify your insidious insinuations, or, to confess that they were
+false."
+
+Then he seemed to make up his mind, and said, speaking rapidly,--
+
+"You will have it so? Well, be it so. Know, then, since you insist
+upon it, that M. Daniel Champcey has been deceiving you most wickedly;
+that he does not love you, and probably never did love you."
+
+"That is what you say," replied Henrietta.
+
+Her haughty carriage, the disdain, rather than disgust, with which she
+spoke, could not fail to exasperate M. Elgin. He checked himself,
+however, and said, in a short and cutting tone,--
+
+"I say so because it is so; and any one but you, possessing a less
+noble ignorance of evil, would long since have discovered the truth.
+To what do you attribute Sarah's implacable enmity? To the memory of
+your offences on the occasion of her wedding? Poor child! If that had
+been all, her indifference would have given you back your place months
+ago. Jealousy alone is capable of that fierce and insatiable hatred
+which cannot be disarmed by tears or submission,--that hatred which
+time increases, instead of diminishing. Between Sarah and you, Miss
+Henrietta, there stands a man."
+
+"A man?"
+
+"Yes,--M. Daniel Champcey."
+
+Henrietta felt as if a sharp knife had been plunged into her bosom.
+
+"I do not understand you, sir," she said.
+
+He, shrugging his shoulders, and assuming an air of commiseration,
+went on,--
+
+"What? You will not understand that Sarah is your rival; that she has
+loved M. Champcey; that she is still madly in love with him? Ah! they
+have deceived Mrs. Brian and myself cruelly."
+
+"How so?"
+
+He turned his head aside, and murmured, as if speaking to himself,--
+
+"-------- -------- was her lover."
+
+Miss Ville-Handry discerned the truth with admirable instinct, drew
+herself up, and said in her most energetic way,--
+
+"That is false!"
+
+Sir Thorn trembled; but that was all.
+
+"You have asked me to tell the truth," he said coldly, "and I have
+done so. Try to remember. Have you forgotten that little scene, after
+which M. Champcey fled from our house in the middle of the night,
+bareheaded, without taking his overcoat?"
+
+"Sir?"
+
+"Did you not think that was extraordinary? That night, you see, we
+discovered the whole thing. After having been one of the foremost to
+recommend to Sarah to marry your father, M. Champcey came and asked
+her to give up that marriage. He had, before that, tried to have it
+broken off through your agency, madam, using thus his influence over
+you, his betrothed, for the benefit of his passion."
+
+"Ah! You lie impudently, sir!" said Henrietta.
+
+To this charge, which fell like a blow upon his face, he only
+replied,--
+
+"I have proofs."
+
+"What proofs?"
+
+"Letters written by M. Champcey to Sarah. I have obtained two; and I
+have them here in my pocket-book."
+
+He put at the same time his hand to his pocket. She stopped him.
+
+"These letters would prove nothing to me, sir."
+
+"But"--
+
+She cast a withering glance at him, and said, in a voice of unbearable
+contempt,--
+
+"Those who have sent a letter to the Navy Department, which pretended
+to have been written by Daniel, cannot find any difficulty in
+imitating his signature. Let us break off here, sir. I forbid you ever
+to speak to me again."
+
+M. Elgin laughed in a terrible way.
+
+"That is your last word?" he asked.
+
+Instead of answering him, she drew a step aside, thus opening the way
+to the door, at which she pointed with her finger.
+
+"Well," said Sir Thorn with an accent of fierce threatening, "remember
+this; I have sworn you shall be my wife, whether you will or not; and
+my wife you shall be!"
+
+"Leave the room, sir, or I must give it up to you!"
+
+He went out swearing; and, more dead than alive, Henrietta sank into
+an arm-chair. As long as she had been in the presence of the enemy,
+her pride had enabled her to keep up the appearance of absolute faith
+in Daniel; but, now she was alone, terrible doubts began to beset her.
+Was there not something true in the evident exaggerations of the Hon.
+M. Elgin? She was not quite sure. Had not Sarah also boasted of it,
+that she loved Daniel, and that she had been in his room? Finally,
+Henrietta recalled with a shudder, that, when Daniel had told her of
+his adventure in Circus Street, he had appeared embarrassed towards
+the end, and had failed fully to explain the reasons of his flight.
+
+And to crown the matter, when she had tried to draw from M. de Brevan
+additional information on the subject, she had been struck by his
+embarrassment, and the lame and confused way in which he had defended
+his friend.
+
+"Ah, now all is really over!" she thought. "The measure of my
+sufferings is full indeed!"
+
+Unfortunately it was not yet full. A new persecution awaited her,
+infamous, monstrous, by the side of which all the others amounted to
+nothing.
+
+"Whether you will, or not, you shall be mine," had Sir Thorn said; and
+from that moment he was bent upon convincing her that he was not the
+man to shrink from any thing, even unto violence.
+
+He was no longer the sympathetic defender of former days, nor the
+timid lover, nor the sighing, rejected lover, who followed Henrietta
+everywhere. He was, henceforth, a kind of wild beast, pursuing her,
+harassing her, persecuting her, with his eyes glaring at her with
+abominable lust. He no longer looked at her furtively, as formerly;
+but he lay in wait for her in the passages, ready, apparently, to
+throw himself upon her; projecting his lips as if to touch her cheeks,
+and extending his arms as if to seize her around her waist. A drunken
+lackey pursuing a scullion would not have looked and acted more
+impudently.
+
+Terrified, the poor girl threw herself on her knees before her father,
+beseeching him to protect her. But he pushed her back, and reproached
+her for slandering the most honorable and most inoffensive of men.
+Blindness could go no farther.
+
+And Sir Thorn knew probably of her failure; for the next day he looked
+at her, laughing, as if he felt that he now might venture upon any
+thing. And he did venture upon something, that so far would have
+seemed impossible. One evening, or rather one night, when the count
+and the countess were at a ball, he came and knocked at the door of
+Henrietta's chamber.
+
+Frightened, she rang the bell; and the servants who came up freed her
+from the intruder. But from that moment her terrors had no limit; and,
+whenever the count went out at night with his wife, she barricaded
+herself up in her chamber, and spent the whole night, dressed, in a
+chair. Could she remain any longer standing upon the brink of an abyss
+without name? She thought she could not; and after long and painful
+hesitation, she said one evening to M. de Brevan,--
+
+"My mind is made up; I must flee."
+
+Taken aback, as if he had received a blow upon his head, with his
+mouth wide open, his eyes stretched out, M. de Brevan had turned
+deadly pale; and the perspiration pearled in large drops on his
+temples, while his hands trembled like the eager hands of a man who
+touches, and is about to seize, a long-coveted prize.
+
+"Then," he stammered out, "you are decided; you will leave your
+father's house?"
+
+"I must," she said; and her eyes filled with bright tears. "And the
+sooner I can do it the better; for every moment I spend here now may
+bring a new danger. And yet, before risking any thing decisive, it
+might be better first to write to Daniel's aunt in order to ask her
+about the directions she may have received, and to tell her that very
+soon I shall come to ask for her pity and her protection."
+
+"What? You think of seeking refuge at the house of that estimable
+lady?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+M. de Brevan, now entirely master of himself, and calculating with his
+usual calmness, gravely shook his head, and said,--
+
+"You ought to be careful, madam. To seek an asylum at the house of our
+friend's relative might be a very grave imprudence."
+
+"But Daniel recommended it to me in his letter."
+
+"Yes; but he had not considered the consequences of the advice he gave
+you. Do not deceive yourself; the wrath of your enemies will be
+terrible when they find that you have escaped them. They will pursue
+you; they will employ the police; they will search for you all over
+France. Now, it is evident, that the very first place where they will
+look for you will be Daniel's relatives. The house of the old aunt
+will be watched at once, and most jealously. How can you there escape
+from inquiry and pursuit? It would be folly to hope for safety there."
+
+Pensively Henrietta hung her head. Then she said,--
+
+"Perhaps you are right, sir."
+
+"Now," continued M. de Brevan, "let us see what they would do if they
+should discover you. You are not of age, consequently you are entirely
+dependent on the will of your father. Under the inspiration of your
+step-mother, he would attack Daniel's aunt, on the score of having
+inveigled a minor, and would bring you back here."
+
+She seemed to reflect; then she said suddenly,--"I can implore the
+assistance of the Duchess of Champdoce."
+
+"Unfortunately, madam, they told you the truth. For a year now, the
+Duke of Champdoce and his wife have been travelling in Italy."
+
+A gesture of despair betrayed the terrible dejection of the poor girl.
+
+"Great God!" she said, "what must I do?"
+
+A passing smile appeared on the face of M. de Brevan; and he answered
+in his most persuasive manner,--
+
+"Will you permit me to offer you some advice, madam?"
+
+"Alas, sir! I beg you to do so for Heaven's sake."
+
+"Well, this is the only plan that seems to me feasible. To-morrow
+morning I will rent in a quiet house a suitable lodging, less than
+modest, a little chamber. You will move into it, and await there your
+coming of age, or Daniel's return. No detective will ever think of
+seeking the daughter of Count Ville-Handry in a poor needlewoman's
+garret."
+
+"And I am to stay there alone, forsaken and lost?"
+
+"It is a sacrifice which it seems to me you have to make for safety's
+sake."
+
+She said nothing, weighing the two alternatives,--to remain in the
+house, or to accept M. de Brevan's proposition. After a minute she
+said,--
+
+"I will follow your advice, sir; only"-- She was evidently painfully
+embarrassed, and covered with blushes.
+
+"You see," she said, after long hesitation, "all this will cost money.
+Formerly I used to have always a couple of hundred dollars in my
+drawers somewhere; but now"--
+
+"Madam," broke in M. de Brevan, "madam, is not my whole fortune
+entirely at your disposal?"
+
+"To be sure, I have my jewels; and they are quite valuable."
+
+"For that very reason you ought to be careful not to take them with
+you. We must guard against every thing. We may fail. They may discover
+my share in the attempt; and who knows what charges they would raise
+against me?"
+
+His apprehension alone betrayed the character of the man; and still it
+did not enlighten Henrietta.
+
+"Well, prepare every thing as you think best, sir," she said sadly. "I
+rely entirely upon your friendship, your devotion, and your honor."
+
+M. de Brevan had a slight attack of coughing, which prevented him from
+answering at first. Then, finding that Henrietta was bent upon
+escaping, he tried to devise the means.
+
+Henrietta proposed that they should wait for a night when the count
+would take the countess to a ball. She might then slip into the
+garden, and climb the wall. But the attempt seemed to be too dangerous
+in M. de Brevan's eyes. He said,--
+
+"I think I see something better. Count Ville-Handry is going soon to
+give a great party?"
+
+"The day after to-morrow, Thursday."
+
+"All right. On Thursday, madam, you will complain early in the morning
+already, of a bad headache, and you will send for the doctor. He will
+prescribe something, I dare say, which you will not take; but they
+will think you are sick, and they will watch you less carefully. At
+night, however, towards ten o'clock, you will come down and conceal
+yourself at the foot of the back-stairs, in the corner of the
+courtyard. You can do that, I presume?"
+
+"Very easily, sir."
+
+"In that case all will be right. I will be here with a carriage at ten
+o'clock precisely. My coachman, whom I will instruct beforehand,
+instead of stopping at the great entrance, will pretend to go amiss,
+and stop just at the foot of the staircase. I will jump out; and you,
+you will swiftly jump into the carriage."
+
+"Yes, that also can be done."
+
+"As the curtains will be down, no one will see you. The carriage will
+drive out again, and wait for me outside; and ten minutes later I
+shall have joined you."
+
+The plan being adopted, as every thing depended upon punctuality, M.
+de Brevan regulated his watch by Henrietta's; and then, rising, he
+said,--
+
+"We have already conversed longer than we ought to have done in
+prudence. I shall not speak to you again to-night. Till Thursday."
+
+And with sinking voice, she said,--
+
+"Till Thursday."
+
+
+
+                                XVII.
+
+By this one word Henrietta sealed her destiny; and she knew it. She
+was fully aware of the terrible rashness of her plan. A voice had
+called to her, from her innermost heart, that her honor, her life, and
+all her earthly hopes, had thus been staked upon one card. She foresaw
+clearly what the world would say the day after her flight. She would
+be lost, and could hope for rehabilitation only when Daniel returned.
+
+If she could only have been as sure of the heart of her chosen one as
+she had formerly been! But the cunning innuendoes of the countess, and
+the impudent asseverations of Sir Thorn, had done their work, and
+shaken her faith. Daniel had been absent for nearly a year now, and
+during all that time she had written to him every month; but she had
+received from him only two letters through M. de Brevan,--and what
+letters! Very polite, very cold, and almost without a word of hope.
+
+If Daniel upon his return should abandon her!
+
+And still, the more she reflected with all that lucidity with which
+the approach of a great crisis inspired her, the more she became
+impressed with the absolute necessity of flight. Yes, she must face
+unknown dangers, but only in order to escape from dangers which she
+knew but too well. She was relying upon a man who was almost a
+stranger to her; but was not this the only way to escape from the
+insults of a wretch who had become the boon companion, the friend, and
+the counsellor of her father? Finally, she sacrificed her reputation,
+that is, the appearance of honor; but she saved the reality, honor
+itself.
+
+Ah, it was hard! As long as the day lasted on Wednesday, she was
+wandering about, pale as a ghost, all over the vast palace. She bade
+farewell to this beloved house, full of souvenirs of eighteen years in
+which she had played as a child, where Daniel's voice had caused her
+heart to beat loud and fast, and where her sainted mother had died.
+And in the evening, at table, big tears were rolling down her cheeks
+as she watched the stupidly-triumphant serenity of her father.
+
+The next day, however, Thursday, Henrietta complained, as was agreed
+upon, of a violent headache; and the doctor was sent for. He found her
+in a violent fever, and ordered her to keep her bed. He little knew
+that he was thus restoring the poor girl to liberty. As soon as he had
+left, she rose; and, like a dying person who makes all her last
+dispositions, she hastened to put every thing in order in her drawers,
+putting together what she meant to keep, and burning what she wished
+to keep from the curiosity of the countess and her accomplices.
+
+M. de Brevan had recommended her not to take her jewels. She left
+them, therefore, with the exception of such as she wore every day,
+openly displayed on a /chiffonnier/. The manner of her escape forbade
+her taking much baggage; and still some linen was indispensable. Upon
+reflection it did not seem to her inexpedient to take a small carpet-
+bag, which her mother had given her, and which contained a dressing-
+case, all the articles in which were of solid gold and of marvellously
+fine workmanship. When her preparations were complete, she wrote to
+her father a long letter, in which she explained fully the motives of
+her desperate resolution.
+
+Then she waited. Night had fallen long since; and the last
+preparations for a princely entertainment filled the palace with noise
+and movement. She could hear the hasty steps of busy servants, the
+loud orders of butlers and stewards, the hammer of upholsterers who
+gave here and there a final touch.
+
+Soon there came the rolling of wheels on the fine gravel in the court-
+yard, and the arrival of the first guests.
+
+Henceforth it was for Henrietta only a question of minutes; and she
+counted them by her watch with a terrible beating of her heart. At
+last the hands marked a quarter before ten. Acting almost
+automatically, she rose, threw an immense cashmere shawl over her
+shoulders; and, taking her little bag in her hand, she escaped from
+her room, and slipped along the passages to the servants' stairs.
+
+She went on tiptoe, holding her breath, eye and ear on the watch,
+ready at the smallest noise to run back, or to rush into the first
+open room. Thus she got down without difficulty, reached the dark hall
+at the foot of the staircase; and there in the shade, seated on her
+little bag, she waited, out of breath, her hair moist with a cold
+perspiration, her teeth clattering in her mouth from fear. At last it
+struck ten o'clock; and the vibration of the bell could still be
+heard, when M. de Brevan's /coupe/ stopped at the door.
+
+His coachman was certainly a skilful driver. Pretending to have lost
+the control of his horse, he made it turn round, and forced it back
+with such admirable awkwardness, that the carriage came close up to
+the wall, and the right hand door was precisely in the face of the
+dark little hall in which Henrietta was standing. As quick as
+lightning M. de Brevan jumped out. Henrietta rushed forward. Nobody
+saw any thing.
+
+A moment later the carriage slowly drove out of the court-yard of the
+palace of Count Ville-Handry, and stopped at some little distance.
+
+It was done. In leaving her father's house, Miss Ville-Handry had
+broken with all the established laws of society. She was at the mercy
+now of what might follow; and, according as events might turn out
+favorable or unfavorable, she was saved or lost. But she did not think
+of that. As the danger of being surprised passed away, the feverish
+excitement that had kept her up so far, also subsided, and she was
+lying, undone, on the cushions, when the door suddenly opened, and a
+man appeared. It was M. de Brevan.
+
+"Well, madam," he cried with a strangely embarrassed voice, "we have
+conquered. I have just presented my respects to the Countess Sarah and
+her worthy companions; I have shaken hands with Count Ville-Handry;
+and no one has the shadow of a suspicion." And, as Henrietta said
+nothing, he added,--
+
+"Now I think we ought to lose no time; for I must show myself again at
+the ball as soon as possible. Your lodgings are ready for you, madam;
+and I am going, with your leave, to drive you there."
+
+She raised herself, and said, with a great effort,--
+
+"Do so, sir!"
+
+M. de Brevan had already jumped into the carriage, which started at
+full gallop; and, while they were driving along, he explained to
+Henrietta how she would have to conduct herself in the house in which
+he had engaged a lodging for her. He had spoken of her, he said, as of
+one of his relatives from the provinces, who had suffered a reverse of
+fortune, and who had come to Paris in the hope of finding here some
+way to earn her living.
+
+"Remember this romance, madam," he begged her, "and let your words and
+actions be in conformity with it. And especially be careful never to
+utter my name or your father's. Remember that you are still under age,
+that you will be searched for anxiously, and that the slightest
+indiscretion may put them upon your traces."
+
+Then, as she still kept silent, weeping, he wanted to take her hand,
+and thus noticed the little bag which she had taken.
+
+"What is that?" he asked, in a tone, which, under its affected
+gentleness, betrayed no small dissatisfaction.
+
+"Some indispensable articles."
+
+"Ah! you did not after all take your jewels, madam?"
+
+"No, certainly not, sir!"
+
+Still this persistency on the part of M. de Brevan began to strike her
+as odd; and she would have betrayed her surprise, if the carriage had
+not at that moment stopped suddenly before No. 23 Water Street.
+
+"Here we are, madam," said M. de Brevan.
+
+And, lightly jumping down, he rang the bell at the door, which opened
+immediately. The room of the concierge was still light. M. de Brevan
+walked straight up to it, and opened the door like a man who is at
+home in a house.
+
+"It is I," he said.
+
+A man and a woman, the concierge and his wife, who had been dozing,
+her nose in a paper, started up suddenly.
+
+"Monsieur Maxime!" they said with one voice.
+
+"I bring," said M. de Brevan, "my young kinswoman, of whom I told you,
+Miss Henrietta."
+
+If Henrietta had had the slightest knowledge of Parisian customs, she
+would have guessed from the bows of the concierge, and the courtesies
+of his wife, how liberally they had been rewarded in advance.
+
+"The young lady's room is quite ready," said the man.
+
+"My husband has arranged every thing himself," broke in his wife; "it
+was no trifle, after the papering had been done. And I--I made a fine
+fire there as early as five o'clock, to take out the dampness."
+
+"Let us go up then," said Brevan.
+
+The concierge and his wife, however, were economical people; and the
+gas on the stairs had long since been put out.
+
+"Give me a candlestick, Chevassat," said the woman to her husband.
+
+And with her lighted candle she went ahead, lighting M. de Brevan and
+Henrietta, and stopping at every landing to praise the neatness of the
+house. At last, in the fifth story, at the entrance to a dark passage,
+she opened a door, and said,--
+
+"Here we are! The young lady will see how nice it is."
+
+It might possibly have been nice in her eyes; but Henrietta,
+accustomed to the splendor of her father's palace, could not conceal a
+gesture of disgust. This more than modest chamber looked to her like a
+garret such as she would not have permitted the least of her maids to
+occupy at home.
+
+But never mind! She went in bravely, putting her travelling-bag on a
+bureau, and taking off her shawl, as if to take possession of the
+lodging. But her first impression had not escaped M. de Brevan. He
+drew her into the passage while the woman was stirring the fire, and
+said in a low voice,--
+
+"It is a terrible room; but prudence induced me to choose it."
+
+"I like it as it is, sir."
+
+"You will want a great many things, no doubt; but we will see to that
+to-morrow. To-night I must leave you: you know it is all important
+that I should be seen again at your father's house."
+
+"You are quite right; sir, go, make haste!"
+
+Still he did not wish to go without having once more recommended his
+"young kinswoman" to Mrs. Chevassat. He only left when she had over
+and over again assured him that there was nothing more to be done; and
+then the woman also went down.
+
+The terrible emotions which had shaken and undermined Henrietta during
+the last forty-eight hours were followed now by a feeling of intense
+astonishment at what she had done, at the irrevocable step she had
+taken. Her quiet life had been interrupted by an event which to her
+appeared more stupendous than if a mountain had been moved. Standing
+by the mantle-piece, she looked at her pale face in the little
+looking-glass, and said to herself,--
+
+"Is that myself, my own self?"
+
+Yes, it was she herself, the only daughter of the great Count Ville-
+Handry, here in a strange house, in a wretched garret-room, which she
+called her own. It was she, yesterday still surrounded by princely
+splendor, waited on by an army of servants, now in want of almost
+every thing, and having for her only servant the old woman to whom M.
+de Brevan had recommended her.
+
+Was this possible? She could hardly believe it herself. Still she felt
+no repentance at what she had done. She could not remain any longer in
+her father's house where she was exposed to the vilest insults from
+everybody. Could she have stayed any longer?
+
+"But what is the use," she said to herself, "of thinking of what is
+past? I must not allow myself to think of it; I must shake off this
+heaviness."
+
+And, to occupy her mind, she rose and went about to explore her new
+home, and to examine all it contained. It was one of those lodgings
+about which the owners of houses rarely trouble themselves, and where
+they never make the smallest repairs, because they are always sure of
+renting them out just as they are. The floor, laid in bricks, was
+going to pieces; and a number of bricks were loose, and shaking in
+their layers of cement. The ceiling was cracked, and fell off in
+scales; while all along the walls it was blackened by flaring tallow-
+candles. The papering, a greasy, dirty gray paper, preserved the
+fingermarks of all the previous occupants of the room from the time it
+had first been hung. The furniture, also, was in keeping with the
+room,--a walnut bedstead with faded calico curtains, a chest of
+drawers, a table, two chairs, and a miserable arm-chair; that was all.
+
+A short curtain hung before the window. By the side of the bed was a
+little strip of carpeting; and on the mantlepiece a zinc clock between
+two blue glass vases. Nothing else!
+
+How could M. de Brevan ever have selected such a room, such a hole?
+Henrietta could not comprehend it. He had told her, and she had
+believed him, that they must use extreme caution. But would she have
+been any more compromised, or in greater danger of being discovered by
+the Countess Sarah, if they had papared the room anew, put a simple
+felt carpet on the floor, and furnished the room a little more
+decently?
+
+Still she did not conceive any suspicion even yet. She thought it
+mattered very little where and how she was lodged. She hoped it was,
+after all, only for a short time, and consoled herself with the
+thought that a cell in a convent would have been worse still. And any
+thing was better than her father's house.
+
+"At least," she said, "I shall be quiet and undisturbed here."
+
+Perhaps she was to be morally quiet; for as to any other peace, she
+was soon to be taught differently. Accustomed to the profound
+stillness of the immense rooms in her father's palace, Henrietta had
+no idea, of course, of the incessant movement that goes on in the
+upper stories of these Paris lodging-houses, which contain the
+population of a whole village, and where the tenants, separated from
+each other by thin partition-walls, live, so to say, all in public.
+
+Sleep, under such circumstances, becomes possible only after long
+experience; and the poor girl had to pay very dear for her
+apprenticeship. It was past four o'clock before she could fall asleep,
+overcome by fatigue; and then it was so heavy a sleep, that she was
+not aroused by the stir in the whole house as day broke. It was broad
+daylight, hence, when she awoke; and a pale sun-ray was gliding into
+the room through the torn curtain. The zinc clock pointed at twelve
+o'clock. She rose and dressed hastily.
+
+Yesterday, when she rose, she rang her bell, and her maid came in
+promptly, made a fire, brought her her slippers, and threw over her
+shoulders a warm, wadded dressing-wrapper. But to-day!
+
+This thought carried her back to her father's house. What were they
+doing there at this hour? Her escape was certainly known by this time.
+No doubt they had sent the servants out in all directions. Her father,
+most probably, had gone to call in the aid of the police. She felt
+almost happy at the idea of being so safely concealed; and looking
+around her chamber, which appeared even more wretched by daylight than
+last night, she said,--
+
+"No, they will never think of looking for me here!"
+
+In the meantime she had discovered a small supply of wood near the
+fireplace; and, as it was cold, she was busy making a fire, when
+somebody knocked at her door. She opened; and Mrs. Chevassat, the wife
+of the concierge appeared.
+
+"It is I, my pretty young lady," she said as she entered. "Not seeing
+you come down, I said to myself, 'I must go up to look after her.' And
+have you slept well?"
+
+"Very well, madam, thank you!"
+
+"Now, that's right. And how is your appetite? For that was what I came
+up for. Don't you think you might eat a little something?"
+
+Henrietta not only thought of it; but she was very hungry. For there
+are no events and no adventures, no excitements and no sorrows, which
+prevent us from getting hungry; the tyranny of our physical wants is
+stronger than any thing else.
+
+"I would be obliged to you, madam," she said, "if you would bring me
+up some breakfast."
+
+"If I would! As often as you desire, my pretty young lady. Just give
+me the time to boil an egg, and to roast a cutlet, and I'll be up
+again."
+
+Ordinarily sour-tempered, and as bitter as wormwood, Mrs. Chevassat
+had displayed all the amiability of which she was capable, hiding
+under a veil of tender sympathy the annoying eagerness of her eyes.
+Her hypocrisy was all wasted. The efforts she made were too manifest
+not to arouse the very worst suspicions.
+
+"I am sure," thought Henrietta, "she is a bad woman."
+
+Her suspicions were only increased when the worthy woman reappeared,
+bringing her breakfast, and setting it out on a little table before
+the fire, with all kinds of hideous compliments.
+
+"You'll see how very well every thing is cooked, miss," she said.
+
+Then, while Henrietta was eating, she sat down on a chair near the
+door, and commenced talking, without ever stopping. To hear her, the
+new tenant ought to thank her guardian angel who had brought her to
+this charming house, No. 23 Water Street, where there was such a
+concierge with such a wife!--he, the best of men; she, a real treasure
+of kindness, gentleness, and, above all, discretion.
+
+"Quite an exceptional house," she added, "as far as the tenants are
+concerned. They are all people of notoriously high standing, from the
+wealthy old ladies in the best story to Papa Ravinet in the fourth
+story, and not excepting the young ladies who live in the small rooms
+in the back building."
+
+Then, having passed them all in review, she began praising M. de
+Brevan, whom she always called M. Maxime. She declared that he had won
+her heart from the beginning, when he had first come to the house, day
+before yesterday, to engage the room. She had never seen a more
+perfect gentleman, so kind, so polite, and so liberal! With her great
+experience, she had at once recognized in him one of those men who
+seem to be born expressly for the purpose of inspiring the most
+violent passions, and of securing the most lasting attachments.
+
+Besides, she added with a hideous smile, she was sure of his deep
+interest in her pretty new tenant; and she was so well convinced of
+this, that she would be happy to devote herself to her service, even
+without any prospect of payment.
+
+This did not prevent her from saying to Henrietta, as soon as she had
+finished her breakfast,--
+
+"You owe me two francs, miss; and, if you would like it, I can board
+you for five francs a day."
+
+Thereupon she went into a lively discussion to show that this would be
+on her part a mere act of kindness, because, considering how dear
+every thing was, she would most assuredly lose.
+
+But Henrietta stopped her. Drawing from her purse a twenty-franc
+piece, she said,--
+
+"Make yourself paid, madam."
+
+This was evidently not what the estimable woman expected; for she drew
+back with an air of offended dignity, and protested,--
+
+"What do you take me to be, miss? Do you think me capable of asking
+for payment?"
+
+And, shrugging her shoulders, she added,--
+
+"Besides, does not all that regards your expenses concern M. Maxime?"
+
+Thereupon she quickly folded the napkin, took the plates, and
+disappeared. Henrietta did not know what to think of it. She could not
+doubt that this Megsera pursued some mysterious aim with all her
+foolish talk; but she could not possibly guess what that aim could be.
+And still that was not all that kept her thoughts busy. What
+frightened her most of all was the feeling that she was evidently
+altogether at M. de Brevan's mercy. All her possessions amounted to
+about two hundred francs. She was in want of every thing, of the most
+indispensable articles: she had not another dress, nor another
+petticoat. Why had not M. de Brevan thought of that beforehand? Was he
+waiting for her to tell him of her distress, and to ask him for money?
+She could not think so, and she attributed his neglect to his
+excitement, thinking that he would no doubt come soon to ask how she
+was, and place himself at her service.
+
+But the day passed away slowly, and night came; but he did not appear.
+What did this mean? What unforeseen event could have happened? what
+misfortune could have befallen him? Torn by a thousand wild
+apprehensions, Henrietta was more than once on the point of going to
+his house.
+
+It was not before two o'clock on the next day that he appeared at
+last, affecting an easy air, but evidently very much embarrassed. If
+he did not come the night before, he said, it was because he was sure
+the Countess Sarah had him watched. The flight of the daughter of
+Count Ville-Handry was known all over Paris, and he was suspected of
+having aided and abetted her: so they had told him, he said, at his
+club. He also added that it would be imprudent in him to stay longer;
+and he left again, without having said a word to Henrietta, and
+without having apparently noticed her destitution.
+
+And thus, for three days, he only came, to disappear almost instantly.
+
+He always came painfully embarrassed, as if he had something very
+important to tell her; then his brow clouded over; and he went away
+suddenly, without having said any thing.
+
+Henrietta, tortured by terrible doubts, felt unable to endure this
+atrocious uncertainty any longer. She determined to force an
+explanation when, on the fourth day, M. de Brevan came in, evidently
+under the influence of some terrible determination. As soon as he had
+entered, he locked the door, and said in a hoarse voice,--
+
+"I must speak to you, madam, yes, I must!"
+
+He was deadly pale; his white lips trembled; and his eyes shone with a
+fearful light, like those of a man who might have sought courage in
+strong drink.
+
+"I am ready to listen," replied the poor girl, all trembling.
+
+He hesitated again for a moment; then overcoming his reluctance,
+apparently by a great effort, he said,--
+
+"Well, I wish to ask you if you have ever suspected what my real
+reasons were for assisting you to escape?"
+
+"I think, sir, you have acted from kind pity for me, and also from
+friendship for M. Daniel Champcey."
+
+"No! You are entirely mistaken."
+
+She drew back instinctively, uttering only a low, "Ah!"
+
+Pale as he had been, M. de Brevan had become crimson.
+
+"Have you really noticed nothing? Are you really not aware that I love
+you?"
+
+She could understand any thing but this, the unfortunate girl; any
+thing but such infamy, such an incredible insult! M. de Brevan must be
+either drunk or mad.
+
+"Leave me, sir!" she said peremptorily, but with a voice trembling
+with indignation.
+
+But he advanced towards her with open arms, and went on,--
+
+"Yes, I love you madly, and for a long time,--ever since the first day
+I saw you."
+
+Henrietta, however, had swiftly moved aside, and opened the window.
+
+"If you advance another step, I shall cry for help."
+
+He stopped, and, changing his tone, said to her,--
+
+"Ah! You refuse? Well, what are you hoping for? For Daniel's return?
+Don't you know that he loves Sarah?"
+
+"Ah! you abuse my forlorn condition infamously!" broke in the young
+girl. And, as he still insisted, she added,--
+
+"Why don't you go, coward? Why don't you go, wretched man? Must I
+call?"
+
+He was frightened, backed to the door, and half opened it; then he
+said,--
+
+"You refuse me to-day; but, before the month is over, you will beg me
+to come to you. You are ruined; and I alone can rescue you."
+
+
+
+                                XVIII.
+
+At last, then, the truth had come out!
+
+Overcome with horror, her hair standing at an end, and shaken by
+nervous spasms, poor Henrietta was trying to measure the depth of the
+abyss into which she had thrown herself.
+
+Voluntarily, and with the simplicity of a child, she had walked into
+the pit which had been dug for her. But who, in her place, would not
+have trusted? Who could have conceived such an idea? Who could have
+suspected such monstrous rascality?
+
+Ah! Now she understood but too well all the mysterious movements that
+had so puzzled her in M. de Brevan. She saw how profound had been his
+calculations when he recommended her so urgently not to take her
+jewels with her while escaping from her father's house, nor any object
+of value; for, if she had had her jewelry, she would have been in
+possession of a small fortune; she would have been independent, and
+above want, at least for a couple of years.
+
+But M. de Brevan wanted her to have nothing. He knew, the coward! with
+what crushing contempt she would reject his first proposals; but he
+flattered himself with the hope that isolation, fear, destitution
+would at last reduce her to submission, and enable him--
+
+"It is too horrible," repeated the poor girl,--"too horrible!"
+
+And this man had been Daniel's friend! And it was he to whom Daniel,
+at the moment of sailing, had intrusted his betrothed! What atrocious
+deception! M. Thomas Elgin was no doubt a formidable bandit, faithless
+and unscrupulous; but he was known as such: he was known to be capable
+of any thing, and thus people were on their guard. But this man!--ah,
+a thousand times meaner and viler!--he had watched for a whole year,
+with smiling face, for the hour of treachery; he had prepared a
+hideous crime under the veil of the noblest friendship!
+
+Henrietta thought she could divine what was the traitor's final aim.
+In obtaining possession of her, he no doubt thought he would secure to
+himself a large portion of Count Ville-Handry's immense fortune.
+
+And hence, she continued in her meditations, hence the hatred between
+Sir Thorn and M. de Brevan. They both coveted the same thing; and each
+one trembled lest the other should first get hold of the treasure
+which he wanted to secure. The idea that the new countess was in
+complicity with M. de Brevan did not enter Henrietta's mind. On the
+contrary, she thought they were enemies, and divided from each other
+by separate and opposite interests.
+
+"Ah!" she said to herself, "they have one feeling, at all events, in
+common; and that is hatred against me."
+
+A few months ago, so fearful and so sudden a catastrophe would have
+crushed Henrietta, in all probability. But she had endured so many
+blows during the past year, that she bore this also; for it is a fact
+that the human heart learns to bear grief as the body learns to endure
+fatigue. Moreover, she called in to her assistance a light shining
+high above all this terrible darkness,--the remembrance of Daniel.
+
+She had doubted him for an instant; but her faith had, after all,
+remained intact and perfect. Her reason told her, that, if he had
+really loved Sarah Brandon, her enemies, M. Elgin and M. de Brevan,
+would not have taken such pains to make her believe it. She thought,
+therefore, she was quite certain that he would return to her with his
+heart devoted to her as when he left her.
+
+But, great God! to think of the grief and the rage of this man, when
+he should hear how wickedly and cowardly he had been betrayed by the
+man whom he called his friend! He would know how to restore the
+count's daughter to her proper position, and how to avenge her.
+
+"And I shall wait for him," she said, her teeth firmly set,--"I shall
+wait for him!"
+
+How? She did not ask herself that question; for she was yet in that
+first stage of enthusiasm, when we are full of heroic resolves which
+do not allow us to see the obstacles that are to be overcome. But she
+soon learned to know the first difficulties in her way, thanks to Dame
+Chevassat, who brought her her dinner as the clock struck six,
+according to the agreement they had made.
+
+The estimable lady had assumed a deeply grieved expression; you might
+have sworn she had tears in her eyes. In her sweetest voice, she
+asked:--
+
+"Well, well, my beautiful young lady; so you have quarrelled with our
+dear M. Maxime?"
+
+Henrietta was so sure of the uselessness of replying, and so fearful
+of new dangers, that she simply replied,--
+
+"Yes, madam."
+
+"I was afraid of it," replied the woman, "just from seeing him come
+down the stairs with a face as long as that. You see, he is in love
+with you, that kind young man; and you may believe me when I tell you
+so, for I know what men are."
+
+She expected an answer; for generally her eloquence was very effective
+with her tenants. But, as no reply came, she went on,--
+
+"We must hope that the trouble will blow over."
+
+"No!"
+
+Looking at Mrs. Chevassat, one would have thought she was stunned.
+
+"How savage you are!" she exclaimed at last. "Well, it is your
+lookout. Only I should like to know what you mean to do?"
+
+"About what?"
+
+"Why, about your board."
+
+"I shall find the means, madam, you may be sure."
+
+The old woman, however, who knew from experience what that cruel word,
+"living," sometimes means with poor forsaken girls, shook her head
+seriously, and answered,--
+
+"So much the better; so much the better! Only I know you owe a good
+deal of money."
+
+"Owe?"
+
+"Why, yes! The furniture here has never been paid for."
+
+"What? The furniture"--
+
+"Of course, M. Maxime was going to pay for it; he has told me so. But
+if you fall out in this way--you understand, don't you?"
+
+She hardly did understand such fearful infamy. Still Henrietta did not
+show her indignation and surprise. She asked,--
+
+"What did the furniture of this room cost? do you know?"
+
+"I don't know. Something like five or six hundred francs, things are
+so dear now!" The whole was probably not worth a hundred and fifty or
+two hundred francs.
+
+"Very well. I'll pay," said Henrietta. "The man will give me forty-
+eight hours' time, I presume?"
+
+"Oh, certainly!"
+
+As the poor girl was now quite sure that this honeyed Megsera was
+employed by M. de Brevan to watch her, she affected a perfectly calm
+air. When she had finished her dinner, she even insisted upon paying
+on the spot fifty francs, which she owed for the last few days, and
+for some small purchases. But, when the old woman was gone, she sank
+into a chair, and said,--
+
+"I am lost!"
+
+There was, in fact, no refuge for her, no help to be expected.
+
+Should she return to her father, and implore the pity of his wife? Ah!
+death itself would be more tolerable than such a humiliation. And
+besides, in escaping from M. de Brevan, would she not fall into the
+hands of M. Elgin?
+
+Should she seek assistance at the hands of some of the old family
+friends? But which?
+
+In greater distress than the shipwrecked man who in vain examines the
+blank horizon, she looked around for some one to help her. She forced
+her mind to recall all the people she had ever known. Alas! she knew,
+so to say, nobody. Since her mother had died, and she had been living
+alone, no one seemed to have remembered her, unless for the purpose of
+calumniating her.
+
+Her only friends, the only ones who had made her cause their own, the
+Duke and the Duchess of Champdoce, were in Italy, as she had been
+assured.
+
+"I can count upon nobody but myself," she repeated,--"myself, myself!"
+
+Then rousing herself, she said, her heart swelling with emotion,--
+
+"But never mind! I shall be saved!"
+
+Her safety depended upon one single point: if she could manage to live
+till she came of age, or till Daniel returned, all was right.
+
+"Is it really so hard to live?" she thought. "The daughters of poor
+people, who are as completely forsaken as I am, nevertheless live. Why
+should not I live also?"
+
+Why?
+
+Because the children of poor people have served, so to say, from the
+cradle, an apprenticeship of poverty,--because they are not afraid of
+a day without work, or a day without bread,--because cruel experience
+has armed them for the struggle,--because, in fine, they know life,
+and they know Paris,--because their industry is adapted to their
+wants, and they have an innate capacity to obtain some advantage from
+every thing, thanks to their smartness, their enterprise, and their
+energy.
+
+But Count Ville-Handry's only daughter--the heiress of many millions,
+brought up, so to say, in a hothouse, according to the stupid custom
+of modern society--knew nothing at all of life, of its bitter
+realities, its struggles, and its sufferings. She had nothing but
+courage.
+
+"That is enough," she said to herself. "What we will do, we can do."
+
+Thus resolved to seek aid from no one, she set to work examining her
+condition and her resources.
+
+As to objects of any value, she owned the cashmere which she had
+wrapped around her when she fled, the dressing-case in her mother's
+travelling-bag, a brooch, a watch, a pair of pretty ear-rings, and,
+lastly, two rings, which by some lucky accident she had forgotten to
+take off, one of which was of considerable value. All this, she
+thought, must have cost, at least, eight or nine thousand francs; but
+for how much would it sell? since she was resolved to sell it. This
+was the question on which her whole future depended.
+
+But how could she dispose of these things? She wanted to have it all
+settled, so as to get rid of this sense of uncertainty; she wanted,
+especially, to pay for the scanty, wretched furniture in her chamber.
+Whom could she ask to help her? For nothing in the world would she
+have confided in Mrs. Chevassat; for her instincts told her, that, if
+she once let that terrible woman see what were her necessities, she
+would be bound hand and foot to her. She was thinking it out, when the
+idea of the pawnbroker occurred to her. She had heard such men spoken
+of; but she only knew that they kept places where poor people could
+get money upon depositing a pledge.
+
+"That is the place I must go to," Henrietta said to herself.
+
+But how was she to find one?
+
+"Well, I'll find it some way," she said.
+
+So she went down, to Mrs. Chevassat's great astonishment, but without
+answering her questions, where she was going to in such a hurry.
+
+Having turned at the first corner, she went on at haphazard, walking
+quite rapidly, and not minding the passers-by, entirely occupied in
+looking at the houses and the sign-boards. But for more than an hour
+she wandered thus through all the small streets and alleys in those
+suburbs; she found nothing, and it was getting dark.
+
+"And still I won't go home till I have found it," she said to herself
+wrathfully.
+
+This resolution gave her courage to go up to a policeman, and, crimson
+like a poppy, to ask him,--
+
+"Will you be so kind, sir, as to tell me a pawnbroker's shop?"
+
+The man looked with pity at the young girl, whose whole person exhaled
+a perfume of distinction and of candor, asking himself, perhaps, what
+terrible misfortune could have reduced a lady like her to such a step;
+then he answered with a sigh,--
+
+"There, madam, at the corner of the first street on the right, you
+will find a loan office."
+
+"Loan office?" These words suggested to Henrietta no clear idea. But
+it mattered not. She went on in feverish haste, recognized the house
+that had been pointed out to her, went up stairs, and, pushing open a
+door, found herself in a large room, where some twenty people were
+standing about, waiting.
+
+On the right hand three or four clerks, shut off from the public by a
+railing breast-high, were writing down the names of the depositors,
+and counting out money. Far back, a large opening was visible, where
+another clerk appeared from time to time, to take in the articles that
+were pawned. After waiting for five minutes, and without asking a
+question from anybody, Henrietta understood the whole process.
+Trembling as if she had committed a crime, she went to the opening
+behind, and put upon the ledge one of her rings, the most valuable of
+the two. Then she waited, not daring to look up; for it seemed to her
+as if all eyes were upon her.
+
+"One diamond ring!" cried the clerk. "Nine hundred francs. Whose is
+it?"
+
+The large amount caused all to look around; and a big woman, but too
+well dressed, and with a very impudent expression, said,--
+
+"Oh, oh! The damsel dresses well!"
+
+Crimson with shame, Henrietta had stepped up. She whispered,--
+
+"It is my ring, sir."
+
+The clerk looked at her, and then asked quite gently,--
+
+"You have your papers?"
+
+"Papers? What for?"
+
+"The papers that establish your identity. Your passport, a receipt for
+rent, or any thing."
+
+The whole company laughed at the ignorance of this girl. She stammered
+out,--
+
+"I have no such papers, sir."
+
+"Then we can make no advance."
+
+One more hope, her last, vanished thus. She held out her hand,
+saying,--
+
+"Please give me back my ring."
+
+But the clerk now laughed, and replied,--
+
+"No, no, my dear! that can't be done. You shall have it back when you
+bring me the papers, or when you come accompanied by two merchants who
+are known to us."
+
+"But, sir"--
+
+"That is so."
+
+And, finding that he had lost time enough, he went on,--
+
+"One velvet cloak! Thirty francs. Whose is it?"
+
+Henrietta was rushing out, and down the stairs, pursued, as it seemed
+to her, by the cries of the crowd. How that clerk had looked at her!
+Did he think she had stolen the ring? And what was to become of it?
+The police would inquire; they would trace her out; and she would be
+carried back to her father's house, and given up to Sir Thorn. She
+could hardly keep up until she reached Water Street; and there
+fatigue, fright, and excitement made her forget her resolutions. She
+confessed her discomfiture to Mrs. Chevassat.
+
+The honest woman tried to look as grave as an attorney whom a great
+client consults, who has unwittingly stirred up a wasps' nest; and,
+when her tenant had finished, she said in a voice apparently half
+drowned in tears,--
+
+"Poor little kitten, poor little innocent kitten!"
+
+But, if she succeeded in giving to her face an expression of sincere
+sympathy, the greedy look in her eyes betrayed but too clearly her
+immense satisfaction at seeing Henrietta at last at her feet.
+
+"After all," she said, "you are prodigiously lucky in your
+misfortunes; for you are too imprudent in all conscience."
+
+And, as the poor girl was not a little astonished at this, she went
+on,--
+
+"Yes, you ran a great risk; and I can easily prove it to you. Who are
+you? Well, you need not turn pale that way: I don't ask any questions.
+But after all, if you carry your jewels yourself to the 'Uncle,' you
+go, so to say, and rush right into the lion's mouth. If they had
+arrested you when they saw you had no papers; if they had carried you
+before a magistrate--eh? Ah! my beautiful friend, you would have fared
+pretty badly, I dare say."
+
+And then, changing her tone, she began scolding her beautiful young
+lady for having concealed her troubles from her. That was wrong; that
+hurt her feelings. Why had she given her money last night? Did she ask
+for money? Did she look like such a terrible creditor? She knew, God
+be thanked! what life was here below, and that we are bound to help
+one another. To be sure, there was that furniture dealer, who must be
+paid; but she would have been quite willing to make him wait; and why
+should he not? She had got very different people to wait! Why, only
+last week, she had sent one of those men away, and a dressmaker into
+the bargain, who came to levy upon one of her tenants in the back
+building,--the very nicest, and prettiest, and best of them all.
+
+Thus she discoursed and discoursed with amazing volubility, till at
+last, when she thought she had made a sufficiently strong impression
+on her "poor little pussy-cat," she said,--
+
+"But one can easily see, my dear young lady, that you are a mere
+child. Sell your poor little jewels! Why, that is murder, as long as
+there is some one at hand quite ready to do any thing for you."
+
+At this sudden, but not altogether unexpected attack, Henrietta
+trembled.
+
+"For I am sure," continued Mrs. Chevassat, "if it were only to be
+agreeable to you, he would give one of his arms, this poor M. Maxime."
+
+Henrietta looked so peremptorily at her, that the worthy lady seemed
+to be quite disconcerted.
+
+"I forbid you," cried the young lady, with a voice trembling with
+indignation,--"I forbid you positively ever to mention his name!"
+
+The woman shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"As you like it," she answered.
+
+And then, ready to change the conversation, she added,--
+
+"Well, then, let us return to your ring. What /do/ you propose to do?"
+
+"That is exactly why I came to you," replied Henrietta. "I do not know
+what is to be done in such a case."
+
+Mrs. Chevassat smiled, very much pleased.
+
+"And you did very well to come to us," she said.
+
+"Chevassat will go, take the charcoal-dealer and the grocer next door
+with him; and before going to bed you will have your money, I promise
+you! You see he understands pretty well how to make the clerks do
+their duty, my Chevassat."
+
+That evening the excellent man really condescended to go up stairs,
+and to bring Henrietta himself eight hundred and ninety-five francs.
+
+He did not bring the whole nine hundred francs, he said; for, having
+put his two neighbors to some inconvenience, he was bound, according
+to established usage, to invite them to take something. For himself,
+he had, of course, kept nothing,--oh, nothing at all! He could take
+his oath upon that; for he preferred by far leaving that little matter
+to the beautiful young lady's liberality.
+
+"Here are ten francs," said Henrietta curtly, in order to make an end
+to his endless talk.
+
+Thus, with the few gold-pieces which she had found in her purse, the
+poor girl had a capital of about a thousand francs in hand. How many
+days, how many months, this sum would have secured to her, if the
+furniture-dealer had not been there with his bill! He did not fail to
+present himself next day, accompanied by Mrs. Chevassat. He asked for
+five hundred and seventy-nine francs. Such a sum for a few second-hand
+pieces of furniture which adorned that wretched garret! It was a clear
+swindle, and the impudence so great, that Henrietta was overwhelmed.
+But still she paid.
+
+When he was gone, she sadly counted from one hand into the other the
+twenty-three gold-pieces that were left, when suddenly a thought
+occurred to her, that might have saved her, if she had followed it
+out.
+
+It was the thought of leaving the house by stealth, of going to the
+station of the Orleans Railway, and of taking the first train for the
+home of Daniel's aunt. Alas! she was content with writing to her, and
+remained.
+
+
+
+                                 XIX.
+
+This inspiration was, moreover, to be the last favor which Providence
+vouchsafed to Henrietta,--an opportunity which, once allowed to pass,
+never returns. From that moment she found herself irrevocably insnared
+in a net which tightened day by day more around her, and held her a
+helpless captive. She had vowed to herself, the unfortunate girl, that
+she would economize her little hoard like the blood in her veins. But
+how could she economize?
+
+She was without every thing. When M. de Brevan had gone to engage this
+garret-room, he had thought of nothing; or rather (and such a
+calculation was quite in keeping with his cold-blooded rascality) he
+had taken his measures so that his victim must soon be in utter
+destitution. Without any other clothes than those she wore on the
+night of her flight, she had no linen, no shoes, not a towel even to
+wipe her hands, unless she borrowed them from her friend down stairs.
+
+Accustomed as she was to all the comforts of boundless wealth, and to
+all the refinements of cleanliness, these privations became to her a
+genuine martyrdom. Thus she spent in a variety of small purchases more
+than a hundred and fifty francs. The sum was enormous at a time when
+she could already count the days to the hour when she would be without
+bread. In addition to that she had to pay Mrs. Chevassat five francs a
+day for her board. Five francs were another enormous sum which
+troubled her grievously; for she would have been quite willing to live
+on bread and water. But in that direction she thought no economizing
+was possible.
+
+One evening she had hinted at the necessity of retrenching, when Mrs.
+Chevassat had shot at her a venomous glance, which pierced her to the
+very marrow of her bones.
+
+"It must be done," she said to herself.
+
+In her mind she felt as if the five francs were a kind of daily ransom
+which she paid the estimable concierge's wife for her good-will. It is
+true, that, for such a consideration, the terrible woman was all
+attention for her "poor little pussy-cat;" for thus she had definitely
+dubbed Henrietta, becoming daily more familiar, and adding this odious
+and irritating presumption to all the other tortures of the poor girl.
+Many a time poor Henrietta had been made so indignant and furious,
+that she had been on the point of rebelling; but she had never dared,
+submitting to this familiarity for the same reason for which she paid
+her five francs every day. The old woman, taking her silence for
+consent, put no longer any restraint upon herself. She declared she
+could not comprehend how her "little pussy-cat," young and pretty as
+she was, could consent to live as she did. Was that a life?
+
+Then she always came back to M. Maxime, who continued to call
+regularly twice a day, the poor young man!
+
+"And more than that, poor little pussy," she added, "you will see that
+one of these days he will summon courage enough to come and offer you
+an apology."
+
+But Henrietta would not believe that.
+
+"He will never have such consummate impudence," she thought.
+
+He had it, nevertheless. One morning, when she had just finished
+righting up her room, somebody knocked discreetly, at her door.
+Thinking that it was Mrs. Chevassat, who brought her her breakfast,
+she went to the door and opened it, without asking who was there. And
+she started back with amazement and with terror when she recognized M.
+de Brevan.
+
+It really looked as if he were making a supreme effort over himself.
+He was deadly pale; his lips trembled; his eyes looked dim and
+uncertain; and he moved his lips and jaws as if he had gravel in his
+mouth.
+
+"I have come, madam," he said, "to ask if you have reconsidered."
+
+She made no reply, looking at him with an air of contempt which would
+have caused a man with some remnant of honor in his heart to flee from
+the spot instantly. But he had, no doubt, armed himself beforehand,
+against contempt.
+
+"I know," he continued, "that my conduct must appear abominable in
+your eyes. I have led you into this snare, and I have meanly betrayed
+a friend's confidence; but I have an excuse. My passion is stronger
+than my will, than my reason."
+
+"A vile passion for money!"
+
+"You may think so, madam, if you choose. I shall not even attempt to
+clear myself. That is not what I came for. I came solely for the
+purpose of enlightening you in regard to your own position, which you
+do not seem to realize."
+
+If she had followed her own impulses, Henrietta would have driven the
+wretch away. But she thought she ought to know his intentions and his
+plans. She overcame her disgust, therefore, and remained silent.
+
+"In the first place," said M. de Brevan, apparently trying to collect
+his thoughts, "bear this in mind, madam. You are ruined in reputation,
+and ruined through me. All Paris is convinced, by this time, that I
+have run away with you; and that I keep you concealed in a charming
+place, where we enjoy our mutual love; in fact, that you are my
+mistress."
+
+He seemed to expect an explosion of wrath. By no means! Henrietta
+remained motionless like a statue.
+
+"What would you have?" he went on in a tone of sarcasm. "My coachman
+has been talking. Two friends of mine, who reached the palace on foot
+when I drove up, saw you jump into my /coupe/; and, as if that had not
+been enough, that absurd M. Elgin must needs call me out. We had a
+duel, and I have wounded him."
+
+The manner in which the young girl shrugged her shoulders showed but
+too clearly that she did not believe M. de Brevan. He added,--
+
+"If you doubt it, madam, pray read this, then, at the top of the
+second column."
+
+She took the paper which he offered her, and there she read,--
+
+
+ "Yesterday, in the woods near Vincennes, a duel with swords was
+  fought between M. M. de B---- and one of the most distinguished
+  members of our American colony. After five minutes' close combat,
+  M. E---- was wounded in the arm. It is said that the sudden and
+  very surprising disappearance of one of the greatest heiresses of
+  the Faubourg Saint Germain was not foreign to this duel. Lucky M.
+  de B---- is reported to know too much of the beautiful young
+  lady's present home for the peace of the family. But surely these
+  lines ought to be more than enough on the subject of an adventure
+  which will ere long, no doubt, end in a happy and brilliant
+  marriage."
+
+
+"You see, madam," said M. de Brevan, when he thought Henrietta had had
+time enough to read the article, "you see it is not I who advise
+marriage. If you will become my wife, your honor is safe."
+
+"Ah, sir!"
+
+In that simple utterance there was so much contempt, and such profound
+disgust, that M. de Brevan seemed to turn, if possible, whiter than
+before.
+
+"Ah! I see you prefer marrying M. Thomas Elgin," he said.
+
+She only shrugged her shoulders; but he went on,--
+
+"Oh, do not smile! He or I; you have no other alternative. Sooner or
+later you will have to choose."
+
+"I shall not choose, sir."
+
+"Oh, just wait till poverty has come! Then you think, perhaps, you
+will only need to implore your father to come to your assistance. Do
+not flatter yourself. Your father has no other will but that of the
+Countess Sarah; and the Countess Sarah will have it so, that you marry
+Sir Thorn."
+
+"I shall not appeal to my father, sir."
+
+"Then you probably count upon Daniel's return? Ah, believe me! do not
+indulge in such dreams. I have told you Daniel loves the Countess
+Sarah; and, even if he did not love her, you have been too publicly
+disgraced for him ever to give you his name. But that is nothing yet.
+Go to the navy department, and they will tell you that 'The Conquest'
+is out on a cruise of two years more. At the time when Daniel returns,
+if he returns at all (which is very far from being certain), you will
+long since have become Mrs. Elgin or Madame de Brevan, unless"--
+
+Henrietta looked at him so fixedly, that he could not bear the glance;
+and then she said in a deep voice,--
+
+"Unless I die! did you not mean that? Be it so."
+
+Coldly M. de Brevan bowed, as if he intended to say,--
+
+"Yes, unless you should be dead: that was what I meant."
+
+Then, opening the door, he added,--
+
+"Let me hope, madam, that this is not your last word. I shall,
+however, have the honor of calling every week to receive your orders."
+
+And, bowing, he left the room.
+
+"What brought him here, the wretch! What does he want of me?"
+
+Thus she questioned herself as soon as she was alone, and the door was
+'shut.' And her anguish increased tenfold; for she did not believe a
+word of the pretexts which M. de Brevan had assigned for his visit.
+No, she could not admit that he had come to see if she had reflected,
+nor that he really cherished that abominable hope, that misery,
+hunger, and fear would drive her into his arms.
+
+"He ought to know me well enough," she thought with a new access of
+wrath, "to be sure that I would prefer death a thousand times."
+
+There was no doubt in her mind that this step, which had evidently
+been extremely painful to himself, had become necessary through some
+all-powerful consideration. But what could that be? By a great effort
+of mind Henrietta recalled, one by one, all the phrases used by M. de
+Brevan, in the hope that some word might give her light; but she
+discovered nothing. All he had told her as to the consequences of her
+flight, she had foreseen before she had resolved to escape. He had
+told her nothing new, but his duel with Sir Thorn; and, when she
+considered the matter, she thought that, also, quite natural. For did
+they not both covet with equal eagerness the fortune which she would
+inherit from her mother as soon as she came of age? The antagonism of
+their interests explained, she thought, their hatred; for she was well
+convinced that they hated each other mortally. The idea that Sir Thorn
+and M. de Brevan understood each other, and pursued a common purpose,
+never entered her mind; and, if it had suggested itself, she would
+have rejected it as absurd.
+
+Must she, then, come to the conclusion that M. de Brevan had really,
+when he appeared before her, no other aim but to drive her to despair?
+But why should he do so? what advantage would that be to him? The man
+who wants to make a girl his own does not go to work to chill her with
+terror, and to inspire her with ineffable disgust. Still M. de Brevan
+had done this; and therefore he must aim at something different from
+that marriage of which he spoke.
+
+What was that something? Such abominable things are not done for the
+mere pleasure of doing them, especially if that involves some amount
+of danger. Now, it was very clear, that upon Daniel's return, whether
+he still loved Henrietta or not, M. de Brevan would have a terrible
+account to give to that brave sailor who had trusted him with the care
+of his betrothed. Did M. de Brevan ever think of that return? Oh, yes!
+he did; and with secret terror. There was proof of that in one of the
+phrases that had escaped him.
+
+After having said, "When Daniel returns," he had added, "if he ever
+returns, which is by no means sure."
+
+Why this proviso? Had he any reasons to think that Daniel might perish
+in this dangerous campaign? Now she remembered, yes, she remembered
+distinctly, that M. de Brevan had smiled in a very peculiar way when
+he had said these words. And, as she recalled this, her heart sank
+within her, and she felt as if she were going to faint. Was he not
+capable of anything, the wretched man, who had betrayed him so
+infamously,--capable even of arming an assassin?
+
+"Oh, I must warn Daniel!" she exclaimed, "I must warn him, and not
+lose a minute."
+
+And, although she had written him a long letter only the day before,
+she wrote again, begging him to be watchful, to mistrust everybody,
+because most assuredly his life was threatened. And this letter she
+carried herself to the post-office, convinced as she was that to
+confide it to Mrs. Chevassat would have been the same as to send it to
+M. de Brevan.
+
+It was astonishing, however, how the estimable lady seemed to become
+day by day more attached to Henrietta, and how expansive and
+demonstrative her affections grew. At all hours of the day, and on the
+most trivial pretexts, she would come up, sit down, and for entire
+hours entertain her with her intolerable speeches. She did not put any
+restraint upon herself any longer, but talked "from the bottom of her
+heart" with her "dear little pussy-cat," as if she had been her own
+daughter. The strange doctrines at which she had formerly only hinted,
+she now proclaimed without reserve, boasting of an open kind of
+cynicism, which betrayed a terrible moral perversity. It looked as if
+the horrible Megsera had been deputed by Henrietta's enemies for the
+special purpose of demoralizing and depraving her, if possible, and to
+drive her into the brilliant and easy life of sin in which so many
+unhappy women perish.
+
+Fortunately, in this case, the messenger was ill-chosen. The eloquence
+of Mrs. Chevassat, which very likely would have inflamed the
+imagination of some poor but ambitious girl, caused nothing but
+disgust in Henrietta's heart. She had gotten into the habit of
+thinking of other things while the old woman was holding forth; and
+her noble soul floated off to regions where these vulgarities could
+reach her no more.
+
+Her life was, nevertheless, a very sad one. She never went out,
+spending her days in her chamber, reading, or working at a great
+embroidery, a masterpiece of patience and taste, which she had
+undertaken with a faint hope that it might become useful in case of
+distress. But a new source of trouble roused her soon after from this
+dull monotony. Her money grew less and less; and at last the day came
+when she changed the last gold-piece of her nine hundred francs. It
+became urgent to resort once more to the pawnbroker; for these were
+the first days of April, and the honeyed words of Mrs. Chevassat had
+given her to understand that she had better get ready to pay on the
+8th her rent, which amounted to a hundred francs.
+
+She intrusted therefore to the concierge the remaining ring to be
+pawned. Calculating from the sum she had received for the first ring,
+she hoped to obtain for this one, at the very least, five or six
+hundred francs.
+
+The concierge brought her one hundred and ninety francs.
+
+At first, she was convinced the man had robbed her; and she gave him
+to understand that she thought so. But he showed her the receipt in a
+perfect rage.
+
+"Look there," he said, "and remember to whom you are talking!"
+
+On the receipt she read in fact these words: "Advanced, two hundred
+francs." Convinced of the injustice of her accusations, Henrietta had
+to make her apologies, and hardly succeeded by means of a ten-franc-
+piece in soothing the man's wounded feelings.
+
+Alas! the poor girl did not know that one is always at liberty to
+pledge an article only for a given sum, a part of its real value; and
+she was too inexperienced in such matters to notice the reference to
+that mode of pawning on her receipt. However, it was one of those
+mishaps for poor Henrietta which cannot be mended, and from which we
+never recover. She lost two months' existence, the very time, perhaps,
+that was needed till Daniel's return. Still the day when the rent was
+due came, and she paid her hundred francs. The second day after that,
+she was once more without money, and, according to Mrs. Chevassat's
+elegant expression, forced to "live on her poor possessions." But the
+pawnbroker had too cruelly disappointed her calculations: she would
+not resort to him again, and risk a second disappointment.
+
+This time she thought she would, instead of pawning, sell, her gold-
+dressing-case; and she requested the obliging lady below to procure
+her a purchaser. At first Mrs. Chevassat raised a host of objections.
+
+"To sell such a pretty toy!" she said, "it's murder! Just think,
+you'll never see it again. If, on the other hand, you carry it to
+'Uncle' you can take it out again as soon as you have a little money."
+
+But she lost her pains, she saw and at last consented to bring up a
+kind of dealer in toilet-articles, an excellent honest man, she
+declared, in whom one could put the most absolute confidence. And he
+really showed himself worthy of her warm recommendation; for he
+offered instantly five hundred francs for the dressing-case, which was
+not worth much more than three times as much. Nor was this his last
+bid. After an hour's irritating discussions, after having ten times
+pretended to leave the room, he drew with many sighs his
+/portemonnaie/ from its secret home, and counted upon the table the
+seven hundred francs in gold upon which Henrietta had stoutly
+insisted.
+
+That was enough to pay Mrs. Chevassat for four months' board.
+
+"But no," said the poor young girl to herself, "that would be
+pusillanimous in the highest degree."
+
+And that very evening she summoned all her courage, and told the
+formidable woman in a firm tone of voice, that henceforth she would
+only take one meal, dinner. She had chosen this half-way measure in
+order not to avoid a scene, for that she knew she could not hope for,
+but a regular falling-out.
+
+Contrary to all expectations, the concierge's wife appeared neither
+surprised nor angry. She only shrugged her shoulders as she said,--
+
+"As you like, my 'little pussy-cat.' Only believe me, it is no use
+economizing in one's eating."
+
+From the day of this /coup d'etat/, Henrietta went down every morning
+herself to buy her penny-roll and the little supply of milk which
+constituted her breakfast. For the rest of the day she did not leave
+her room, busying herself with her great work; and nothing broke in
+upon the distressing monotony of her life but the weekly visits of M.
+de Brevan.
+
+For he did not forget his threat; and every week Henrietta was sure to
+see him come. He came in with a solemn air, and coldly asked if she
+had reflected since he had had the honor of presenting his respects to
+her. She did not answer him ordinarily, except by a look of contempt;
+but he did not seem in the least disconcerted. He bowed respectfully,
+and invariably said, before leaving the room,--
+
+"Next time, then; I can wait. Oh! I have time; I can wait."
+
+If he hoped thus to conquer Henrietta more promptly, he was entirely
+mistaken. This periodical insult acted only as an inducement to keep
+up her wrath and to increase her energy. Her pride rose at the thought
+of this unceasing struggle; and she swore that she would be
+victorious. It was this sentiment which inspired her with a thought,
+which, in its results, was destined to have a decisive influence on
+her future.
+
+It was now the end of June, and she saw with trembling her little
+treasure grow smaller and smaller; when one day she asked Mrs.
+Chevassat, who seemed to be of unusually good-humor, if she could not
+procure her some work. She told her that she was considered quite
+skilful in all kinds of needlework.
+
+But the woman laughed at the first words, and said,--
+
+"Leave me alone! Are hands like yours made to work?"
+
+And when Henrietta insisted, and showed her, as a proof of what she
+could do, the embroidery which she had commenced, she replied,--
+
+"That is very pretty; but embroidering from morning till night would
+not enable a fairy to keep a canary-bird."
+
+There was probably some truth in what she said, exaggerated as it
+sounded; and the poor girl hastened to add that she understood other
+kinds of work also. She was a first-class musician, for instance, and
+fully able to give music-lessons, or teach singing, if she could only
+get pupils. At these words a ray of diabolic satisfaction lighted up
+the old woman's eyes; and she cried out,--
+
+"What, my 'pussy-cat,' could you play dancing-music, like those
+artists who go to the large parties of fashionable people?"
+
+"Certainly!"
+
+"Well, that is a talent worth something! Why did you not tell me
+before? I will think of it, and you shall see."
+
+On the next Saturday, early in the morning, she appeared in
+Henrietta's room with the bright face of a bearer of good news.
+
+"I have thought of you," she said as soon as she entered.
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"We have a tenant in the house who is going to give a large party
+to-night. I have mentioned you to her; and she says she will give you
+thirty francs if you will make her guests jump. Thirty francs! That's
+a big sum; and besides, if they are pleased, you will get more
+customers."
+
+"In what part of the house does she live?"
+
+"In the second story of the back building, looking upon the yard. Mrs.
+Hilaire, a very nice person, and so good! there is no one like her.
+You would have to be there at nine o'clock precisely."
+
+"I'll come."
+
+Quite happy, and full of hope, Henrietta spent a part of the afternoon
+in mending her only dress, a black silk dress, much worn
+unfortunately, and already often repaired. Still, by much skill and
+patience, she had managed to look quite respectable when she rang the
+bell at Mrs. Hilaire's door. She was shown into a room furnished with
+odd furniture, but brilliantly lighted, in which seven or eight ladies
+in flaming costumes, and as many fashionable gentlemen, were smoking
+and taking coffee. Both ladies and gentlemen had just risen from
+table; there was no mistaking it from their eyes and the sound of
+their voices.
+
+"Look! there is the musician from the garret!" exclaimed a large,
+dark-skinned woman, pretty, but very vulgar, who seemed to be Mrs.
+Hilaire.
+
+And, turning to Henrietta, she asked,--
+
+"Will you take a little glass of something, my darling?"
+
+The poor girl blushed crimson, and, painfully embarrassed, declined,
+and asked pardon for declining; when the lady broke in rather rudely,
+and said,--
+
+"You are not thirsty? Very well. You'll drink after some time. In the
+meantime will you play us a quadrille? and mark the time, please."
+
+Then imitating with distressing accuracy the barking voice of masters
+of ceremonies at public balls, she called out,--
+
+"Take your positions, take your positions: a quadrille!"
+
+Henrietta had taken her seat at the piano. She turned her back to the
+dancers; but she had before her a mirror, in which she saw every
+gesture of Mrs. Hilaire and her guests. And then she became quite sure
+of what she had suspected from the beginning. She understood into what
+company she had been inveigled by the concierge's wife. She had,
+however, sufficient self-control to finish the quadrille. But, when
+the last figure had been danced, she rose; and, walking up to the
+mistress of the house, said, stammering painfully, and in extreme
+embarrassment,--
+
+"Please excuse me, madam, I have to leave. I feel very unwell. I could
+not play any more."
+
+"How funny!" cried one of the gentlemen. "Here is our ball at an end!"
+
+But the young woman said,--
+
+"Hush, Julius! Don't you see how pale she is,--pale like death, the
+poor child! What is the matter with you, darling? Is it the heat that
+makes you feel badly? It is stifling hot here."
+
+And, when Henrietta was at the door, she said,--
+
+"Oh, wait! I do not trouble people for nothing. Come, Julius, turn
+your pockets inside out, and give the little one a twenty-franc-
+piece."
+
+The poor girl was almost outside, when she turned, and said,--
+
+"Thank you, madam; but you owe me nothing."
+
+It was high time for Henrietta to leave. Her first surprise had been
+followed by mad anger, which drove the blood to her head, and made her
+weep bitter tears. She knew now that Mrs. Chevassat had caught her in
+this trap. What could the wretched woman have meant?
+
+Carried away by an irresistible impulse, and no longer mistress of
+herself, Henrietta rushed down stairs, and broke like a whirlwind into
+the little box of the concierge, crying out,--
+
+"How could you dare to send me to such people? You knew all about it.
+You are a wretch!"
+
+Master Chevassat was the first to rise, and said,--
+
+"What is the matter? Do you know to whom you are talking?"
+
+But his wife interrupted him with a gesture, and, turning to
+Henrietta, said with cynic laughter,--
+
+"Well, what next? Are these people not good enough for you; eh? In the
+first place, I am tired of your ways, my 'pussy-cat.' When one is a
+beggar, as you are, one stays at home like a good girl; and one does
+not run away with a young man, and gad about the world with lovers."
+
+Thereupon she took advantage of the fact that Henrietta had paused
+upon the threshold, to push her brutally out of the room at the risk
+of throwing her down, and fiercely banged the door. An hour afterwards
+the poor girl vehemently reproached herself for her passion.
+
+"Alas!" she said to herself, weeping, "the weak, the unhappy, have no
+right to complain. Who knows what this wicked woman will now do to
+avenge herself?"
+
+She found it out the second day afterwards.
+
+Coming down a little before seven o'clock, in order to buy her roll
+and her milk for breakfast, she met at the entrance-door Mrs. Hilaire,
+face to face. At the sight of the poor girl, that irascible woman
+turned as red as a poppy, and, rushing up to her, seized her by the
+arm, and shook it furiously, crying out at the same time with the full
+force of her lungs,--
+
+"Ah, it is you, miserable beggar, who go and tell stories on me! Oh,
+what wickedness! A beggar whom I had sent for to allow her to earn
+thirty francs! And I must needs think she is sick, and pity her, and
+ask Julius to give her a twenty-franc-piece."
+
+Henrietta felt that she ought not to blame this woman, who, after all,
+had shown her nothing but kindness. But she was thoroughly frightened,
+and tried to get away. The woman, however, held her fast, and cried
+still louder, till several tenants came to the open windows.
+
+"They'll make you pay for that, my darling," she yelled, amid foul
+oaths, which her wrath carried along with it, as a torrent floats down
+stones and debris. "They'll make you pay for it! You'll have to clear
+out of here, I tell you!"
+
+And the threat was not an idle one. That very afternoon the same
+lamentable scene was repeated; and so it went on every morning and
+every day. Mrs. Hilaire had friends in the house, who took up the
+quarrel, and fell upon Henrietta whenever she appeared. They lay in
+wait for her by turns; and she no sooner ventured upon the staircase
+than the shouts began; so that the unfortunate girl no longer dared
+leave the house. Early in the morning, as soon as the door was opened,
+she ran out to buy her daily provisions; then, running up swiftly, she
+barricaded herself in her chamber, and never stirred out again.
+
+Surely, there was no lack of desire on her part to leave the house.
+But where should she go? Besides, the unknown frightened her; might it
+not have still greater terrors in reserve for her?
+
+At last she was entirely without money.
+
+In July her rent had cost her a hundred francs, and she had been
+compelled to buy a dress in place of her merino dress, which was
+falling to pieces. In the first days of August she was at the end of
+her resources. Nor would she have been able to make them last so long,
+even if she had not, ever since that evening at Mrs. Hilaire's, done
+entirely without the expensive board of Mrs. Chevassat. Even this
+rupture, at which Henrietta had at first rejoiced, became now to her a
+source of overwhelming trouble. She had still a few things that she
+might sell,--a brooch, her cashmere, her watch, and her ear-rings; but
+she did not know how and to whom she could sell them.
+
+All the stories by which the wicked woman down stairs had tried to
+frighten her from going herself to the pawnbroker came back to her
+mind; and she saw herself, at the first attempt, arrested by the
+police, examined, and carried back to her father, handed over to Sarah
+and Sir Thorn, and--
+
+Still want pressed her hard; and at last, after long hesitation, one
+evening, at dark, she slipped out to find a purchaser. What she was
+looking for was one of those dark little shops in which men lie in
+wait for their prey, whom the police always suspects, and carefully
+watches. She found one such as she desired. An old woman with
+spectacles on her nose, without even asking her name, and evidently
+taking her to be a thief, gave her, for her brooch and her ear-rings,
+a hundred and forty francs.
+
+What was this sum of money? A nothing; Henrietta understood that
+perfectly. And hence, overcoming all her reserve and her reluctance,
+she vowed she would try every thing in her power to obtain work.
+
+She kept her word, sustained by a secret hope of triumphing, by dint
+of energy and perseverance, over fate itself. She went from store to
+store, from door to door, so to say, soliciting employment, as she
+would have asked for alms, promising to do any thing that might be
+wanted, in return merely for her board and lodging. But it was written
+that every thing should turn against her. Her beauty, her charms, her
+distinguished appearance, her very manner of speaking, were so many
+obstacles in her way. Who could think of engaging a girl as a servant,
+who looked like a duchess? So that all her prayers only met with cold
+faces, shrugging of shoulders, and ironical smiles. She was refused
+everywhere. It is true that now and then some gallant clerk replied to
+her application by a declaration of love.
+
+Chance had thrown into her hands one of those small handbills which
+bill-stickers paste upon the gutters, and in which workwomen are
+"wanted." Henceforth she spent her days in looking up these handbills,
+and in going to places from which they were issued. But here she met
+with the same difficulties. There was no end of questions.
+
+"Who are you? Where have you been? By whom have you been employed?"
+and finally, always the same distressing answer,--
+
+"We cannot employ persons like you."
+
+Then she went to an employment agency. She had noticed one which
+displayed at the door a huge placard, on which places were offered
+from thirty-five up to a thousand francs a month. She went up stairs.
+A very loquacious gentleman made her first deposit a considerable sum,
+and then told her he had exactly what she wanted. She went ten times
+back to the office, and always in vain. After an eleventh appointment,
+he gave her the address of two houses, in one of which he assured her
+she would certainly be employed. These two houses turned out to be two
+small shops, where pretty young ladies were wanted to pour out
+absinthe, and to wait upon the customers.
+
+This was Henrietta's last effort. For ten months she had now been
+struggling with a kind of helpless fury against inconquerable
+difficulties, and at last the springs of her energy had lost their
+elasticity. Now, crushed in body and mind, overwhelmed and conquered,
+she gave up.
+
+It lacked still eighteen months before she would become of age. Since
+she had escaped from her father's house, she had not received a line
+from Daniel, although she had constantly written to him, and she had,
+of course, no means of ascertaining the date of his return. She had
+once, following M. de Brevan's advice, summoned courage enough to go
+to the navy department, and there to inquire if they had any news
+about "The Conquest." A clerk had replied to her, with a joke, that
+"The Conquest" might be afloat yet "a year or two." How could the poor
+girl wait till then? Why should she any longer maintain the useless
+struggle? She felt acute pains in her chest; she coughed; and, after
+walking a few yards, her legs gave way under her, and she broke out in
+cold perspiration. She now spent her days almost always in bed,
+shivering with chills, or plunged in a kind of stupor, during which
+her mind was filled with dismal visions. She felt as if the very
+sources of life were drying up within her, and as if all her blood
+was, drop by drop, oozing out of her through an open wound.
+
+"If I could die thus!" she thought.
+
+This was the last favor she asked of God. Henceforth, a miracle alone
+could save her; and she hardly wished to be saved. A perfect
+indifference and intense distaste of every thing filled her soul. She
+thought she had exhausted all that man can suffer; and there was
+nothing left for her to fear.
+
+A last misfortune which now befell her did not elicit even a sigh from
+her. One afternoon, while she had been down stairs, she had left the
+window open. The wind had suddenly sprung up, slammed the blinds, and
+thus upset a chair. On this chair hung her cashmere; it fell into the
+fireplace, in which a little fire was still burning; and when she came
+back she found the shawl half-burnt to ashes. It was the only article
+of value which she still possessed; and she might at any time have
+procured several hundred francs for it.
+
+"Well," she said, "what does it matter? It means three months taken
+from my life; that is all."
+
+And she did not think of it any more; she did not even trouble herself
+about the rent, which became due in October.
+
+"I shall not be able to pay it," she said to herself. "Mrs. Chevassat
+will give me notice, and then the hour will have come."
+
+Still, to her great surprise, the worthy woman from below did not
+scold her for not having the money ready, and even promised she would
+make the owner of the house give her time. This inexplicable
+forbearance gave Henrietta a week's respite. But at last, one morning,
+she woke up, having not a cent left, having nothing even, she thought,
+that she could get money for, and being very hungry.
+
+"Well," she thought, as if announcing to her own soul that the
+catastrophe had at last come, "all I need now is a few minutes'
+courage."
+
+She said so in her mind; but in reality she was chilled to the heart
+by the fearful certainty that the crisis had really come: she felt as
+if the executioner were at the door of the room, ready to announce her
+sentence of death. And yet, for a month now, she had thought of
+suicide only; and the evening before she had thought it over with a
+kind of delight.
+
+"I am surely not such a coward?" she said to herself in a fit of rage.
+
+Yes, she was afraid. Yes, she told herself in vain that there was no
+other choice left to her but that between death and Sir Thorn, or M.
+de Brevan. She was terrified.
+
+Alas! she was only twenty years old; she had never felt such
+exuberance of life within her; she wanted to live,--to live a month
+more, a week, a day!
+
+If only her shawl had not been burnt! Then, examining with haggard
+eyes her chamber, she saw that exquisite piece of embroidery which she
+had undertaken. It was a dress, covered /all/ over with work of
+marvellous delicacy and exquisite outlines. Unfortunately, it was far
+from being finished.
+
+"Never mind!" she said to herself; "perhaps they will give me
+something for it."
+
+And, wrapping the dress up hastily, she hurried to offer it for sale
+to the old woman who had already bought her ear-rings, and then her
+watch. The fearful old hag seemed to be overcome with surprise when
+she saw this marvel of skill.
+
+"That's very fine," she said; "why, it is magnificent! and, if it were
+finished, it would be worth a mint of money; but as it is no one would
+want it."
+
+She consented, however, to give twenty francs for it, solely from love
+of art, she said; for it was money thrown away. These twenty francs
+were, for Henrietta, an unexpected release.
+
+"It will last me a month," she thought, determined to live on dry
+bread only; "and who can tell what a month may bring forth?"
+
+And this unfortunate girl had an inheritance from her mother of more
+than a million! If she had but known it, if she had but had a single
+friend to advise her in her inexperience! But she had been faithful to
+her vow never to let her secret be known to a living soul; and the
+most terrible anguish had never torn from her a single complaint.
+
+M. de Brevan knew this full well; for he had continued his weekly
+visits with implacable regularity. This perseverance, which had at
+first served to maintain Henrietta's courage, had now become a source
+of unspeakable torture.
+
+"Ah, I shall be avenged!" she said to him one day. "Daniel will come
+back."
+
+But he, shrugging his shoulders, had answered,--
+
+"If you count upon that alone, you may as well surrender, and become
+my wife at once."
+
+She turned her head from him with an expression of ineffable disgust.
+Rather the icy arms of Death! And still the pulsations of her heart
+were apparently counted. Since the end of November her twenty francs
+had been exhausted; and to prolong her existence she had had to resort
+to the last desperate expedients of extreme poverty. All that she
+possessed, all that she could carry from her chamber without being
+stopped by the concierge, she had sold, piece by piece, bit after bit,
+for ten cents, for five cents, for a roll. Her linen had been
+sacrificed first; then the covering of her bed, her curtains, her
+sheets. The mattress had gone the way of the rest,--the wool from the
+inside first, carried off by handfuls; then the ticking.
+
+Thus, on the 25th of December, she found herself in a chamber as
+utterly denuded as if a fire had raged there; while she herself had on
+her body but a single petticoat under her thin alpaca dress, without a
+rag to cover herself in these wintry nights. Two evenings before, when
+terror triumphed over her resolution for a time, she had written her
+father a long letter. He had made no reply. Last night she had again
+written in these words:--
+
+
+ "I am hungry, and I have no bread. If by tomorrow at noon you have
+  not come to my assistance, at one o'clock you will have ceased to
+  have a daughter."
+
+
+Tortured by cold and hunger, emaciated, and almost dying, she had
+waited for an answer. At noon nothing had come. She gave herself time
+till four o'clock. Four o'clock, and no answer.
+
+"I must make an end of it," she said to herself.
+
+Her preparations had been made. She had told the Cerberus below that
+she would be out all the evening; and she had procured a considerable
+stock of charcoal. She wrote two letters,--one to her father, the
+other to M. de Brevan.
+
+After that she closed hermetically all the openings in her room,
+kindled two small fires, and, having commended her soul to God,
+stretched herself out on her bed. It was five o'clock.
+
+A dense, bitter vapor spread slowly through the room; and the candle
+ceased to give a visible light. Then she felt as if an iron screw were
+tightening on her temples. She was suffocating, and felt a desire to
+sleep; but in her stomach she suffered intense pains.
+
+Then strange and incoherent thoughts arose deliriously in her head;
+her ears were filled with confused noises; her pulse beat with
+extraordinary vehemence; nausea nearly convulsed her; and from time to
+time she fancied terrific explosions were breaking her skull to
+pieces.
+
+The candle went out. Maddened by a sensation of dying, she tried to
+rise; but she could not. She wanted to cry; but her voice ended in a
+rattle in her throat.
+
+Then her ideas became utterly confused. Respiration ceased. It was all
+over. She was suffering no longer.
+
+
+
+                                 XX.
+
+Thus a few minutes longer, and all was really over. Count Ville-
+Handry's daughter was dying! Count Ville-Handry's daughter was dead!
+
+But at that very hour the tenant of the fourth story, Papa Ravinet,
+the second-hand dealer, was going to his dinner. If he had gone down
+as usually, by the front staircase, no noise would have reached him.
+But Providence was awake. That evening he went down the back stairs,
+and heard the death-rattle of the poor dying girl. In our beautiful
+egotistical days, many a man, in the place of this old man, would not
+have gone out of his way. He, on the contrary, hurried down to inform
+the concierge. Many a man, again, would have been quieted by the
+apparent calmness of the Chevassat couple, and would have been
+satisfied with their assurance that Henrietta was not at home. He,
+however, insisted, and, in spite of the evident reluctance of the
+concierge and his wife, compelled them to go up, and brought out, by
+his words first, and then by his example, one tenant after another.
+
+It was he likewise, who, while the concierge and the other people were
+deliberating, directed what was to be done for the dying girl, and who
+hastened to fetch from his magazine a mattress, sheets, blankets, wood
+to make a fire, in fact, every thing that was needed in that bare
+chamber.
+
+A few moments later Henrietta opened her eyes. Her first sensation was
+a very strange one.
+
+In the first place she was utterly amazed at feeling that she was in a
+warm bed,--she who had, for so many days, endured all the tortures of
+bitter cold. Then, looking around, she was dazzled by the candles that
+were burning on her table, and the beautiful, bright fire in her
+fireplace. And then she looked with perfect stupor at all the women
+whom she did not know, and who were bending over her, watching her
+movements.
+
+Had her father at last come to her assistance?
+
+No, for he would have been there; and she looked in vain for him among
+all these strange people.
+
+Then, understanding from some words which were spoken close by her,
+that it was to chance alone she owed her rescue from death, she was
+filled with indescribable grief.
+
+"To have suffered all that can be suffered in dying," she said to
+herself, "and then not to die after all!"
+
+She almost had a feeling of hatred against all these people who were
+busying themselves around her. Now that they had brought her back to
+life, would they enable her to live?
+
+Nevertheless, she distinguished very clearly what was going on in her
+room. She recognized the wealthy ladies from the first story, who had
+stayed to nurse her, and between them Mrs. Chevassat, who assumed an
+air of great activity, while she explained to them how Henrietta had
+deceived her affectionate heart in order to carry out her fatal
+purpose.
+
+"You see, I did not dream of any thing," she protested in a whining
+tone. "A poor little pussy-cat, who was always merry, and this morning
+yet sang like a bird. I thought she might be a little embarrassed, but
+never suspected such misery. You see, ladies, she was as proud as a
+queen, and as haughty as the weather. She would rather have died than
+ask for assistance; for she knew she had only a word to say to me. Did
+I not already, in October, when I saw she would not be able to pay her
+rent, become responsible for her?"
+
+And thereupon the infamous hypocrite bent over the poor girl, kissed
+her on her forehead, and said with a tender tone of voice,--
+
+"Did you not love me, dear little pussy-cat; did not you? I know you
+loved poor old Mrs. Chevassat."
+
+Unable to articulate a word, even if she had understood what was said,
+poor Henrietta shivered, shrank with horror and disgust from the
+contact with those lying lips. And the emotion which this feeling
+caused her did more for her than all the attentions that were paid
+her. Still, it was only after the doctor, who had been sent for, had
+come and bled her, that she was restored to the full use of her
+faculties. Then she thanked, in a very feeble voice, the people around
+her, assuring them that she felt much better now, and might safely be
+left alone.
+
+The two wealthy ladies, whom curiosity had carried off at the moment
+when they were sitting down to dinner, did not wait for more, and,
+very happy to be released, slipped away at once. But the concierge's
+wife remained by Henrietta's bedside till she was alone with her
+victim; and then every thing changed in her face, tone of voice, look,
+and manner.
+
+"Well," she commenced, "now you are happy, miss! You have advertised
+my house, and it will all be in the papers. Everybody will pity you,
+and think your lover a cold-blooded villain, who lets you die of
+starvation."
+
+The poor young girl deprecated the charge with such a sweet, gentle
+expression of face, that a savage would have been touched; but Mrs.
+Chevassat was civilized.
+
+"And still you know very well," she went on in a bitter tone, "that
+dear M. Maxime has done all he could to save you. Only day before
+yesterday, he offered you his whole fortune"--
+
+"Madam," stammered Henrietta, "have you no mercy?"
+
+Mercy--Mrs. Chevassat! What a joke!
+
+"You would take nothing," she continued, "from M. Maxime. Why, I ask
+you? To play the virtuous woman, was it? It was hardly worth while, if
+you meant, immediately afterwards, to accept that old miser, who will
+make life hard enough for you. Ah, you have fallen into nice hands!"
+
+Gathering up all the strength that had come back to her, Henrietta
+raised herself on the pillows, and asked,--
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Oh, nothing! I see. After all, you would have it so. Besides, he had
+been looking after you a long time already."
+
+As soon as Henrietta opened her eyes, Papa Ravinet had discreetly
+withdrawn, in order to leave the ladies, who were about her, time to
+undress her. Thus she had not seen the man who had saved her, and did
+not understand the allusions of the old woman.
+
+"Explain, madam, explain!"
+
+"Ah, upon my word! that is not difficult. The man who has pulled you
+out, who has brought you all these things to make your bed, and kindle
+a fire; why, that is the second-hand dealer of the fourth story! And
+he will not stop there, I am sure. Patience, and you will know well
+enough what I mean."
+
+It must be borne in mind, that the woman, for fear Henrietta might
+sell to Papa Ravinet what she had to sell, or for some other reason,
+had always painted the old man to her in colors by no means
+flattering.
+
+"What ought I to be afraid of?" asked Henrietta.
+
+The woman hesitated. At last she answered,--
+
+"If I were to tell you, you would repeat it to him when he comes
+back."
+
+"No, I promise you."
+
+"Swear it on your mother's sacred memory."
+
+"I swear."
+
+Thus reassured, the old woman came close up to her bed; and, in an
+animated but low voice, she said,--
+
+"Well, I mean this: if you accept now what Papa Ravinet will offer
+you, in six months you will be worse than any of Mrs. Hilaire's girls.
+Ah! don't tell me 'I do not mean to touch him.' The old rascal has
+ruined more than one who was just as good as you are. That's his
+business; and, upon my word! he understands it. Now, forewarned,
+forearmed. I am going down to make you a soup. I'll be back at night.
+And above all, you hear, not a word!"
+
+By one word Mrs. Chevassat had plunged Henrietta once more into an
+abyss of profound despair.
+
+"Great God!" she said to herself, "why must the generous assistance of
+this old man be a new snare for me?"
+
+With her elbow resting on her pillow, her forehead supported by her
+hand, her eyes streaming with tears, she endeavored to gather her
+ideas, which seemed to be scattered to the four winds, like the leaves
+of trees after a storm; when a modest, dry cough aroused her from her
+meditations.
+
+She trembled, and raised her head.
+
+In the framework of the open door stood a man of mature age and of
+medium height, looking at her.
+
+It was Papa Ravinet, who, after a long conversation with the
+concierge, and after some words with his amiable wife, had come up to
+inquire after his patient. She guessed at it, rather than she knew;
+for, although she lived in the same house with him, she was not in the
+same part of the building, and she scarcely recollected having caught
+a glimpse of him now and then in crossing the yard.
+
+"That," she thought, "is the man who plots my ruin, the wretch whom I
+am to avoid."
+
+Now, it is true that this man, with his mournful face, his huge,
+brushlike eyebrows, and his small, yellow eyes, startling by their
+incessant activity, had for the observer something enigmatical about
+him, and therefore did not inspire much confidence.
+
+Nevertheless, Henrietta thanked him none the less heartily, although
+greatly embarrassed, for his readiness to help her, his kind care, and
+his generosity in providing every thing she wanted.
+
+"Oh! you owe me no thanks," he said. "I have only done my duty, and
+that very imperfectly."
+
+And at once, in a rather grim manner, he began to tell her that what
+he had done was nothing in comparison with what he meant to do. He had
+but too well guessed what had led Henrietta to attempt suicide; he had
+only to look around her room. But he swore she should have nothing
+more to fear from want as long as he was there.
+
+But, the more earnest and pressing the good man became in his
+protestations, the more Henrietta drew back within her usual reserve;
+her mind being filled with the prejudices instilled by Mrs. Chevassat.
+Fortunately he was a clever man, the old dealer; and by means of not
+saying what might shock her, and by saying much that could not fail to
+touch her, he gradually regained his position. He almost conquered her
+when he returned to her the letters she had written before making her
+dreadful preparations, and when she saw that they looked unhurt, and
+sealed as before. Thus, when he left her, after half an hour's
+diplomatic intercourse, he had obtained from the poor young girl the
+promise that she would not renew the attempt at her life, and that she
+would explain to him by what fatal combination of circumstances she
+had been reduced to such extreme suffering.
+
+"You would not hesitate," he said, "if you knew how easy it often is,
+by a little experience, to arrange the most difficult matters."
+
+Henrietta did not hesitate. A thought which had occurred to her as
+soon as she found herself alone had brought her to this conclusion:
+"If Papa Ravinet were really what Mrs. Chevassat says, that bad woman
+would not have warned me against him. If she tries to keep me from
+accepting the old man's assistance, she no doubt finds it to her
+advantage that I should do so."
+
+When she tried, after that, to examine as coolly as she could the
+probable consequences of her decision, she found enormous chances in
+her favor. If Papa Ravinet was sincere, she might be enabled to wait
+for Daniel; if he was not sincere, what did she risk? She who had not
+feared death itself need not fear any thing else. Lucretia's dagger
+will always protect a brave woman's liberty.
+
+But still, in spite of the pressing need she had for rest, her promise
+kept her awake for the greater part of the night; for she passed in
+her mind once more over the whole lamentable story of her sufferings,
+and asked herself what she might confess to, and what she ought to
+withhold from the old dealer. Had he not already discovered, by the
+address of one of her letters, that she was the daughter of Count
+Ville-Handry? And just that she would have liked to keep him from
+knowing. On the other hand, was it not foolish to ask the advice of a
+man to whom we will not confess the whole truth?
+
+"I must tell him all," she said, "or nothing." And, after a moment's
+reflection, she added,--"I will tell him all, and keep nothing back."
+She was in this disposition, when in the morning, about nine o'clock,
+Papa Ravinet reappeared in her room. He looked very pale, the old man;
+and the expression of his face, and the tone of his voice, betrayed an
+emotion which he could scarcely control, together with deep anxiety.
+
+"Well?" he asked forgetting in his preoccupation to inquire even how
+the poor girl had passed the night.
+
+She shook her head sadly, and replied, pointing to a chair,--
+
+"I have made up my mind, sir; sit down, please, and listen to me." The
+old dealer had been fully convinced that Henrietta would come to that;
+but he had not hoped for it so soon. He could not help exclaiming, "At
+last!" and intense, almost delirious joy shone in his eyes. Even this
+joy seemed to be so unnatural, that the young girl was made quite
+uncomfortable by it. Fixing her eyes upon the old man with all the
+power of observation of which she was capable, she said,--
+
+"I am fully aware that what I am about to do is almost unparalleled in
+rashness. I put myself, to a certain extent, absolutely in your power,
+sir,--the power of an utter stranger, of whom I am told I have every
+thing to fear."
+
+"O miss!" he declared, "believe me"--
+
+But she interrupted him, saying with great solemnity,--
+
+"I think, if you were to deceive me, you would be the meanest and
+least of men. I rely upon your honor."
+
+And then in a firm voice she began the account of her life, from that
+fatal evening on which her father had said to her,--
+
+"I have resolved, my daughter, to give you a second mother."
+
+The old dealer had taken a seat facing Henrietta, and listened, fixing
+his eyes upon her face as if to enter into her thoughts, and to
+anticipate her meaning. His face was all aglow with excitement, like
+the face of a gambler who is watching the little white ball that is to
+make him a rich man or a beggar. It looked almost as if he had
+foreseen the terrible communication she was making, and was
+experiencing a bitter satisfaction at finding his presentiments
+confirmed,--
+
+As Henrietta was proceeding, he would murmur now and then,--
+
+"That is so! Yes, of course that had to come next."
+
+And all these people whose abominable intrigues Henrietta was
+explaining to him were apparently better known to him than to her, as
+if he had frequently been in contact with them, or even lived in their
+intimacy. He gave his judgment on each one with amazing assurance, as
+the occasion presented itself, saying,--
+
+"Ah! There I recognize Sarah and Mrs. Brian."
+
+Or,--
+
+"Sir Thorn never does otherwise."
+
+Or, again,--
+
+"Yes, that is all over Maxime de Brevan."
+
+And, according to the different phases of the account, he would laugh
+bitterly and almost convulsively, or he would break out in
+imprecations.
+
+"What a trick!" he murmured with an accent of deep horror, "what an
+infernal snare!"
+
+At another point he turned deadly pale, and almost trembled on his
+chair, as if he were feeling ill, and were about to fall. Henrietta
+was telling him at that moment, from Daniel's recital, the
+circumstances under which M. de Kergrist had died, and Malgat had
+disappeared,--that poor cashier who had left such an immense deficit
+behind; who had been condemned to penal servitude; and whose body the
+police believed to have found in a wood near Paris. But, as soon as
+the young girl had finished, he rose all of a sudden, and cried out in
+a formidable voice,--
+
+"I have them now, the wretches! this time I have them!"
+
+And, breaking down under his excessive excitement, he sank into his
+chair, covering his face with his hands. Henrietta was dumfounded; she
+looked aghast at the old man, in whom she now placed all her hopes.
+Already, the night before, she had had some suspicions that he was not
+what he seemed to be; now she was quite sure. But who was he? She had
+nothing to go by to solve that riddle.
+
+This only she thought she saw clearly, that Sarah Brandon, Mrs. Brian,
+and M. Thomas Elgin, as well as M. de Brevan, had at some time or
+other come in personal contact with Papa Ravinet, and that he hated
+them mortally.
+
+"Unless he should try to deceive me," she thought, not having quite
+shaken off all doubts yet.
+
+He had in the meantime mastered his emotion, and was regaining all his
+composure.
+
+"Let no one, henceforth, deny Providence!" he exclaimed. "Ah! fools
+and idiots alone can do so. M. de Brevan had every reason to think
+that this house would keep the secret of his crime as safe as the
+grave, and so brought you here. And here it happens I must chance to
+live,--of all men, I,--and he remain unaware of it! By a kind of
+miracle we are brought together under the same roof,--you, the
+daughter of Count Ville-Handry, and I, one after the other, without
+knowing each other; and, at the very moment when this Brevan is about
+to triumph, Providence brings us together, and this meeting ruins
+him!"
+
+His voice betrayed his fierce joy at approaching vengeance; his sallow
+cheeks flushed up; and his eyes shone brilliantly.
+
+"For M. de Brevan was triumphing last night. The woman Chevassat, his
+confederate, had watched you, and noticing your preparations for
+committing suicide, had said to him, 'Rejoice! at last we shall get
+rid of her.'"
+
+Henrietta shuddered, and stammered out,--
+
+"Is it possible?"
+
+Then the old man, looking at her half surprised, said,--
+
+"What! after all you have seen of M. de Brevan, you have never
+suspected him of meditating your death?"
+
+"Why, yes! I sometimes thought so."
+
+"Well, this time you were right, madam. Ah! you do not know your
+enemies yet. But I know them, I; for I have had a chance of measuring
+the depth of their wickedness. And there your safety would lie, if you
+would follow my advice."
+
+"I will, sir."
+
+Papa Ravinet was evidently a little embarrassed. He said, however,--
+
+"You see, madam, I shall have to ask you to trust me blindly."
+
+"I will trust you blindly."
+
+"It is of the utmost importance that you should escape out of reach of
+M. de Brevan; he must lose every trace of you. You will, consequently,
+have to leave this house."
+
+"I will leave it."
+
+"And in the way I say."
+
+"I will obey you in every point."
+
+The last shadow of trouble which had still overclouded the old
+dealer's brow vanished as if by magic.
+
+"Then all will go well," he said, rubbing his hands as if he were
+taking off the skin; "and I guarantee the rest. Let us make haste to
+understand each other; for I have been here a long time, and the woman
+Chevassat must be on needles. Still, it is important she should not
+suspect that we are acting in concert."
+
+As if afraid that an indiscreet ear might be listening at the door, he
+drew his chair quite close to Henrietta's bed, and whispered in a
+voice but just audible to her,--
+
+"As soon as I have turned my back that woman will come up, burning
+with curiosity to know what has happened between us. You must pretend
+to be very angry with me. Give her to understand that you think me a
+wicked old man, who wants you to pay the price of infamy for the
+services I wish to render to you."
+
+Henrietta had turned crimson. Now she stammered out,--
+
+"But, sir"--
+
+"Perhaps you dislike telling a falsehood?"
+
+"You see--I cannot, I fear. It would not be easy to lie so as to
+deceive Mrs. Chevassat."
+
+"Ah, madam, you must! it cannot be helped. If you admit the absolute
+necessity, you may succeed in misleading her. Remember that we must
+fight the enemy with his own weapons."
+
+"Well, then, I will try, sir."
+
+"So be it. The rest, you will see, is a small matter. As soon as night
+falls, you will dress, and watch for the moment when the concierge, as
+usually, goes about the house lighting the gas. As soon as you see him
+on the great staircase; you will make haste and run down. I shall take
+measures to have the woman Chevassat either kept engaged, or out of
+the house; and you will thus find it easy to slip out without being
+perceived. Once in the street, you will turn to the right. At the
+corner of the street, in front of the great Auction-Mart, you will see
+a cab standing, with a plaid handkerchief like this hanging out of the
+window. Get into it boldly; I'll be inside. I do not know if I have
+made it all clear to you?"
+
+"Oh, perfectly, sir!"
+
+"Then we understand each other. Do you feel strong enough?"
+
+"Yes, sir. You may rely on me."
+
+Every thing passed off just as the old dealer had foreseen; and
+Henrietta played her part so well, that at night, when her
+disappearance was discovered, Mrs. Chevassat was neither much
+surprised nor troubled.
+
+"She was tired of life, the girl!" she said to her husband. "I saw it
+when I was up there. We'll see her again at the Morgue. As the
+charcoal did not do the work, she has tried the water."
+
+
+
+                                 XXI.
+
+Dear woman! She would not have gone to bed so quietly, nor have fallen
+asleep so comfortably, if she had suspected the truth.
+
+What gave her such perfect peace was the certainty she had, that
+Henrietta had left the house bareheaded, with wretched, worn-out shoes
+on her feet, with nothing but one petticoat, and her thin alpaca dress
+on her body. Now, she was quite sure, that in such a state of
+destitution, and in this cold December night, the poor young girl
+would soon be weary wandering through the streets of Paris, and would
+be irresistibly drawn to the waters of the Seine.
+
+But it was by no means so. When Henrietta was alone, after the
+departure of Papa Ravinet, she had only become confirmed in her
+determination to trust in him blindly: she had even forborne to think
+it over, as she had, humanly speaking, no other choice on earth. Thus,
+after having received Mrs. Chevassat's visit, and after having played
+the part assigned to her by the old dealer, she rose, and, although
+quite exhausted yet, took her place at the window to watch for the
+proper time. Four o'clock struck; and, as it was growing dark, the
+concierge came out, with a light in his hand, and went up the big
+staircase to light the lamps.
+
+"Now is the time!" she said to herself.
+
+And casting a last look at this wretched room, where she had suffered
+so much, and wept so much, and where she had expected to die, she
+slipped out. The back stairs were quite dark, and thus she was not
+recognized by two persons whom she met. The court was deserted, and
+the concierge's room locked. She crossed the hall, and at one bound
+was in the street. Some forty paces to the left she could see the
+place where Papa Ravinet was waiting for her in his cab. She ran
+there, got in; and the driver, who had received his instructions,
+whipped his horses as soon as he heard the door shut.
+
+"And now, sir," she began, "where do you take me?"
+
+By the light of the gas in the stores, which from time to time lighted
+up the interior of the carriage, she could see the features of her
+neighbor. He looked at her with manifest satisfaction; and a smile of
+friendly malice played upon his lips.
+
+"Ah!" he replied, "that is a great secret. But you will know soon, for
+the man drives well."
+
+The poor horses went, indeed, as fast as if the dollar which the
+driver had received had infused the noble blood of the fastest racer
+into their veins. They drove down the whole long street at a furious
+rate, turned to the right, and, after many more turns, stopped at last
+before a house of modest appearance. Lightly and promptly, like a
+sheriff's clerk, Papa Ravinet jumped out; and, having aided Henrietta
+to alight, he offered her his arm, and drew her into the house,
+saying,--
+
+"You will see what a surprise I have in store for you."
+
+In the third story the old man stopped; and, drawing a key from his
+pocket, he opened the door which faced the staircase. And, before she
+had time to consider, Henrietta found herself gently pushed into a
+small sitting-room, where a middle-aged lady was embroidering at a
+frame by the light of a large copper lamp.
+
+"Dear sister," said Papa Ravinet, still in the door, "here is the
+young lady of whom I spoke to you, and who does us the honor to accept
+our hospitality."
+
+Slowly the elderly lady put her needle into the canvas, pushed back
+the frame, and rose.
+
+She seemed to be about fifty years old, and must have been beautiful
+formerly. But age and sorrow had blanched her hair, and furrowed her
+face; and the habit of silence and meditation seemed to have sealed
+her lips forever. Her stern countenance, nevertheless, expressed
+kindliness. She was dressed in black; and her costume betrayed a lady
+from a provincial town.
+
+"You are welcome, madam," she said in a grave voice. "You will find in
+our modest home that peace and that sympathy which you need."
+
+In the meantime, Papa Ravinet had come forward; and, bowing to
+Henrietta, he said,--
+
+"I beg to present to you Mrs. Bertolle, my dearly beloved sister Mary,
+a widow, and a saint, who has devoted herself to her brother, and who
+has sacrificed to him every thing,--her fortune, her peace, and her
+life."
+
+Ah! there was no mistaking the look with which the old man caressed
+the old lady: he worshipped her. But she interrupted him, as if
+embarrassed by his praise, saying,--
+
+"You have told me so late, Anthony, that I have not been able to
+attend to all of your orders. But the young lady's room is ready, and
+if you choose"--
+
+"Yes, we must show her the way."
+
+The old lady having taken the lamp, after removing the screen, opened
+a door which led from the parlor directly into a small, modestly
+furnished room, which shone with exquisite tidiness, and which exhaled
+that fresh odor of lavender so dear to all housekeepers from the
+country. The mirrors and the furniture all glistened alike in the
+bright fire on the hearth; and the curtains were as white as snow.
+
+At one glance the old dealer had taken in every thing; and, after a
+smile of gratitude addressed to his sister, he said to Henrietta,--
+
+"This is your room, madam."
+
+The poor girl, all overcome, sought in vain for words to express her
+gratitude. The old lady did not give her time. She showed her, spread
+out on the bed, petticoats, white linen, stockings, a warm dressing-
+wrapper of gray flannel with blue flowers, and at the foot a pair of
+slippers.
+
+"This will answer for a change to-night, madam," she said. "I have
+provided what was most pressing; to-morrow we will see about the
+rest."
+
+Big tears, tears of happiness and gratitude, this time, rolled down
+Henrietta's pale cheeks. Oh, indeed! this was a surprise, and a
+delicious one, which the ingenious foresight of her new friend had
+prepared for her.
+
+"Ah, you are so kind!" she said, giving her hands to brother and
+sister--"you are so kind! How can I ever repay what you are doing for
+me?"
+
+Then overcoming her emotion, and turning to Papa Ravinet, she added,--
+
+"But pray, who are you, sir,--you who thus come to succor, a poor
+young girl who is an utter stranger to you, doubling the value of your
+assistance by your great delicacy?"
+
+The old lady replied in his place,--"My brother, madam, is an
+unfortunate man, who has paid for a moment's forgetfulness of duty,
+with his happiness, his prospects, and /his/ very life. Do not
+question him. Let him be for you what he is for all of us,--Anthony
+Ravinet, dealer in curiosities."
+
+The voice of the old lady betrayed such great sorrow, silently
+endured, that Henrietta looked ashamed, regretting her indiscretion.
+But the old man at once said,--
+
+"What I may say to you madam, is, that you owe me no gratitude,--no,
+none whatever. What I do, my own interest commands me to do; and I
+deserve no credit for it. Why do you speak of gratitude? It is I who
+shall forever be under obligations to you for the immense service
+which you render me."
+
+He seemed to be inspired by his own words; his figure straightened up;
+his eyes flashed fire; and he was on the point of letting, perhaps,
+some secret escape him, when his sister interrupted him, saying
+reproachfully,--
+
+"Anthony, Anthony!"
+
+He stopped at once. Then he resumed,--
+
+"You are right; you are right! I forget myself here; and I ought to be
+already back in Water Street. It is of the utmost importance that that
+woman Chevassat should not miss me a moment to-night."
+
+He was about to leave them, when the old lady held him back, and
+said,--
+
+"You ought to go back, I know; only be careful! It is a miracle that
+M. de Brevan has never met you and recognized you, during the year he
+has been coming to the house in which you live. If such a misfortune
+should happen now, our enemies might once more escape us. After the
+young lady's desperate act, he would not fail to recognize the man who
+has saved her. What can you do to avoid meeting him?"
+
+"I have thought of that danger," he replied. "When I go back, I shall
+tell the two Chevassats a little story, which will frighten them, so
+that they will advise Brevan never to appear there, except at night,
+as he formerly did."
+
+Thereupon he bowed to Henrietta, and went away with the words,--
+
+"To-morrow we will consult with each other."
+
+The shipwrecked man who is saved at the last moment, when, strength
+and spirits being alike exhausted, he feels himself sinking into the
+abyss, cannot, upon feeling once more firm ground under his feet,
+experience a sense of greater happiness than Henrietta did that night.
+For the delicious sensation had become deeper and intenser by the
+evening spent in company with Papa Ravinet's sister.
+
+The widow, free from embarrassment as from affectation, possessed a
+quiet dignity which appeared in certain words and ways she had, and
+which made Henrietta guess the principal events of her life. Ruined
+all of a sudden,--she did not say how,--some months after the death of
+her husband, she, who had been accustomed to all the comforts of
+opulence had seen herself reduced to poverty, and all its privations.
+This had happened about five years ago. Since then she had imposed
+upon herself the strictest economy, although she never neglected her
+appearance. She had but one servant, who came every morning to clean
+up the house; she herself did all the other work, washing and ironing
+her own linen, cooking only twice a week, and eating cold meat on the
+other days, as much to save money as to save time.
+
+For her time had its value. She worked on her frame patterns for
+embroideries, for which a fashionable store paid her very good prices.
+There were days in summer when she earned three francs.
+
+The blow had been a severe one; she did not conceal it. Gradually,
+however, she had become reconciled to it, and taken up this habit of
+economizing with unflinching severity, and down to the smallest
+details. At present, she felt in these very privations a kind of
+secret satisfaction which results from the sense of having
+accomplished a duty,--a satisfaction all the greater, the harder the
+duty is.
+
+What duty, she did not say.
+
+"That lady is a noble creature among many!" said Henrietta to herself
+that night, when she retired after a modest repast.
+
+Still she could not get over the mystery which surrounded the lives of
+these two personages, whom fate, relenting at last, had placed in her
+way. What was the mystery in the past of this brother and sister? For
+there was one; and, so far from trying to conceal it, they had begged
+Henrietta not to inquire into it. And how was their past connected
+with her own past? How could their future depend in any way on her own
+future?
+
+But fatigue soon made an end to her meditations, and confused her
+ideas; and, for the first time in two years, she fell asleep with a
+sense of perfect security; she slept peacefully, without starting at
+the slightest noise, without being troubled by silence, without
+wondering whether her enemies were watching her, without suspecting
+the very walls of her room.
+
+When she awoke next morning, calm and refreshed, it was broad
+daylight, nearly ten o'clock; and a pale ray of the sun was playing
+over the polished furniture. When she opened her eyes, she saw the
+dealer's sister standing at the foot of her bed, like a good genius
+who had been watching over her slumbers.
+
+"Oh, how lazy I am!" she exclaimed with the hearty laugh of a child;
+for she felt quite at home in this little bedroom, where she had only
+spent a night; she felt as much at home here as in her father's palace
+when her mother was still alive; and it seemed to her as if she had
+lived here many a year.
+
+"My brother was here about half an hour ago to talk with you," said
+the old lady; "but we did not like to wake you. You needed repose so
+much! He will be back in the evening, and dine with us."
+
+The bright smile which had lighted up Henrietta's face went out
+instantly. Absorbed in the happiness of the moment, she had forgotten
+every thing; and these few words brought her back to the reality of
+her position, and recalled to her the sufferings of the past and the
+uncertainty of the future.
+
+The good widow in the meantime assisted her in getting up; and they
+spent the day together in the little parlor, busily cutting out and
+making up a black silk dress for which Papa Ravinet had brought the
+material in the morning, and which was to take the place of
+Henrietta's miserable, worn-out, alpaca dress. When the young girl had
+first seen the silk, she had remembered all the kind widow had told
+her of their excessive economy, and with difficulty only succeeded in
+checking her tears.
+
+"Why should you go to such an expense?" she had said very sadly.
+"Would not a woollen dress have done quite as well? The hospitality
+which you offer me must in itself be quite a heavy charge upon you. I
+should never forgive myself for becoming a source of still greater
+privations to such very kind friends."
+
+But the old lady shook her head, and replied,--
+
+"Don't be afraid, child. We have money enough."
+
+They had just lighted the lamp, when they heard a key in the outer
+door; and a moment later Papa Ravinet appeared. He was very red; and,
+although it was freezing outdoors, he was streaming with perspiration.
+
+"I am exhausted," he said, sinking into, an armchair, and wiping his
+forehead with his broad checkered handkerchief. "You cannot imagine
+how I have been running about to-day! I wanted to take an omnibus to
+come home, but they were all full."
+
+Henrietta jumped up, and exclaimed,--
+
+"You have been to see my father?"
+
+"No, madam. A week ago already, Count Ville-Handry left his palace."
+
+A mad thought, the hope that her father might have separated from his
+wife, crossed Henrietta's mind.
+
+"And the countess," she asked,--"the Countess Sarah?"
+
+"She has gone with her husband. They live in Peletier Street, in a
+modest apartment just above the office of the Pennsylvania Petroleum
+Company. Sir Thorn and Mrs. Brian are there also. They have only kept
+two servants,--Ernest, the count's valet, and a certain Clarissa."
+
+The name of the vile creature whose treachery had been one of the
+principal causes of Henrietta's misfortunes did not strike her ear.
+
+"How could my father ever be induced to leave his home?" she asked.
+
+"He sold it, madam, ten days ago."
+
+"Great God! My father must be ruined!"
+
+The old man bowed his head.
+
+"Yes!"
+
+Thus were the sad presentiments realized which she had felt when first
+she had heard Count Ville-Handry speak of the Pennsylvania Petroleum
+Company. But never, oh, never! would she have imagined so sudden a
+downfall.
+
+"My father ruined!" she repeated, as if she were unable to realize the
+precise meaning of these words.
+
+"And only a year ago he had more than a hundred thousand dollars a
+year. Six millions swallowed up in twelve months!--six millions!"
+
+And as the enormous amount seemed to be out of all proportion to the
+shortness of time, she said,--
+
+"It cannot be. You must be mistaken, sir; they have misled you."
+
+A smile of bitter irony passed over the old dealer's lips. He replied,
+as if much puzzled by Henrietta's doubts,--
+
+"What, madam, you do not see yet? Alas! what I tell you is but too
+true; and, if you want proofs"--
+
+He drew a newspaper from his pocket and handed it to Henrietta,
+pointing out to her on the first page an article marked with a red
+pencil.
+
+"There!" he said.
+
+It was one of those financial sheets which arise every now and then,
+and which profess to teach the art of becoming rich in a very short
+time, without running any risk. This paper bore a title calculated to
+reassure its readers. It was called "Prudence." Henrietta read
+aloud,--
+
+
+ "We shall never tire repeating to our subscribers the words which
+  form our motto and our heading, 'Prudence, prudence! Do not trust
+  new enterprises!'
+
+ "Out of a hundred enterprises which appear in the market, it may
+  safely be said that sixty are nothing but the simplest kind of
+  wells, into which the capital of foolhardy speculators is sunk
+  almost instantly. Out of the remaining forty, twenty-five may be
+  looked upon as suspicious enterprises, partaking too much of
+  gambling speculations. Among the last fifteen even, a careful
+  choice must be made before we find out the few that present safe
+  guarantees."
+
+
+The young girl paused, not understanding a word of all this stuff. But
+the old man said,--
+
+"That is only the honey of the preface, the sweet syrup intended to
+conceal the bitterness of the medicine that is to follow. Go on, and
+you will understand."
+
+She continued to read,--
+
+
+ "A recent event, we ought to say a recent disaster, has just
+  confirmed our doctrines, and justifies but too clearly our
+  admonition to be careful.
+
+ "A company which started into existence last year with amazing
+  suddenness, which filled the whole world with its flaming
+  advertisements, crowding the newspapers, and decorating the
+  street-corners,--a company which was most surely to enrich its
+  stockholders, is already no longer able to pay the interest on its
+  paid-up capital.
+
+ "As to the capital itself--but we will not anticipate events.
+
+ "All of our readers will have understood that we are speaking of
+  the Franco-American Society of Pennsylvania Oil-Wells, which for
+  the last eight days has been the subject of universal excitement.
+
+ "On 'Change the shares of a hundred dollars are quoted at 4-to-5."
+
+
+Blinding tears prevented Henrietta from going on. "Great God!" she
+exclaimed. "O God!" Then, mastering her weakness, she began once more
+to read,--
+
+
+ "And yet if ever any company seemed to offer all the material and
+  moral guarantees which we can desire before risking our carefully
+  saved earnings, this company presented them.
+
+ "It had at its head a man who in his day was looked up to as a
+  statesman endowed with rare administrative talents, and whose
+  reputation as a man of sterling integrity seemed to lie above all
+  suspicion.
+
+ "Need we say that this was the 'high and mighty Count Ville-
+  Handry'?
+
+ "Hence they did not spare this great and noble name, but proclaimed
+  it aloud on the housetops. It was the Count Ville-Handry here, and
+  the Count Ville-Handry there. He was to bestow upon the country a
+  new branch of industry. He was to change vile petroleum into
+  precious gold.
+
+ "It was especially brought into notice that the noble count's
+  personal fortune was nearly equal to the whole capital of the new
+  company,--ten millions. Hence he was risking his own money rather
+  than the money of others.
+
+ "It is now a year since these dazzling promises were made. What
+  remains of them all? Shares, worth five dollars yesterday, worth,
+  perhaps, nothing at all to-morrow, and a more than doubtful
+  capital.
+
+ "Who could have expected in our day a new edition of Law's
+  Mississippi Scheme?"
+
+
+The paper fell from the hands of the poor girl. She had turned as pale
+as death, and was staggering so, that Papa Ravinet's sister took her
+in her arms to support her.
+
+"Horrible," she murmured; "this is horrible!" Still she had not yet
+read all. The old man picked up the paper, and read from another
+article, below the lines which carried poison in every word, the
+following comments:--
+
+
+ "Two delegates of the stockholders of the Pennsylvania Petroleum
+  Company were to sail this morning from Brest for New York.
+
+ "These gentlemen have been sent out by their fellow-sufferers to
+  examine the lands on which the oil-wells are situated which
+  constitute the only security of the shareholders. Certain people
+  have gone so far as to doubt even the existence of such oil-
+  wells."
+
+
+And in another place, under the head of local items:--
+
+
+ "The palace of Count Ville-Handry was sold last week. This
+  magnificent building, with the princely real estate belonging to
+  it, was knocked down to the highest bidder for the sum of one
+  hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. The misfortune is, that
+  house and lot are burdened with mortgages, which amount together
+  to nearly a hundred thousand dollars."
+
+
+Henrietta was overcome, and had sunk into a chair.
+
+"But that is simply infamous," she stammered out in an almost
+inaudible tone. "Nobody will believe such atrocious libels."
+
+Pale and deeply grieved, Papa Ravinet and his sister exchanged looks
+of distress. Evidently the poor girl did not at all realize the
+terrible nature of the circumstances. And yet, seeing her thus
+crushed, they did not dare to enlighten her. At last the old dealer,
+knowing but too well that uncertainty is more agonizing than the most
+painful reality, said,--
+
+"Your father is fearfully calumniated. But I have tried to inform
+myself. Two facts are but too certain. Count Ville-Handry is ruined;
+and the shares of the company of which he is the president have fallen
+to five dollars, because"--
+
+His voice changed, and he added in a very low tone,--
+
+"Because it is believed that the capital of the company has been
+appropriated to other purposes, and lost in speculations on 'Change."
+
+The poor old dealer was suffering intensely, and showed it.
+
+"Ah, madam, perfectly as I am convinced of Count Ville-Handry's
+uprightness and integrity, I also know that he was utterly ignorant of
+business. What did he understand of these speculations into which he
+was drawn? Nothing. It is a difficult and often a dangerous thing to
+manage large capitals. They have no doubt deceived him, cheated him,
+misled him, and driven him at last to the verge of bankruptcy."
+
+"Who?"
+
+Papa Ravinet trembled on his chair, and, raising his hands to the
+ceiling, exclaimed,--
+
+"Who? You ask who? Why, those who had an interest in it, the wretches
+by whom he was surrounded,--Sarah, Sir Thorn"--
+
+Henrietta shook her head and said,--
+
+"/I/ do not think the Countess Sarah looked with a favorable eye upon
+the formation of this company."
+
+And, when objection was made, she went on,--
+
+"Besides, what interest could she have in ruining my father? Evidently
+none. To ruin him was to ruin herself, since she was absolute mistress
+of her fortune, and free to dispose of it as she chose."
+
+Proud of the accuracy of her decision, she was looking triumphantly at
+the old dealer. The latter saw now that he must strike a decisive
+blow; and his sister encouraged him by a gesture. He said,--
+
+"Pray, listen to me, madam. So far I have only repeated to you the
+report on 'Change. I told you: They say the capital of the
+Pennsylvania Petroleum /Company/ has been swallowed up by unlucky
+speculations on 'Change. But I do not believe these reports. I am, on
+the contrary, convinced, I am quite sure even, that these millions
+were not lost on 'Change, because they never were used for the purpose
+of speculating."
+
+"Still"--
+
+"Still they have disappeared, none the less; and your father is
+probably the last man in the world to tell us how and where they have
+disappeared. But I know it; and, when the question is raised how to
+recover these enormous sums, I shall cry out, 'Search Sarah Brandon,
+Countess Ville-Handry; search M. Thomas Elgin and Mrs. Brian; search
+Maxime de Brevan,' the wretched tool of these wicked women!"
+
+Now at last a terrible light broke upon Henrietta's mind.
+
+"Then," she stammered, "these infamous slanders are only put out to
+conceal an impudent robbery?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+The young girl's face showed that she was making a great effort to
+comprehend; and then she said again,--
+
+"And in that case, the articles in the papers"--
+
+"Were written by the wretches who have robbed your father, yes,
+madam!" And, shaking his fist with a threatening air, he added,--
+
+"Oh! there is no mistaking it. Since when does this journal exist?
+Since about six months ago. From the day on which it was established,
+it was the aim and purpose of the founders to publish in it the
+articles which you haven't read."
+
+Even if she could not well understand by what ingenious combinations
+such enormous sums could be abstracted, Henrietta was conquered by
+Papa Ravinet's sincere and earnest conviction.
+
+"Then," she went on, "these wretches who have robbed my father now
+mean to ruin him!"
+
+"They must do it for their own safety. The money has been stolen, you
+see; therefore there must be a thief. For the world, for the courts,
+the guilty one will be Count Ville-Handry."
+
+"For the courts?"
+
+"Alas, yes!"
+
+The poor girl's eyes went from the brother to the sister with a
+terrible expression of bewilderment. At last she asked,--
+
+"And do you believe Sarah will allow my father's name to be thus
+dishonored,--the name which she bears, and of which she was so proud?"
+
+"She will, perhaps, even insist upon it."
+
+"Great God! What do you mean? Why should she?"
+
+Seeing her brother's hesitation, the old lady took it upon herself to
+answer. She touched the poor girl's arm, and said in a subdued
+voice,--
+
+"Because, you see, my poor child, now that Sarah has gotten possession
+of the fortune she wanted, your father is in her way; because, you
+see, she wants to be free--do you understand?--free!"
+
+Henrietta uttered a cry of such horror that both the brother and the
+sister saw at once that she had not misunderstood the horrible meaning
+of that word "free."
+
+But, since the blow had fallen, the old dealer did not think the rest
+need be concealed from Henrietta. He got up, therefore, and, leaning
+against the mantlepiece, he addressed the poor girl, trembling in all
+her limbs with terror, and looking at him with a fixed and painful
+gaze, in these words,--
+
+"You must at last learn to know, madam, the execrable woman who has
+sworn to ruin you. You see, I know, because I have experienced it
+myself, of what crimes she is capable; and I see clear in the dark
+night of her infernal intrigues. I know that this woman with the
+chaste brow, the open smile, and the soft eyes, has the genius and the
+instinct of a murderess, and has never counted upon any thing else,
+but murder for the gratification of her lusts."
+
+The attitude of the old man, who raised his head on high while his
+breast swelled, breathed in every one of his sharp and threatening
+gestures an intense thirst of vengeance. He no longer measured his
+words carefully; and they overflowed from his lips as they came
+boiling up under the pressure of his rage.
+
+"Anthony!" said the old lady more than once,--"Anthony, brother! I
+beseech you!"
+
+But this friendly voice, ordinarily all-powerful, was not even heard
+by him now. He went on,--
+
+"And now, madam, must I still explain to you the simple and yet
+formidable plan by which Sarah Brandon has succeeded in obtaining by
+one effort the immense fortune of the Ville-Handry family? From the
+first day, she has seen that you were standing between her and those
+millions; therefore she attacked you first of all. A brave and honest
+man, M. Daniel Champcey, loved you; he would have protected you;
+therefore she got him out of the way. The world might have become
+interested in you, might have taken your side; she beguiled your
+father, in his blind passion, to calumniate you, to ruin your
+reputation, and to expose you to the contempt of the world. Still you
+might have wished to secure a protector, you might have found one. She
+placed by your side her wretched tool, her spy, a forger, a criminal
+whom she knew to be able of doing things from which even an
+accomplished galley-slave would have shrunk with disgust and horror: I
+mean Maxime de Brevan."
+
+The very excess, of eruption had restored a part of her energy to
+Henrietta. She said, therefore,--
+
+"Alas, /sir/! have I not told you, on, the contrary, that Daniel
+himself had confided me to the care of M. de Brevan? Have I not told
+you"--
+
+The old dealer smiled almost contemptuously, and then continued,--
+
+"What does that prove? Nothing but the skill of M. de Brevan in
+carrying out Sarah Brandon's orders. In order to get the more
+completely the mastery over you, he began by obtaining the mastery
+over M. Champcey. How he succeeded in doing this, I do not know. But
+we shall know it when we want to know it; for we are going to find out
+every thing. Thus Sarah was, through M. de Brevan, kept informed of
+all your thoughts, of all your hopes, of /every/ word you wrote to M.
+Champcey, and of all he said in reply; for you need not doubt he did
+answer, and they suppressed the letters, just as they, very probably,
+intercepted all of your letters which you did not yourself carry to
+the post-office. Still, as long as you were living under your father's
+roof, Sarah could do nothing against your life. She resolved,
+therefore, to force you to flee; and those mean persecutions of M.
+Elgin served their purpose. You thought, and perhaps, they think, that
+bandit really wanted your hand. Undeceive yourself. Your enemies knew
+your character too well to hope that you would ever break your word,
+and become faithless to M. Champcey. But they were bent upon handing
+you over to M. de Brevan. And thus, poor child! you were handed over
+to him. Maxime had as little idea of marrying you as Sir Thomas; he
+was quite prepared, when he dared to approach you with open arms, to
+be rejected with disgust. But he had received orders to add the horror
+of his persecutions to the horror of your isolation and your
+destitution.
+
+"For he was quite sure, the scoundrel! that the secret of your
+sufferings would be well kept. He had carefully chosen the house in
+which you were to die of hunger and misery. The two Chevassats were
+bound to be his devoted accomplices, even unto death. This is what
+gave him the amazing boldness, the inconceivable brutality, to watch
+your slow agony; no doubt he became quite impatient at your delaying
+suicide so long.
+
+"Finally you were driven to it; and your death would have realized
+their atrocious hopes, if Providence had not miraculously stepped in,
+--that Providence which always, sooner or later, takes its revenge,
+whatever the wicked may say to the contrary. Yes, these wretches
+thought they had now surely gotten rid of you, when I came in. That
+very morning, the woman Chevassat had told them, no doubt, 'She'll do
+it to-night!' And that evening, Sarah, Mrs. Brian, and M. Elgin asked,
+no doubt, full of hope, 'Is it all over?'"
+
+Immovable, and white as marble, her eyes dilated beyond measure, and
+her lips half-open, poor Henrietta listened. She felt as if a bright
+ray of the sun had suddenly illumined the darkest depths of the abyss
+from which she had been barely snatched.
+
+"Yes," she said, "yes; now I see it all."
+
+Then, as the old dealer, out of breath, and his voice hoarse with
+indignation, paused a moment, she asked,--
+
+"Still there is one circumstance which I cannot understand: Sarah
+insists upon it that she knew nothing of the forged letter by means of
+which Daniel was sent abroad. She told me, on the contrary, that she
+had wished to keep him here, because she loved him, and he loved her."
+
+"Ah! do not believe a word of those infamous stories," broke in Papa
+Ravinet's sister.
+
+But the old man scratched his head, and said,--
+
+"No, certainly not! We ought not to believe such stories. And yet, I
+wonder if there is not some new trick in that. Unless, indeed-- But
+no, that would be almost too lucky for us! Unless Sarah should really
+love M. Champcey!"
+
+And, as if he was afraid of having given rise to hopes which he
+founded upon this contingency, he added at once,--
+
+"But let us return to facts. When Sarah was sure of you, she turned
+her attention to your father. While they were murdering you slowly,
+she abused the inexperience of Count Ville-Handry to lead him into a
+path at the end of which he could not but leave his honor behind him.
+Notice, pray, that the articles which you read are dated on the very
+day on which you would probably have died. That is a clear evidence of
+her crime. Thinking that she had gotten rid of you, she evidently said
+to herself, 'And now for the father.'"
+
+Henrietta grew red in her face, as if a jet of fire had blazed up in
+it. She exclaimed,--
+
+"Great God! The proofs are coming out; the crime will be disclosed. I
+have no doubt the assassins told each other that Count Ville-Handry
+would never survive such a foul stain on his honor. And they dared
+all, sure as they were that that honorable man would carry the secret
+of their wickedness and of their unheard-of robbery with him to the
+grave."
+
+Papa Ravinet leisurely wiped the perspiration from his brow. Then he
+replied in a hoarse voice,--
+
+"Yes, that was probably, that was assuredly, the way Sarah Brandon
+reasoned within herself."
+
+But Henrietta, full of admirable energy, had roused herself; and, with
+flushed cheeks and burning eyes, she said to him,--
+
+"What! you knew all this? You knew that they were assassinating my
+father, and you did not warn him? Ah, that was cruel cautiousness!"
+
+And quick like lightning she dashed forward, and would have rushed
+out, if the old lady had not promptly stepped in front of the door,
+saying,--
+
+"Henrietta, poor child! where are you going?"
+
+"To save my father, madam, who, perhaps at this very moment is
+struggling in the last agonies of death, as I was struggling in like
+manner only two nights ago."
+
+Quite beside herself, she had clasped the knob of the door in her
+hands, and tried with all the strength she still possessed to move the
+old lady out of the way. But Papa Ravinet seized her by the arm, and
+said to her solemnly,--
+
+"Madam, I swear to you by all you hold sacred, and my sister will
+swear to you in like manner, that your father's life is in no kind of
+danger."
+
+She gave up the struggle; but her face bore the expression of the most
+harassing anxiety. The old man continued,--
+
+"Do you wish to defeat our triumph? Would you like to give warning to
+our enemies, to put /them/ on their guard, and to deprive us of all
+hopes of revenge?"
+
+Henrietta almost mechanically passed her hand to and fro across her
+brow, as if she hoped she could thus restore peace to her mind.
+
+"And mind," continued the old man with a persuasive voice, "mind that
+such imprudence would save our enemies, but would not save your
+father. Pray consider and answer me. Do you really think that your
+arguments would be stronger than Sarah Brandon's? You cannot so far
+underrate the diabolical cunning of your enemy. Why, she has no doubt
+taken all possible measures to keep your father's faith in her
+unshaken, and to let him die as he has lived, completely deceived by
+her, and murmuring with his last breath words of supreme love for her
+who kills him."
+
+These arguments were so overwhelming, that Henrietta let go the door-
+knob, and slowly went back to her seat by the fire. And yet she was
+far from being reassured.
+
+"If I were to appeal to the police," she suddenly proposed.
+
+The old lady had come and taken a seat by Henrietta's side. She took
+her hands in her own now, and said, gently,--
+
+"Poor child! Do you not see that the whole power of this abominable
+creature lies in the fact that she employs means which are not within
+the reach of human justice. Believe me, my child, it is best for you
+to rely blindly on my brother."
+
+Once more the old dealer had come up to the mantlepiece. He
+repeated,--
+
+"Yes, Miss Henrietta, rely on me. I have as much reason to curse Sarah
+Brandon as you have, and perhaps I hate her more. Rely on me; for my
+hatred has now been watching and waiting for years, ever anxious to
+reach her, and to avenge my sufferings. Yes, for long years I have
+been lying in wait, thirsting for vengeance, lost in darkness, but
+pursuing her tracks with the unwearied perseverance of the Indian. For
+the purpose of finding out who she is, and who her accomplices are,
+whence they came, and how they have met to plot together such fearful
+crimes,--for that purpose I have walked in the deepest mud, and
+stirred up heaps of infamy. But I have found out all. And yet in the
+whole life of Sarah Brandon,--a life of theft and murder,--I have till
+this moment not found a single fact which would bring her within the
+reach of the law, so cunning is her wickedness."
+
+His face brightened with an air of triumph; and his voice rose high as
+he added,--
+
+"But now! This time success seemed to her so sure and so easy, that
+she has neglected her usual precautions. Eager to enjoy her millions,
+and, in proportion, weary of playing a comedy of love with your
+father, she has been too eager. And she is lost if we, on our side,
+are not also too eager.
+
+"As to your father, madam, I have my reasons for feeling safe about
+him. According to your mother's marriage contract, and in consequence
+of a bequest of a million and a half which were left her by one of her
+uncles, your father's estate is your debtor to the amount of two
+millions; and that sum is invested in mortgages on his estates in
+Anjou. That sum he cannot touch, even if he is bankrupt. Should he die
+before you, that sum remains still yours; but, if you die before him,
+it goes to him. Now Sarah has sworn, in her insatiate cupidity, that
+she will have these two millions also."
+
+"Ah," said Henrietta, "you are right! It is Sarah's interest that my
+father should live; and he will live, therefore, as long as she does
+not know whether I am dead or alive, in fact, as long as she does not
+know what has become of me."
+
+"And she must not know that for some time," chimed in the old man.
+
+Then laughing his odd, silent laugh,--
+
+"You ought to see the anxiety of your enemies since you have slipped
+out of their hands. That woman Chevassat had, last night, come to the
+conclusion that you were gone, and gone forever; but this morning
+matters looked very differently. Maxime de Brevan had been there,
+making a terrible row, and beating her (God forgive him!) because she
+had relaxed in her watchfulness. The rascal! The fellow has been
+spending the whole day in running from the police office to the
+Morgue, and back again. Destitute as you were, and almost without
+clothes, what could have become of you? I, for my part, did not show;
+and the Chevassats are far from suspecting that I had any thing to do
+with the whole affair. Ah! It will soon be our turn, and if you will
+only accept my suggestions, madam"--
+
+It was past nine o'clock when the old dealer, his sister, and
+Henrietta sat down to their modest meal. But in the interval a hopeful
+smile had reappeared on Henrietta's face, and she looked almost happy,
+when, about midnight, Papa Ravinet left them with the words,--
+
+"To-morrow evening I shall have news. I am going to the navy
+department."
+
+The next day he reappeared precisely at six o'clock, but in what a
+condition! He had in his hand a kind of carpet-bag; and his looks and
+gestures made him look almost insane.
+
+"Money!" he cried out to his sister as he entered. "I am afraid I have
+not enough; and make haste. I have to be at the Lyons Railway at seven
+o'clock."
+
+And when his sister and Henrietta, terribly frightened, asked him,--
+
+"What is the matter? What are you going to do?"
+
+"Nothing," he replied joyously, "but that Heaven itself declares in
+our favor. I went to the department. 'The Conquest' will remain
+another year in Cochin China; but M. Champcey is coming back to
+Europe. He was to have taken passage on board a merchant vessel, 'The
+Saint Louis,' which is expected in Marseilles every day, if she has
+not already come in. And I--I am going to Marseilles, I must see M.
+Champcey before anybody else can see him."
+
+When his sister had given him notes to the amount of four hundred
+dollars, he rushed out, exclaiming,--
+
+"To-morrow I will send you a telegram!"
+
+
+
+                                XXII.
+
+If there is in our civilized states a profession more arduous than
+others it is surely that of the sailor. So arduous is it, that we are
+almost disposed to ask how men can be found bold enough to embrace
+/it/, and firm enough in their resolution not to abandon it after
+having tried it. Not because of the hazards, the fatigues, and the
+dangers connected with it, but because it creates an existence apart,
+and because the conditions it imposes seem to be incompatible with
+free will.
+
+Still no one is more attached to his home than the sailor. There are
+few among them who are not married. And by a kind of special grace
+they are apt to enjoy their short happiness as if it were for
+eternity, indifferent as to what the morning may bring.
+
+But behold! one fine morning, all of a sudden, a big letter comes from
+the department.
+
+It is an order to sail.
+
+He must go, abandoning every thing and everybody,--mother, family, and
+friends, the wife he has married the day before, the young mother who
+sits smiling by the cradle of her first-born, the betrothed who was
+looking joyfully at her bridal veil. He must go, and stifle all those
+ominous voices which rise from the depth of his heart, and say to him,
+"Will you ever return? and, if you return, will you find them all,
+your dear ones? and, if you find them, will they not have changed?
+will they have preserved your memory as faithfully as you have
+preserved theirs?"
+
+To be happy, and to be compelled to open to mishap this fatal door,
+absence! Hence it is only in comic operas, and inferior novels, that
+the sailors are seen to sing their most cheerful songs at the moment
+when a vessel is about to sail on a long and perilous voyage. The
+moment is, in reality, always a sad one, very grave and solemn.
+
+Such could not fail to be the scene also, when "The Conquest" sailed,
+--the ship on board of which Daniel Champcey had been ordered as
+lieutenant. And certainly there had been good reasons for ordering him
+to make haste and get down to the port where she lay; for the very
+next day after his arrival, she hoisted anchor. She had been waiting
+for him only.
+
+Having reached Rochefort at five o'clock in the morning, he slept the
+same night on board; and the next day "The Conquest" sailed. Daniel
+suffered more than any other man on board, although he succeeded in
+affecting a certain air of indifference. The thought of Henrietta
+being left in the hands of adventurers who were capable of any thing
+was a thorn in his side, which caused him great and constant pain. As
+he gradually calmed down, and peace returned to his mind, a thousand
+doubts assailed him concerning Maxime de Brevan: would he not be
+exposed to terrible temptation when he found himself thrown daily into
+the company of a great heiress? Might he not come to covet her
+millions, and try to abuse her peculiar situation in order to secure
+them to himself?
+
+Daniel believed too firmly in his betrothed to apprehend that she
+would even listen to Brevan. But he reasoned, very justly, that his
+darling would be in a desperate condition indeed, if M. de Brevan,
+furious at being refused, should betray his confidence, and go over to
+the enemy, to the Countess Sarah.
+
+"And I," he thought, "who in my last directions urged her to trust
+implicitly in Maxime, and to follow his advice as if it were my own!"
+
+In the midst of these terrible anxieties, he hardly recollected that
+he had intrusted to Maxime every thing that he possessed. What was his
+money to him in comparison!
+
+Thus it appeared to him a genuine favor of Providence when "The
+Conquest," six days out at sea, experienced a violent storm, which
+endangered her safety for nearly seventy-two hours. His thoughts
+disappeared while he felt his grave responsibility, as long as the sea
+tossed the vessel to and fro like a mere cork, and while the crew
+fought with the elements till they were overcome by fatigue. He had
+actually a good night's rest, which he had not enjoyed since he left
+Paris.
+
+When he awoke, he was surprised to feel a certain peace of mind.
+Henceforth his fate was no longer in his own hands; he had been shown
+very clearly his inability to control events. Sad resignation
+succeeded to his terrible anxiety.
+
+A single hope now kept him alive,--the hope of soon receiving a letter
+from Henrietta, or, it might be, of finding one upon arriving at his
+destination; for it was by no means impossible for "The Conquest" to
+be outstripped by some vessel that might have left port three weeks
+later. "The Conquest," an old wooden frigate, and a sailing vessel,
+justified her bad reputation of being the worst sailor in the whole
+fleet. Moreover, alternate calms and sudden blows kept her much longer
+than usually on the way. The oldest sailors said they had never seen a
+more tedious voyage.
+
+To add to the discomfort, "The Conquest" was so crammed full with
+passengers, that sailors and officers had hardly half of the space
+usually allotted to them on board ship. Besides the crew, there were
+on board a half battalion of marines, and a hundred and sixty
+mechanics of various trades, whom government sent out for the use of
+the colony. Some of these artisans had their families with them,
+having determined to become settlers in Cochin China; others,
+generally quite young yet, only made the voyage in order to have an
+opportunity for seeing foreign lands, and for earning, perhaps, a
+little money. They were occasionally called upon to assist in handling
+the ship, and were, on the whole, good men, with the exception of four
+or five, who were so unruly that they had to be put in irons more than
+once.
+
+The days passed, nevertheless; and "The Conquest" had been out three
+months, when one afternoon, as Daniel was superintending a difficult
+manoeuvre, he was suddenly seen to stagger, raise his arms on high,
+and fall backwards on the deck.
+
+They ran up to him, and raised him up; but he gave no sign of life;
+and the blood poured forth from his mouth and nose in streams. Daniel
+had won the hearts of the crew by his even temper, his strict
+attention to duty, and his kindness, when off duty, to all who came in
+contact with him. Hence, when the accident became known, in an instant
+sailors and officers came hurrying up from one end of the frigate to
+the other, and even from the lowest deck, to see what had happened to
+him.
+
+What had happened? No one could tell; for no one had seen any thing.
+Still it must be a very grave matter, to judge from the large pool of
+blood which dyed the deck at the place where the young man had fallen
+down so suddenly. They had carried him to the infirmary; and, as soon
+as he recovered his senses, the surgeons discovered the cause of his
+fall and his fainting.
+
+He had an enormous contused wound on the back of his head, a little
+behind the left ear,--a wound such as a heavy hammer in the hands of a
+powerful man might have produced. Whence came this terrible blow,
+which apparently a miracle alone had prevented from crushing the
+skull? No one could explain this, neither the surgeons, nor the
+officers who stood around the bed of the wounded man. When Daniel
+could be questioned, he knew no more about it than the others. There
+had been no one standing near him; nor had he seen anybody come near
+him at the time of the accident; the blow, moreover, had been so
+violent, that he had fallen down unconscious. All these details soon
+became current among the sailors and passengers who had crowded on
+deck. They were received with incredulous smiles, and, when they could
+no longer be held in doubt, with bursts of indignation.
+
+What! Lieut. Champcey had been struck in broad daylight, in the midst
+of the crew! How? By whom?
+
+The whole matter was so wrapped up in mystery, that it became all
+important to clear it up; and the sailors themselves opened at once a
+kind of court of inquest. Some hairs, and a clot of blood, which were
+discovered on an enormous block, seemed to explain the riddle. It
+would seem that the rope to which this enormous block was fastened had
+slipped out of the hands of one of the sailors who were engaged in the
+rigging, carrying out the manoeuvre superintended by Daniel.
+
+Frightened by the consequences of his awkwardness, but, nevertheless
+preserving his presence of mind, this man had, no doubt, drawn up the
+block so promptly, that he had not been noticed. Could it be hoped
+that he would accuse himself? Evidently not. Besides, what would be
+the use of it? The wounded man was the first to request that the
+inquiries might be stopped.
+
+When, at the end of a fortnight, Champcey returned to duty, they
+ceased talking of the accident; unfortunately, such things happen but
+too frequently on board ship. Besides, the idea that "The Conquest"
+was drawing near her destination filled all minds, and sufficed for
+all conversations.
+
+And really, one fine evening, as the sun was setting, land was seen,
+and the next morning, at daybreak, the frigate sailed into the Dong-
+Nai, the king of Cochin Chinese rivers, which is so wide and so deep,
+that vessels of the largest tonnage can ascend it without difficulty
+till they reach Saigon.
+
+Standing on deck, Daniel watched the monotonous scenes which they
+passed,--a landscape strange in form, and exhaling mortal fevers from
+the soil, and the black yielding slime.
+
+After a voyage of several months, he derived a melancholy pleasure
+from seeing the banks of the river overshadowed by mango trees and
+mangroves, with their supple, snakelike roots wandering far off under
+water; while on shore a soft, pleasant vegetation presented to the eye
+the whole range of shades in green, from the bluish, sickly green of
+the idrys to the dark, metallic green of the stenia. Farther inland,
+tall grapes, lianes, aloes, and cactus formed impenetrable thickets,
+out of which rose, like fluted columns, gigantic cocoa-palms, and the
+most graceful trees on earth, areca-palms. Through clearings here and
+there, one could follow, as far as the eye reached, the course of low,
+fever-breeding marshes, an immense mud-plain covered with a carpet of
+undulating verdure, which opened and closed again under the breeze,
+like the sea itself.
+
+"Ah! That is Saigon, is it?" said to Daniel a voice full of delight.
+
+He turned round. It was his best friend on board, a lieutenant like
+himself, who had come to his side, and, offering him a telescope, said
+with a great sigh of satisfaction,--
+
+"Look! there, do you see? At last we are here. In two hours, Champcey,
+we shall be at anchor."
+
+In the distance one could, in fact, make out upon the deep blue of the
+sky the profile of the curved roof of the pagodas in Saigon. It took a
+long hour yet, before, at a turn in the river, the town itself
+appeared, miserable looking,--with all deference to our geographies,
+be it said,--in spite of the immense labor of the French colony.
+
+Saigon consists mainly of one wide street running parallel with the
+right bank of the Dong-Nai, a primitive, unpaved street cut up into
+ruts, broken in upon by large empty spaces, and lined with wooden
+houses covered with rice-straw or palm-leaves.
+
+Thousands of boats crowd against the banks of the river along this
+street, and form a kind of floating suburb, overflowing with a strange
+medley of Annamites, Hindoos, and Chinamen. At a little distance from
+the river, there appear a few massive buildings with roofs of red
+tiles, pleasing to the eye, and here and there an Annamite farm, which
+seems to hide behind groups of areca-palms. Finally, on an eminence,
+rise the citadel, the arsenal, the house of the French commander, and
+the former dwelling of the Spanish colonel.
+
+But every town is beautiful, where we land after a voyage of several
+months. Hence, as soon as "The Conquest" was safely at anchor, all the
+officers, except the midshipman on duty, went on shore, and hastened
+to the government house to ask if letters from France had arrived
+there before them. Their hopes were not deceived. Two three-masters,
+one French, the other English, which had sailed a month later than
+"The Conquest," had arrived there at the beginning of the week,
+bringing despatches.
+
+There were two letters for Daniel, and with feverish hands and beating
+heart he took them from the hand of the old clerk. But at the first
+glance at the addresses he turned pale. He did not see Henrietta's
+handwriting. Still he tore open the envelopes, and glanced at the
+signatures. One of the letters was signed, "Maxime de Brevan;" the
+other, "Countess Ville-Handry," /nee/ Sarah Brandon.
+
+Daniel commenced with the latter. After informing him of her marriage,
+Sarah described at great length Henrietta's conduct on the wedding-
+day.
+
+"Any other but myself," she said, "would have been incensed at this
+atrocious insult, and would abuse her position to be avenged. But I,
+who never yet forgave anybody, I will forgive her, Daniel, for your
+sake, and because I cannot see any one suffer who has loved you."
+
+A postscript she had added ran thus,--
+
+"Ah! why did you not prevent my marriage, when you could do so by a
+word? They think I have reached the summit of my wishes. I have never
+been more wretched."
+
+This letter made Daniel utter an exclamation of rage. He saw nothing
+in it but bitter irony.
+
+"This miserable woman," he thought, "laughs at me; and, when she says
+she does not blame Henrietta, that means that she hates her, and will
+persecute her."
+
+Maxime's letter fortunately reassured him a little. Maxime confirmed
+Sarah's account, adding, moreover, that Miss Henrietta was very sad,
+but calm and resigned; and that her step-mother treated her with the
+greatest kindness. The surprising part was, that Brevan did not say a
+word of the large amounts that had been intrusted to his care, nor of
+his method of selling the lands, nor of the price which he had
+obtained.
+
+But Daniel did not notice this; all his thoughts were with Henrietta.
+
+"Why should she not have written," he thought, "when all the others
+found means to write?"
+
+Overwhelmed with disappointment, he had sat down on a wooden bench in
+the embrasure of one of the windows in the hall where the letters were
+distributed. Travelling across the vast distance which separated him
+from France, his thoughts were under the trees in the garden of the
+count's palace. He felt as if a powerful effort of his will would
+enable him to transport himself thither. By the pale light of the moon
+he thought he could discern the dress of his beloved as she stole
+towards him between the old trees.
+
+A friendly touch on the shoulder recalled him rudely to the real
+world. Four or five officers from "The Conquest" were standing around
+him, gay, and free from cares, a hearty laugh on their lips.
+
+"Well, my dear Champcey," they said, "are you coming?"
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Why, to dinner!"
+
+And as he looked at them with the air of a man who had just been
+roused, and has not had time to collect his thoughts, they went on,--
+
+"Well, to dinner. It appears Saigon possesses an admirable French
+restaurant, where the cook, a Parisian, is simply a great artist.
+Come, get up, and let us go."
+
+But Daniel was in a humor which made solitude irresistibly attractive.
+He trembled at the idea of being torn from his melancholy reveries, of
+being compelled to take his part in conversation, to talk, to listen,
+to reply.
+
+"I cannot dine with you to-day, my friends," he said to his comrades.
+
+"You are joking."
+
+"No, I am not. I must return on board." Then only, the others were
+struck by the sad expression of his face; and, changing their tone,
+they asked him in the most affectionate manner,--
+
+"What is the matter, Champcey? Have you heard of any misfortune, any
+death?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You have had letters from France, I see."
+
+"They bring me nothing sad. I was expecting news, and they have not
+come; that is all."
+
+"Oh! then you must come with us."
+
+"Do not force me; I would be a sorry companion."
+
+Still they insisted, as friends will insist who will not understand
+that others may not be equally tempted by what charms them; but
+nothing could induce Daniel to change his mind. At the door of the
+government house he parted with his comrades, and went back, sad and
+solitary, towards the harbor.
+
+He reached without difficulty the banks of the Dong-Nai; but here
+obstacles presented themselves of which he had not thought. The night
+was so dark, that he could hardly see to find his way along a wharf in
+process of construction, and covered with enormous stones and timber.
+Not a light in all the native huts around. In spite of his efforts to
+pierce this darkness, he could discern nothing but the dark outline of
+the vessels lying at anchor in the river, and the light of the
+lighthouse as it trembled in the current.
+
+He called. No voice replied. The silence, which was as deep as the
+darkness, was broken only by the low wash of the river as it flowed
+down rapidly.
+
+"I am quite capable," thought Daniel, "of not finding the boat of 'The
+Conquest.'"
+
+Still he did find it, after long search, drawn up, and half lost, in a
+crowd of native boats. But the boat seemed to be empty. It was only
+when he got into it, that he discovered a little midshipman fast
+asleep in the bottom, wrapped up in a carpet which was used to cover
+the seats for the officers. Daniel shook him. He rose slowly, and
+grumbling, as if overcome by sleep.
+
+"Well, what is the matter?" he growled.
+
+"Where are the men?" asked Daniel.
+
+Quite awake now, the midshipman, who had good eyes, had noticed, in
+spite of the darkness, the gold of the epaulets. This made him very
+respectful at once; and he replied,--
+
+"Lieutenant, all the men are in town."
+
+"How so? All?"
+
+"Why, yes, lieutenant! When all the officers had gone on shore, they
+told the boatswain they would not come back very soon, and he might
+take his time to eat a mouthful, and to drink a glass, provided the
+men did not get drunk."
+
+That was so; and Daniel had forgotten the fact.
+
+"And where did they go?" he asked.
+
+"I don't know, lieutenant."
+
+Daniel looked at the large, heavy boat, as if he had thought for a
+moment to return in it to "The Conquest" with no other help but the
+little midshipman; but, no, that was impracticable.
+
+"Well, go to sleep again," he said to the boy.
+
+And jumping on shore, without uttering a word of disappointment, he
+was going in search of his comrades, when he saw suddenly a man turn
+up out of the darkness, whose features it was impossible to
+distinguish.
+
+"Who is there?" he asked.
+
+"Mr. Officer," answered the man in an almost unintelligible jargon, a
+horrible medley of French, Spanish, and English. "I heard you tell the
+little man in the boat there"--
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I thought you wanted to get back on board your ship?"
+
+"Why, yes."
+
+"Well, then, if you like it, I am a boatman; I can take you over."
+
+There was no reason why Daniel should mistrust the man. In all ports
+of the world, and at any hour of the day or the night, men are to be
+found who are lying in wait on the wharves for sailors who have been
+belated, and who are made to pay dear for such extra services.
+
+"Ah! you are a boatman, you say?" Daniel exclaimed, quite pleased at
+the encounter. "Well, where is your boat?"
+
+"There, Mr. Officer, a little way down; just follow me. But what ship
+do you want to go to?"
+
+"That ship there."
+
+And Daniel pointed out to him "The Conquest" as she lay not six
+hundred yards off in the river, showing her lights.
+
+"That is rather far," grumbled the man; "the tide is low; and the
+current is very strong."
+
+"I'll give you a couple of francs for your trouble."
+
+The man clapped his hands with delight, and said,--
+
+"Ah! if that's the way, all right. Come along, Mr. Officer, a little
+farther down. There, that's my boat. Get in, now steady!"
+
+Daniel followed his directions; but he was so much struck by the man's
+awkwardness in getting the boat off, that he could not help saying to
+him,--
+
+"Ah, my boy, you are not a boatman, after all!"
+
+"I beg pardon, sir; I used to be one before I came to this country."
+
+"What is your country?"
+
+"Shanghai."
+
+"Nevertheless, you will have to learn a great deal before you will
+ever be a sailor."
+
+Still, as the boat was very small, a mere nutshell, in fact, Daniel
+thought he could, if needs be, take an oar himself. Thereupon, sitting
+down, and stretching out his legs, he was soon once more plunged in
+meditations. The unfortunate man was soon roused, however, by a
+terrible sensation.
+
+Thanks to a shock, a wrong movement, or any other accident, the boat
+upset, and Daniel was thrown into the river; and, to fill the measure
+of his mishaps, one of his feet was so closely jammed in between the,
+seat and the boat itself, that he was paralyzed in his movements, and
+soon under water.
+
+He saw it all in an instant; and his first thought was,--
+
+"I am lost!"
+
+But, desperate as his position was, he was not the man to give up.
+Gathering, by one supreme effort, all his strength and energy, he took
+hold of the boat, that had turned over just above him, and pushed it
+so forcibly, that he loosened his foot, and at the same moment reached
+the surface. It was high time; for Daniel had swallowed much water.
+
+"Now," he thought, "I have a chance to escape!"
+
+A very frail chance, alas!--so small a chance, in fact, that it
+required all the strong will and the invincible courage of Daniel to
+give it any effect. A furious current carried him down like a straw;
+the little boat, which might have supported him, had disappeared; and
+he knew nothing about this formidable Dong-Nai, except that it went on
+widening to its mouth. There was nothing to guide him; for the night
+was so dark, that land and water, the river and its banks, all melted
+together in the uniform, bottomless darkness.
+
+What had become of the boatman, however? At all events, he called,--
+
+"Ahoy, my man!"
+
+No answer. Had he been swept off? Or did he get back into the boat?
+Perhaps he was drowned already.
+
+But all of a sudden Daniel's heart trembled with joy and hope. He had
+just made out, a few hundred yards below, a red light, indicating a
+vessel at anchor. All his efforts were directed towards that point. He
+was carried thither with an almost bewildering rapidity. He nearly
+touched it; and then, with incredible presence of mind, and great
+precision, at the moment when the current drove him close up to the
+anchor-chain, he seized it. He held on to it; and, having recovered
+his breath, he uttered three times in succession, with all the
+strength of his lungs, so sharp a cry, that it was heard above the
+fierce roar of the river,--
+
+"Help, help, help!"
+
+From the ship came a call, "Hold on!" proving to him that his appeal
+had been heard, and that help was at hand.
+
+Too late! An eddy in the terrible current seized him, and, with
+irresistible violence, tore the chain, slippery with mud, out of his
+stiffened hands. Rolled over by the waters, he was rudely thrown
+against the side of the vessel, went under, and was carried off.
+
+When he rose to the surface, the red light was far above him, and
+below no other light was in sight. No human help was henceforth within
+reach. Daniel could now count only upon himself in trying to make one
+of the banks. Although he could not measure the distance, which might
+be very great, the task did not seem to him beyond his strength, if he
+had only been naked. But his clothes encumbered him terribly; and the
+water which they soaked up made them, of course, every moment more
+oppressive.
+
+"I shall be drowned, most assuredly," he thought, "if I cannot get rid
+of my clothes."
+
+Excellent swimmer as he was, the task was no easy one. Still he
+accomplished it. After prodigious efforts of strength and skill, he
+got rid of his shoes; and then he cried out, as if in defiance of the
+blind element against which he was struggling,--
+
+"I shall pull through! I shall see Henrietta again!"
+
+But it had cost him an enormous amount of time to undress; and how
+could he calculate the distance which this current had taken him down
+--one of the swiftest in the world? As he tried to recall all he knew
+about it, he remembered having noticed that, a mile below Saigon, the
+river was as wide as a branch of the sea. According to his
+calculation, he must be near that spot now.
+
+"Never mind," he said to himself, "I mean to get out of this."
+
+Not knowing to which bank he was nearest, he had resolved, almost
+instinctively, to swim towards the right bank, on which Saigon stands.
+
+He was thus swimming for about half an hour, and began already to feel
+his muscles stiffening, and his joints losing their elasticity, while
+his breathing became oppressed, and his extremities were chilled, when
+he noticed from the wash of the water that he was near the shore. Soon
+he felt the ground under his feet; but, the moment he touched it, he
+sank up to his waist into the viscous and tenacious slime, which makes
+all the Cochin China rivers so peculiarly dangerous.
+
+There was the land, no doubt, and only the darkness prevented his
+seeing it; and yet his situation was more desperate than ever. His
+legs were caught as in a vice; the muddy water was boiling nearly up
+to his lips; and, at every effort to extricate himself, he sank deeper
+in, a little at a time, but always a little more. His presence of mind
+now began to leave him, as well as his strength; and his thoughts
+became confused, when he touched, instinctively feeling for a hold,
+the root of a mangrove.
+
+That root might be the saving of his life. First he tried its
+strength; then, finding it sufficiently solid, he hoisted himself up
+by it, gently, but with the frenzied energy of a drowning man; then,
+creeping cautiously on the treacherous mud, he finally succeeded in
+reaching firm ground, and fell down exhausted.
+
+He was saved from drowning; but what was to become of him, naked,
+exhausted, chilled as he was, and lost in this dark night in a strange
+and deserted country? After a moment, however, he rose, and tried to
+get on; but at every step he was held back on all sides by lianes and
+cactus thorns.
+
+"Well," he said, "I must stay here till day breaks."
+
+The rest of the night he spent in walking up and down, and beating his
+chest, in order to keep out the terrible chills which penetrated to
+the very marrow of his bones. The first light of dawn showed him how
+he was imprisoned within an apparently impenetrable thicket, out of
+which, it seemed, he could never find his way. He did find it,
+however, and after a walk of four hours, he reached Saigon.
+
+Some sailors of a merchant-ship, whom he met, lent him a few clothes,
+and carried him on board "The Conquest," where he arrived more dead
+than alive.
+
+"Where do you come from, great God! in such a state?" exclaimed his
+comrades when they saw him.
+
+"What has happened to you?"
+
+And, when he had told them all he had gone through since they parted,
+they said,--
+
+"Certainly, my dear Champcey, you are a lucky fellow. This is the
+second accident from which you escape as by a miracle. Mind the
+third!"
+
+"Mind the third!" that was exactly what Daniel thought.
+
+For, in the midst of all the frightful sufferings he had undergone
+during the past night, he had reflected deeply. That block which had
+fallen on his head, no one knew whence; this boat sinking suddenly,
+and without apparent cause--were they the work of chance alone?
+
+The awkwardness of the boatman who had so unexpectedly turned up to
+offer him his services had filled his mind with strange doubts. This
+man, a wretched sailor, might be a first-class swimmer; and, having
+taken all his measures before upsetting the boat, he might easily have
+reached land after the accident.
+
+"This boatman," Daniel thought, "evidently wanted me to perish. Why,
+and what purpose? Evidently not for his sake. But who is interested in
+my death? Sarah Brandon? No, that cannot be!"
+
+What was still less likely was, that a wretch in Sarah Brandon's pay
+should have found his way on board "The Conquest," and should then
+have been precisely at the right moment at the wharf, the first time
+Daniel went on shore. Still his suspicions troubled him to such a
+degree, that he determined to make every effort to solve the mystery.
+
+To begin, /he asked/ for a list of all the men who had been allowed to
+go on shore the night before. He learned in reply, that only the crews
+of the different boats had been at Saigon, but that all the emigrants
+having been allowed to land, several of these men had also gone on
+shore. With this information, and in spite of his great weakness,
+Daniel went to the chief of police at Saigon, and asked him for an
+officer. With this agent he went to the wharf, to the spot where the
+boat of "The Conquest" had been lying the night before, and asked him
+to make inquiries there as to any boatman that might have disappeared
+during the night.
+
+None of the boatmen was missing; but they brought Daniel a poor
+Annamite fellow, who had been wandering about the river-bank ever
+since early morning, tearing his hair, and crying that he had been
+robbed; that they had stolen his boat. Daniel had been unable the
+night before to distinguish the form or the dress of the man whose
+services he had accepted; but he had heard his voice, and he recalled
+the peculiar intonation so perfectly, that he would have recognized it
+among thousands. Besides, this poor devil did not know a word of
+French (more than ten persons bore witness to it); and born on the
+river, and having always lived there, he was an excellent sailor.
+Finally, it was very clear, that, if this man had committed the crime,
+he would have been careful not to claim his boat.
+
+What could Daniel conclude from this summary inquiry?
+
+"There is no doubt about it," he thought. "I was to be murdered.
+
+
+
+                                XXIII.
+
+There is no man, however brave he may think himself, who would not
+tremble at the idea that he has, just by a miracle, escaped from the
+assassin's hand. There is not one who would not feel his blood grow
+chill in his veins at the thought that those who have failed in their
+attempt once will no doubt renew their efforts, and that perhaps the
+miracle may not be repeated.
+
+That was Daniel's position.
+
+He felt henceforth this terrible certainty, that war had been declared
+against him, a savage warfare, merciless, pitiless, a war of treachery
+and cunning, of snare and ambush. It had been proved to him that at
+his side, so to say, as his very shadow, there was ever a terrible
+enemy, stimulated by the thirst of gain, watching all his steps, ever
+awake and on the watch, and ready to seize the first opportunity to
+strike. The infernal cunning of the first two attempts enabled Daniel
+to measure the superior wickedness of the man who had been chosen and
+enlisted--at least Daniel thought so--by Sarah Brandon.
+
+Still he did not say a word of the danger to which he was exposed, and
+even assumed, as soon as he had recovered from the first shock, a
+certain cheerfulness which he had not shown during the whole voyage,
+and under which he concealed his apprehensions.
+
+"I do not want my enemy," he said to himself, "to suspect my
+suspicions."
+
+But from that moment his suspicions never fell asleep; and every step
+he took was guided by most careful circumspection. He never put one
+foot before the other, so to say, without first having examined the
+ground; he never seized a man-rope without having first tried its
+solidity; he had made it a law to eat and drink nothing, not even a
+glass of water, but what came from the officers' table.
+
+These perpetual precautions, these ceaseless apprehensions, were
+extremely repugnant to his daring temper; but he felt, that, under
+such circumstances, careless would be no longer courage, but simple
+folly. He had engaged in a duel in which he wanted to be victorious;
+hence he must at least defend himself against the attack. He felt,
+moreover, that he was the only protector his beloved had now; and
+that, if he died, she would certainly be lost. But he also thought not
+only of defending himself, but of getting at the assassin, and,
+through him, at the infamous creature by whom he was employed, Sarah
+Brandon.
+
+He therefore pursued his search quietly, slowly, but indefatigably.
+Certain circumstances which he had at first forgotten, and a few
+points skilfully put together, gave him some hope. He had, for
+instance, ascertained that none but the crews of the boats had been on
+shore, and that, of these, not one had been for ten minutes out of
+sight of the others. Hence the pretended boatman was not a sailor on
+board "The Conquest." Nor could it have been one of the marines, as
+none of them had been allowed to leave the vessel. There remained the
+emigrants, fifty or sixty of whom had spent the night in Saigon.
+
+But was not the idea that one of these men might have led Daniel into
+the trap contradicted by the circumstances of the first attempt? By no
+means; for many of the younger men among these emigrants had asked
+permission to help in the working of the ship in order to break the
+monotony of the long voyage. After careful inquiry, Daniel ascertained
+even that four of them had been with the sailors on the yards from
+which the heavy block fell that came so near ending his life.
+
+Which were they? This he could not ascertain.
+
+Still the result was enough for Daniel to make his life more
+endurable. He could breathe again on board ship; he went and came in
+all safety, since he was sure that the guilty man was not one of the
+crew. He even felt real and great relief at the thought that his
+would-be assassin was not to be looked for among these brave and frank
+sailors; none of them, at least, had been bribed with gold to commit a
+murder. Moreover, the limits of his investigations had now narrowed
+down in such a manner, that he might begin to hope for success in the
+end.
+
+Unfortunately the emigrants had, a fortnight after the landing,
+scattered abroad, going according as they were wanted, to the
+different establishments in the colony, which were far apart from each
+other. Daniel had therefore, at least for the moment, to give up a
+plan he had formed, to talk with every one of them until he should
+recognize the voice of the false boatman.
+
+He himself, besides, was not to remain at Saigon. After a first
+expedition, which kept him away for two months, he obtained command of
+a steam-sloop, which was ordered to explore and to take all the
+bearings of the River Kamboja, from the sea to Mitho, the second city
+of Cochin China. This was no easy task; for the Kamboja had already
+defeated the efforts of several hydrographic engineers by its
+capricious and constant changes, every pass and every turn nearly
+changing with the monsoons in direction and depth.
+
+But the mission had its own difficulties and dangers. The Kamboja is
+not only obstructed by foul swamps; but it flows through vast marshy
+plains, which, in the season of rains, are covered with water; while
+in the dry season, under the burning rays of the sun, they exhale that
+fatal malaria which has cost already thousands of valuable lives.
+
+Daniel was to experience its effects but too soon. In less than a week
+after he had set out, he saw three of the men who had been put under
+his orders die before his eyes, after a few hours' illness, and amid
+atrocious convulsions. They had the cholera. During the next four
+months, seven succumbed to fevers which they had contracted in these
+pestilential swamps. And towards the end of the expedition, when the
+work was nearly done, the survivors were so emaciated, that they had
+hardly strength enough to hold themselves up. Daniel alone had not yet
+suffered from these terrible scourges. God knows, however, that he had
+not spared himself, nor ever hesitated to do what he thought he ought
+to do. To sustain, to electrify these men, exhausted as they were by
+sickness, and irritated at wasting their lives upon work that had no
+reward, a leader was required who should possess uncommon intrepidity,
+and who should treat danger as an enemy who is to be defied only by
+facing him; and such a leader they found in Daniel.
+
+He had told Sarah Brandon on the eve of his departure,--
+
+"With a love like mine, with a hatred like mine, in the heart, one can
+defy all things. The murderous climate is not going to harm me; and,
+if I had six balls in my body, I should still find strength enough to
+come and call you to account for what you have done to Henrietta
+before I die."
+
+He certainly had had need of all that dauntless energy which passion
+inspires to sustain him in his trials. But alas! his bodily sufferings
+were as nothing in comparison with his mental anxiety. At night, while
+his men were asleep, he kept awake, his heart torn with anguish, now
+crushed under the thought of his helplessness, and now asking himself
+if rage would not deprive him of his reason.
+
+It was a year now since he had left Paris to go on board "The
+Conquest," a whole year.
+
+And he had not received a single letter from Henrietta,--not one.
+Every time a vessel arrived from France with despatches, his hopes
+revived; and every time they were disappointed.
+
+"Well," he would say to himself, "I can wait for the next." And then
+he began counting the days. Then it arrived at last, this long-
+expected ship, and never, never once brought a letter from Henrietta--
+
+How could this silence be explained? What strange events could have
+happened? What must he think, hope, fear?
+
+To be chained by honor to a place a thousand leagues from the woman he
+loved to distraction, to know nothing about her, her life, her actions
+and her thoughts, to be reduced to such extreme wretchedness, to
+doubt--
+
+Daniel would have been much less unhappy if some one had suddenly come
+and told him, "Miss Ville-Handry is no more."
+
+Yes, less unhappy; for true love in its savage selfishness suffers
+less from death than from treason. If Henrietta had died, Daniel would
+have been crushed; and maybe despair would have driven him to extreme
+measures; but he would have been relieved of that horrible struggle
+within him, between his faith in the promises of his beloved and
+certain suspicions, which caused his hair to stand on end.
+
+But he knew that she was alive; for there was hardly a vessel coming
+from France or from England which did not bring him a letter from
+Maxime, or from the Countess Sarah. For Sarah insisted upon writing to
+him, as if there existed a mysterious bond between them, which she
+defied him to break.
+
+"I obey," she said, "an impulse more powerful than reason and will
+alike. It is stronger than I am, stronger than all things else; I must
+write to you, I cannot help it."
+
+At another time she said,--
+
+"Do you remember that evening, O Daniel! when, pressing Sarah Brandon
+to your heart, you swore to be hers forever? The Countess Ville-Handry
+cannot forget it."
+
+Under the most indifferent words there seemed to palpitate and to
+struggle a passion which was but partially restrained, and ever on the
+point of breaking forth. Her letters read like the conversations of
+timid lovers, who talk about the rain and the weather in a tone of
+voice trembling with desire, and with looks burning with passion.
+
+"Could she really be in love with me?" Daniel thought, "and could that
+be her punishment?"
+
+Then, again, swearing, like the roughest of his men, he added,--
+
+"Am I to be a fool forever? Is it not quite clear that this wicked
+woman only tries to put my suspicions to sleep? She is evidently
+preparing for her defence, in case the rascal who attempted my life
+should be caught, and compromise her by his confessions."
+
+Every letter; moreover, brought from the Countess Sarah some news
+about his betrothed, her "stepdaughter." But she always spoke of her
+with extreme reserve and reticence, and in ambiguous terms, as if
+counting upon Daniel's sagacity to guess what she could not or would
+not write. According to her account, Henrietta had become reconciled
+to her father's marriage. The poor child's melancholy had entirely
+disappeared. Miss Henrietta was very friendly with Sir Thorn. The
+coquettish ways of the young girl became quite alarming; and her
+indiscretion provoked the gossip of visitors. Daniel might as well
+accustom himself to the idea, that, on his return, he might find
+Henrietta a married woman.
+
+"She lies, the wretch!" said Daniel; "yes, she lies!"
+
+But he tried in vain to resist; every letter from Sarah brought him
+the germ of some new suspicion, which fermented in his mind as the
+miasma fermented in the veins of his men.
+
+The information furnished by Maxime de Brevan was different, and often
+contradictory even, but by no means more reassuring. His letters
+portrayed the perplexity and the hesitation of a man who is all
+anxiety to soften hard truths. According to him, the Countess Sarah
+and Miss Ville-Handry did not get on well with each other; but he
+declared he was bound to say that the wrong was all on the young
+lady's side, who seemed to make it the study of her life to mortify
+her step-mother, while the latter bore the most irritating
+provocations with unchanging sweetness. He alluded to the calumnies
+which endangered Miss Henrietta's reputation, admitting that she had
+given some ground for them by thoughtless acts. He finally added that
+he foresaw the moment when she would leave her father's house in spite
+of all his advice to the contrary.
+
+"And not one line from her," exclaimed Daniel,--"not one line!"
+
+And he wrote her letter after letter, beseeching her to answer him,
+whatever might be the matter, and to fear nothing, as the certainty
+even of a misfortune would be a blessing to him in comparison with
+this torturing uncertainty.
+
+He wrote without imagining for a moment that Henrietta suffered all
+the torments he endured, that their letters were intercepted, and that
+she had no more news of him than he had of her.
+
+Time passed, however, carrying with it the evil as well as the good
+days. Daniel returned to Saigon, bringing back with him one of the
+finest hydrographic works that exist on Cochin China. It was well
+known that this work had cost an immense outlay of labor, of
+privations, and of life; hence he was rewarded as if he had won a
+battle, and he was rewarded instantly, thanks to special powers
+conferred upon his chief, reserving only the confirmation in France,
+which was never refused.
+
+All the survivors of the expedition were mentioned in public orders
+and in the official report; two were decorated; and Daniel was
+promoted to officer of the Legion of Honor. Under other circumstances,
+this distinction, doubly valuable to so young a man, would have made
+him supremely happy; now it left him cold.
+
+The fact was, that these long trials had worn out the elasticity of
+his heart; and the sources of joy, as well as the sources of sorrow,
+had dried up. He no longer struggled against despair, and came to
+believe that Henrietta had forgotten him, and would never be his wife.
+Now, as he knew he never could love another, or rather as no other
+existed for him; as, without Henrietta, the world seemed to him empty,
+absurd, intolerable,--he asked himself why he should continue to live.
+There were moments in which he looked lovingly at his pistols, and
+said to himself,--
+
+"Why should I not spare Sarah Brandon the trouble?"
+
+What kept his hand back was the leaven of hatred which still rose in
+him at times. He ought to have the courage, at least, to live long
+enough to avenge himself. Harassed by these anxieties, he withdrew
+more and more from society; never went on shore; and his comrades on
+board "The Conquest" felt anxious as they looked at him walking
+restlessly up and down the quarter-deck, pale, and with eyes on fire.
+
+For they loved Daniel. His superiority was so evident, that none
+disputed it; they might envy him; but they could never be jealous of
+him. Some of them thought he had brought back with him from Kamboja
+the germ of one of those implacable diseases which demoralize the
+strongest, and which break out suddenly, carrying a man off in a few
+hours.
+
+"You ought not to become a misanthrope, my dear Champcey," they would
+say. "Come, for Heaven's sake shake off that sadness, which might make
+an end of you before you are aware of it!"
+
+And jestingly they added,--
+
+"Decidedly, you regret the banks of the Kamboja!"
+
+They thought it a jest: it was the truth. Daniel did regret even the
+worst days of his mission. At that time his grave responsibility,
+overwhelming fatigues, hard work, and daily danger, had procured him
+at least some hours of oblivion. Now idleness left him, without
+respite or time, face to face with his distressing thoughts. It was
+the desire, the necessity almost, of escaping in some manner from
+himself, which made him accept an invitation to join a number of his
+comrades who wanted to try the charms of a great hunting party.
+
+On the morning of the expedition, however, he had a kind of
+presentiment.
+
+"A fine opportunity," he thought, "for the assassin hired by Sarah
+Brandon!"
+
+Then, shrugging his shoulders, he said with a bitter laugh,--
+
+"How can I hesitate? As if a life like mine was worth the trouble of
+protecting it against danger!"
+
+When they arrived on the following day on the hunting ground, he, as
+well as the other hunters, received their instructions, and had their
+posts assigned them by the leader. He found himself placed between two
+of his comrades, in front of a thicket, and facing a narrow ravine,
+through which all the game must necessarily pass as it was driven down
+by a crowd of Annamites.
+
+They had been firing for an hour, when Daniel's neighbors saw him
+suddenly let go his rifle, turn over, and fall.
+
+They hurried up to catch him; but he fell, face forward, to the
+ground, saying aloud, and very distinctly,--
+
+"This time they have not missed me!"
+
+At the outcry raised by the two neighbors of Daniel, other hunters had
+hastened up, and among them the chief surgeon of "The Conquest," one
+of those old "pill-makers," who, under a jovial scepticism, and a
+rough, almost brutal outside, conceal great skill and an almost
+feminine tenderness. As soon as he looked at the wounded man, whom his
+friends had stretched out on his back, making a pillow of their
+overcoats, and who lay there pale and inanimate, the good doctor
+frowned, and growled out,--
+
+"He won't live."
+
+The officers were thunderstruck.
+
+"Poor Champcey!" said one of them, "to escape the Kamboja fevers, and
+to be killed here at a pleasure party! Do you recollect, doctor, what
+you said on the occasion of his second accident,--'Mind the third'?"
+
+The old doctor did not listen. He had knelt down, and rapidly stripped
+the coat off Daniel's back. The poor man had been struck by a shot.
+The ball had entered on the right side, a little behind; and between
+the fourth and the fifth rib, one could see a round wound, the edges
+drawn in. But the most careful examination did not enable him to find
+the place where the projectile had come out again. The doctor rose
+slowly, and, while carefully dusting the knees of his trousers, he
+said,--
+
+"All things considered, I would not bet that he may not escape. Who
+knows where the ball may be lodged? It may have respected the vital
+parts.
+
+"Projectiles often take curious turns and twists. I should almost be
+disposed to answer for M. Champcey, if I had him in a good bed in the
+hospital at Saigon. At all events, we must try to get him there alive.
+Let one of you gentlemen tell the sailors who have come with us to
+make a litter of branches."
+
+The noise of a struggle, of fearful oaths and inarticulate cries,
+interrupted his orders. Some fifteen yards off, below the place where
+Daniel had fallen, two sailors were coming out of the thicket, their
+faces red with anger, dragging out a man with a wretched gun, who
+hurled out,--
+
+"Will you let me go, you parcel of good-for-nothings! Let me go, or
+I'll hurt you!"
+
+He was so furiously struggling in the arms of the two sailors,
+clinging with an iron grip to roots and branches and rocks, turning
+and twisting at every step, that the men at last, furious at his
+resistance, lifted him up bodily, and threw him at the chief surgeon's
+feet, exclaiming,--
+
+"Here is the scoundrel who has killed our lieutenant!"
+
+It was a man of medium size, with a dejected air, and lack-lustre
+eyes, wearing a mustache and chin-beard, and looking impudent. His
+costume was that of an Annamite of the middle classes,--a blouse
+buttoned at the side, trousers made in Chinese style, and sandals of
+red leather. It was, nevertheless, quite evident that the man was a
+European.
+
+"Where did you find him?" asked the surgeon of the men.
+
+"Down there, commandant, behind that big bush, to the right of Lieut.
+Champcey, and a little behind him."
+
+"Why do you accuse him?"
+
+"Why? We have good reasons, I should think. He was hiding. When we saw
+him, he was lying flat on the ground, trembling with fear; and we said
+at once, 'Surely, there is the man who fired that shot.'"
+
+The man had, in the meantime, raised himself, and assumed an air of
+almost provoking assurance.
+
+"They lie!" he exclaimed. "Yes, they lie, the cowards!"
+
+This insult would have procured him a sound drubbing, but for the old
+surgeon, who held the arm of the first sailor who made the attack.
+Then, continuing his interrogatory, he asked,--
+
+"Why did you hide?"
+
+"I did not hide."
+
+"What were you doing there, crouching in the bush?"
+
+"I was at my post, like the others. Do they require a permit to carry
+arms in Cochin China? I was not invited to your hunting party, to be
+sure; but I am fond of game; and I said to myself, 'Even if I were to
+shoot two or three head out of the hundreds their drivers will bring
+down, I would do them no great harm.'"
+
+The doctor let him talk on for some time, observing him closely with
+his sagacious eye; then, all of a sudden, he broke in, saying,--
+
+"Give me your gun!"
+
+The man turned so visibly pale, that all the officers standing around
+noticed it. Still he did what he was asked to do, and said,--
+
+"Here it is. It's a gun one of my friends has lent me."
+
+The doctor examined the weapon very carefully; and, after having
+inspected the lock, he said,--
+
+"Both barrels of your gun are empty; and they have not been emptied
+more than two minutes ago."
+
+"That is so; I fired both barrels at an animal that passed me within
+reach."
+
+"One of the balls may have gone astray."
+
+"That cannot be. I was aiming in the direction of the prairie; and,
+consequently, I was turning my back to the place where the officer was
+standing."
+
+To the great surprise of everybody, the doctor's face, ordinarily
+crafty enough, now looked all benevolent curiosity,--so much so, that
+the two sailors who had captured the man were furious, and said
+aloud,--
+
+"Ah! don't believe him, commandant, the dirty dog!"
+
+But the man, evidently encouraged by the surgeon's apparent
+kindliness, asked,--
+
+"Am I to be allowed to defend myself, or not?"
+
+And then he added in a tone of supreme impudence,--
+
+"However, whether I defend myself or not, it will, no doubt, be all
+the same. Ah! if I were only a sailor, or even a marine, that would be
+another pair of sleeves; they would hear me! But now, I am nothing but
+a poor civilian; and here everybody knows civilians must have broad
+shoulders. Wrong or right, as soon as they are accused, they are
+convicted."
+
+The doctor seemed to have made up his mind; for he interrupted this
+flow of words, saying in his kindest voice,--
+
+"Calm yourself, my friend. There is a test which will clearly
+establish your innocence. The ball that has struck Lieut. Champcey is
+still in the wound; and I am the man who is going to take it out, I
+promise you. We all here have rifles with conical balls; you are the
+only one who has an ordinary shot-gun with round balls, so there is no
+mistake possible. I do not know if you understand me?"
+
+Yes, he understood, and so well, that his pale face turned livid, and
+he looked all around with frightened glances. For about six seconds he
+hesitated, counting his chances; then suddenly falling on his knees,
+his hands folded, and beating the ground with his forehead, he cried
+out,--
+
+"I confess! Yes, it may be I who have hit the officer. I heard the
+bushes moving in his direction, and I fired at a guess. What a
+misfortune! O God, what a misfortune! Ah! /I/ would give my life to
+save his if I could. It was an accident, gentlemen, I swear. Such
+accidents happen every day in hunting; the papers are full of them.
+Great God! what an unfortunate man I am!"
+
+The doctor had stepped back. He now ordered the two sailors who had
+arrested the man, to make sure of him, to bind him, and carry him to
+Saigon to prison. One of the gentlemen, he said, would write a few
+lines, which they must take with them. The man seemed to be
+annihilated.
+
+"A misfortune is not a crime," he sighed out. "I am an honest
+mechanic."
+
+"We shall see that in Saigon," answered the surgeon.
+
+And he hastened away to see if all the preparations had been made to
+carry the wounded man. In less than twenty minutes, and with that
+marvellous skill which is one of the characteristic features of good
+sailors, a solid litter had been constructed; the bottom formed a real
+mattress of dry leaves; and overhead a kind of screen had been made of
+larger leaves. When they put Daniel in, the pain caused him to utter a
+low cry of pain. This was the first sign of life he had given.
+
+"And now, my friends," said the doctor, "let us go! And bear in mind,
+if you shake the lieutenant, he is a dead man."
+
+It was hardly eight in the morning when the melancholy procession
+started homeward; and it was not until between two and three o'clock
+on the next morning that it entered Saigon, under one of those
+overwhelming rains which give one an idea of the deluge, and of which
+Cochin China has the monopoly. The sailors who carried the litter on
+which Daniel lay had walked eighteen hours without stopping, on
+footpaths which were almost impassable, and where every moment a
+passage had to be cut through impenetrable thickets of aloes, cactus,
+and jack-trees. Several times the officers had offered to take their
+places; but they had always refused, relieving each other, and taking
+all the time as ingenious precautions as a mother might devise for her
+dying infant. Although, therefore, the march lasted so long, the dying
+man felt no shock; and the old doctor said, quite touched, to the
+officers who were around him,--
+
+"Good fellows, how careful they are! You might have put a full glass
+of water on the litter, and they would not have spilled a drop."
+
+Yes, indeed! Good people, rude and rough, no doubt, in many ways,
+coarse sometimes, and even brutal, bad to meet on shore the day after
+pay-day, or coming out from a drinking-shop, but keeping under the
+rough outside a heart of gold, childlike simplicity, and the sacred
+fire of noblest devotion. The fact was, they did not dare breathe
+heartily till after they had put their precious burden safe under the
+hospital porch.
+
+Two officers who had hastened in advance had ordered a room to be made
+ready. Daniel was carried there; and when he had been gently put on a
+white, good bed, officers and sailors withdrew into an adjoining room
+to await the doctor's sentence. The latter remained with the wounded
+man, with two assistant surgeons who had been roused in the meantime.
+
+Hope was very faint. Daniel had recovered his consciousness during the
+journey, and had even spoken a few words to those around him, but
+incoherent words, the utterance of delirium. They had questioned him
+once or twice; but his answers had shown that he had no consciousness
+of the accident which had befallen him, nor of his present condition;
+so that the general opinion among the sailors who were waiting, and
+who all had more or less experience of shot-wounds, was, that fever
+would carry off their lieutenant before sunrise.
+
+Suddenly, as if by magic, all was hushed, and not a word spoken.
+
+The old surgeon had just appeared at the door of the sick-chamber;
+and, with a pleasant and hopeful smile on his lips, he said,--
+
+"Our poor Champcey is doing as well as could be expected; and I would
+almost be sure of his recovery, if the great heat was not upon us."
+
+And, silencing the murmur of satisfaction which arose among them at
+this good news, he went on to say,--
+
+"Because, after all, serious as the wound is, it is nothing in
+comparison with what it might have been; and what is more, gentlemen,
+I have the /corpus delicti/."
+
+He raised in the air, as he said this, a spherical ball, which he held
+between his thumb and forefinger.
+
+"Another instance," he said, "to be added to those mentioned by our
+great masters of surgery, of the oddities of projectiles. This one,
+instead of pursuing its way straight through the body of our poor
+friend, had turned around the ribs, and gone to its place close by the
+vertebral column. There I found it, almost on the surface; and nothing
+was needed to dislodge it but a slight push with the probe."
+
+The shot-gun taken from the hands of the murderer had been deposited
+in a corner of the large room: they brought it up, tried the ball, and
+found it to fit accurately.
+
+"Now we have a tangible proof," exclaimed a young ensign, "an
+unmistakable proof, that the wretch whom our men have caught is
+Daniel's murderer. Ah, he might as well have kept his confession!"
+
+But the old surgeon replied with a dark frown,--
+
+"Gently, gentlemen, gently! Don't let us be over-hasty in accusing a
+poor fellow of such a fearful crime, when, perhaps, he is guilty only
+of imprudence."
+
+"O doctor, doctor!" protested half a dozen voices.
+
+"I beg your pardon! Don't let us be hasty, I say; and let us consider,
+For an assassination there must be a motive, and an all-powerful
+motive; for, aside from the scaffold which he risks, no man is capable
+of killing another man solely for the purpose of shedding his blood.
+Now, in this case, I look in vain for any reason, which could have
+induced the man to commit a murder. He certainly did not expect to rob
+our poor comrade. But hatred, you say, or vengeance, perhaps! Well,
+that may be. But, before a man makes up his mind to shoot even the man
+he hates like a dog, he must have been cruelly offended by him; and,
+to bring this about, he must have been in contact, or must have stood
+in some relation to him. Now, I ask you, is it not far more probable
+that the murderer saw our friend Champcey this morning for the first
+time?"
+
+"I beg your pardon, commandant! He knew him perfectly well."
+
+The man who interrupted the doctor was one of the sailors to whom the
+prisoner had been intrusted to carry him to prison. He came forward,
+twisting his worsted cap in his hands; and, when the old surgeon had
+ordered him to speak, he said,--
+
+"Yes, the rascal knew the lieutenant as well as I know you,
+commandant; and the reason of it is, that the scoundrel was one of the
+emigrants whom we brought here eighteen months ago."
+
+"Are you sure of what you say?"
+
+"As sure as I see you, commandant. At first my comrade and I did not
+recognize him, because a year and a half in this wretched country
+disfigure a man horribly; but, while we were carrying him to jail, we
+said to one another, 'That is a head we have seen before.' Then we
+made him talk; and he told us gradually, that he had been one of the
+passengers, and that he even knew my name, which is Baptist Lefloch."
+
+This deposition of the sailor made a great impression upon all the
+bystanders, except the old doctor. It is true he was looked upon, on
+board "The Conquest," as one of the most obstinate men in holding on
+to his opinions.
+
+"Do you know," he asked the sailor, "if this man was one of the four
+or five who had to be put in irons during the voyage?"
+
+"No, he was not one of them, commandant."
+
+"Did he ever have anything to do with Lieut. Champcey? Has he been
+reprimanded by him, or punished? Has he ever spoken to him?"
+
+"Ah, commandant! that is more than I can tell."
+
+The old doctor slightly shrugged his shoulders, and said in a tone of
+indifference,--
+
+"You see, gentlemen, this deposition is too vague to prove anything.
+Believe me, therefore, do not let us judge before the trial, and let
+us go to bed."
+
+Day was just breaking, pale and cool; the sailors disappeared one by
+one. The doctor was getting ready to lie down on a bed which he had
+ordered to be put up in a room adjoining that in which the wounded man
+was lying, when an officer came in. It was one of those who had been
+standing near Champcey; he, also, was a lieutenant.
+
+"I should like to have a word in private with you, doctor," he said.
+
+"Very well," replied the old surgeon. "Be kind enough to come up to my
+room." And when they were alone, he locked the door, and said,--
+
+"I am listening."
+
+The lieutenant thought a moment, like a man who looks for the best
+form in which to present an important idea, and then said,--
+
+"Between us, doctor, do you believe it was an accident, or a crime?"
+
+The surgeon hesitated visibly.
+
+"I will tell you, but you only, frankly, that I do not believe it was
+an accident. But as we have no evidence"--
+
+"Pardon me! I think I have evidence."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"You shall, judge yourself. When Daniel fell, he said, 'This time,
+they have not missed me!'"
+
+"Did he say so?"
+
+"Word for word. And Saint Edme, who was farther from him than I was,
+heard it as distinctly as I did."
+
+To the great surprise of the lieutenant, the chief surgeon seemed only
+moderately surprised; his eyes, on the contrary, shone with that
+pleased air of a man who congratulates himself at having foreseen
+exactly what he now is told was the fact. He drew a chair up to the
+fireplace, in which a huge fire had been kindled to dry his clothes,
+sat down, and said,--
+
+"Do you know, my dear lieutenant, that what you tell me is a matter of
+the greatest importance? What may we not conclude from those words,
+'This time they have not missed me'? In the first place, it proves
+that Champcey was fully aware that his life was in danger. Secondly,
+that plural, 'They have not,' shows that he knew he was watched and
+threatened by several people: hence the scamp whom we caught must have
+accomplices. In the third place, those words, 'This time,' establish
+the fact that his life has been attempted before."
+
+"That is just what I thought, doctor."
+
+The worthy old gentleman looked very grave and solemn, meditating
+deeply.
+
+"Well, I," he continued slowly, "I had a very clear presentiment of
+all that as soon as I looked at the murderer. Do you remember the
+man's amazing impudence as long as he thought he could not be
+convicted of the crime? And then, when he found that the calibre of
+his gun betrayed him, how abject, how painfully humble, he became!
+Evidently such a man is capable of anything."
+
+"Oh! you need only look at him"--
+
+"Yes, indeed! Well, as I was thus watching him, I instinctively
+recalled the two remarkable accidents which so nearly killed our poor
+Champcey,--that block that fell upon him from the skies, and that
+shipwreck in the Dong-Nai. But I was still doubtful. After what you
+tell me, I am sure."
+
+He seized the lieutenant's hand; and, pressing it almost painfully, he
+went on,--
+
+"Yes, I am ready to take my oath that this wretch is the vile tool of
+people who hate or fear Daniel Champcey; who are deeply interested in
+his death; and who, being too cowardly to do their own business, are
+rich enough to hire an assassin."
+
+The lieutenant was evidently unable to follow.
+
+"Still, doctor," he objected, "but just now you insisted"--
+
+"Upon a diametrically opposite doctrine; eh?"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+The old surgeon smiled, and said,--
+
+"I had my reasons. The more I am persuaded that this man is an
+assassin, the less I am disposed to proclaim it on the housetops. He
+has accomplices, you think, do you?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Well, if we wish to reach them, we must by all means reassure them,
+leave them under the impression that everybody thinks it was an
+accident. If they are frightened, good-night. They will vanish before
+you can put out your hand to seize them."
+
+"Champcey might be questioned; perhaps he could furnish some
+information."
+
+But the doctor rose, and stopped him with an air of fury,--
+
+"Question my patient! Kill him, you mean! No! If I am to have the
+wonderful good luck to pull him through, no one shall come near his
+bed for a month. And, moreover, it will be very fortunate indeed if in
+a month he is sufficiently recovered to keep up a conversation."
+
+He shook his head, and went on, after a moment's silence,--
+
+"Besides, it is a question whether Champcey would be disposed to say
+what he knows, or what he suspects. That is very doubtful. Twice he
+has been almost killed. Has he ever said a word about it? He probably
+has the same reasons for keeping silence now that he had then."
+
+Then, without noticing the officer's objections, he added,--
+
+"At all events, I will think it over, and go and see the judges as
+soon as they are out of bed. But I must ask you, lieutenant, to keep
+my secret till further order. Will you promise?"
+
+"On my word, doctor."
+
+"Then you may rest assured our poor friend shall be avenged. And now,
+as I have barely two hours to rest, please excuse me."
+
+
+
+                                XXIV.
+
+As soon as he was alone, the doctor threw himself on his bed; but he
+could not sleep. He had never in his life been so much puzzled. He
+felt as if this crime was the result of some terrible but mysterious
+intrigue; and the very fact of having, as he fancied, raised a corner
+of the veil, made him burn with the desire to draw it aside
+altogether.
+
+"Why," he said to himself, "why might not the scamp whom we hold be
+the author of the other two attempts likewise? There is nothing
+improbable in that supposition. The man, once engaged, might easily
+have been put on board 'The Conquest;' and he might have left France
+saying to himself that it would be odd indeed, if during a long
+voyage, or in a land like this, he did not find a chance to earn his
+money without running much risk."
+
+The result of his meditations was, that the chief surgeon appeared, at
+nine o'clock, at the office of the state attorney. He placed the
+matter before him very fully and plainly; and, an hour afterwards, he
+crossed the yard on his way to the prison, accompanied by a magistrate
+and his clerk.
+
+"How is the man the sailors brought here last night?" he asked the
+jailer.
+
+"Badly, sir. He would not eat."
+
+"What did he say when he got here?"
+
+"Nothing. He seemed to be stupefied."
+
+"You did not try to make him talk?"
+
+"Why, yes, a little. He answered that he had done some mischief; that
+he was in despair, and wished he were dead."
+
+The magistrate looked at the surgeon as if he meant to say, "Just as I
+expected from what you told me!" Then, turning again to the jailer, he
+said,--
+
+"Show us to the prisoner's cell."
+
+The murderer had been put into a small but tidy cell in the first
+story. When they entered, they found him seated on his bed, his heels
+on the bars, and his chin in the palm of his hands. As soon as he saw
+the surgeon, he jumped up, and with outstretched arms and rolling
+eyes, exclaimed,--
+
+"The officer has died!"
+
+"No," replied the surgeon, "no! Calm yourself. The wound is a very bad
+one; but in a fortnight he will be up again."
+
+These words fell like a heavy blow upon the murderer. He turned pale;
+his lips quivered; and he trembled in all his limbs. Still he promptly
+mastered this weakness of the flesh; and falling on his knees, with
+folded hands, he murmured in the most dramatic manner,--
+
+"Then I am not a murderer! O Great God, I thank thee!"
+
+And his lips moved as if he were uttering a fervent prayer.
+
+It was evidently a case of coarsest hypocrisy; for his looks
+contradicted his words and his voice. The magistrate, however, seemed
+to be taken in.
+
+"You show proper feelings," he said. "Now get up and answer me. What
+is your name?"
+
+"Evariste Crochard, surnamed Bagnolet."
+
+"What age?"
+
+"Thirty-five years."
+
+"Where were you born?"
+
+"At Bagnolet, near Paris. And on that account, my friend"--
+
+"Never mind. Your profession?"
+
+The man hesitated. The magistrate added,--
+
+"In your own interest I advise you to tell the truth. The truth always
+comes out in the end; and your position would be a very serious one if
+you tried to lie. Answer, therefore, directly."
+
+"Well, I am an engraver on metal; but I have been in the army; I
+served my time in the marines."
+
+"What brought you to Cochin China?"
+
+"The desire to find work. I was tired of Paris. There was no work for
+engravers. I met a friend who told me the government wanted good
+workmen for the colonies."
+
+"What was your friend's name?"
+
+A slight blush passed over the man's cheek's, and he answered
+hastily,--
+
+"I have forgotten his name."
+
+The magistrate seemed to redouble his attention, although he did not
+show it.
+
+"That is very unfortunate for you," he answered coldly. "Come, make an
+effort; try to remember."
+
+"I know I cannot; it is not worth the trouble."
+
+"Well; but no doubt you recollect the profession of the man who knew
+so well that government wanted men in Cochin China? What was it?"
+
+The man, this time, turned crimson with rage, and cried out with
+extraordinary vehemence,--
+
+"How do I know? Besides, what have I to do with my friend's name and
+profession? I learned from him that they wanted workmen. I called at
+the navy department, they engaged me; and that is all."
+
+Standing quietly in one of the corners of the cell, the old chief
+surgeon lost not a word, not a gesture, of the murderer. And he could
+hardly refrain from rubbing his hands with delight as he noticed the
+marvellous skill of the magistrate in seizing upon all those little
+signs, which, when summed up at the end of an investigation, form an
+overwhelming mass of evidence against the criminal. The magistrate, in
+the meantime, went on with the same impassive air,--
+
+"Let us leave that question, then, since it seems to irritate you, and
+let us go on to your residence here. How have you supported yourself
+at Saigon?"
+
+"By my work, forsooth! /I/ have two arms; and I am not a good-for-
+nothing."
+
+"You have found employment, you say, as engraver on metal?"
+
+"No."
+
+"But you said"--
+
+Evariste Crochard, surnamed Bagnolet, could hardly conceal his
+impatience.
+
+"If you won't let me have my say," he broke out insolently, "it isn't
+worth while questioning me."
+
+The magistrate seemed not to notice it. He answered coldly,--
+
+"Oh! talk as much as you want. I can wait."
+
+"Well, then, the day after we had landed, M. Farniol, the owner of the
+French restaurant, offered me a place as waiter. Of course I accepted,
+and stayed there a year. Now I wait at table at the Hotel de France,
+kept by M. Roy. You can send for my two masters; they will tell you
+whether there is any complaint against me."
+
+"They will certainly be examined. And where do you live?"
+
+"At the Hotel de France, of course, where I am employed."
+
+The magistrate's face looked more and more benevolent. He asked
+next,--
+
+"And that is a good place,--to be waiter at a restaurant or a hotel?"
+
+"Why, yes--pretty good."
+
+"They pay well; eh?"
+
+"That depends,--sometimes they do; at other times they don't. When it
+is the season"--
+
+"That is so everywhere. But let us be accurate. You have been now
+eighteen months in Saigon; no doubt you have laid up something?"
+
+The man looked troubled and amazed, as if he had suddenly found out
+that the apparent benevolence of the magistrate had led him upon
+slippery and dangerous ground. He said evasively,--
+
+"If I have put anything aside, it is not worth mentioning."
+
+"On the contrary, let us mention it. How much about have you saved?"
+
+Bagnolet's looks, and the tremor of his lips, showed the rage that was
+devouring him.
+
+"I don't know," he said sharply.
+
+The magistrate made a gesture of surprise which was admirable. He
+added,--
+
+"What! You don't know how much you have laid up? That is too
+improbable! When people save money, one cent after another, to provide
+for their old age, they know pretty well"--
+
+"Well, then, take it for granted that I have saved nothing."
+
+"As you like it. Only it is my duty to show you the effect of your
+declaration. You tell me you have not laid up any money, don't you?
+Now, what would you say, if, upon search being made, the police should
+find a certain sum of money on your person or elsewhere?"
+
+"They won't find any."
+
+"So much the better for you; for, after what you said, it would be a
+terrible charge."
+
+"Let them search."
+
+"They are doing it now, and not only in your room, but also elsewhere.
+They will soon know if you have invested any money, or if you have
+deposited it with any of your acquaintances."
+
+"I may have brought some money with me from home."
+
+"No; for you have told me that you could no longer live in Paris,
+finding no work."
+
+Crochard, surnamed Bagnolet, made such a sudden and violent start,
+that the surgeon thought he was going to attack the magistrate. He
+felt he had been caught in a net the meshes of which were drawing
+tighter and tighter around him; and these apparently inoffensive
+questions assumed suddenly a terrible meaning.
+
+"Just answer me in one word," said the magistrate. "Did you bring any
+money from France, or did you not?"
+
+The man rose, and his lips opened to utter a curse; but he checked
+himself, sat down again, and, laughing ferociously, he said,--
+
+"Ah! you would like to 'squeeze' me, and make me cut my own throat.
+But luckily, I can see through you; and I refuse to answer."
+
+"You mean you want to consider. Have a care! You need not consider in
+order to tell the truth."
+
+And, as the man remained obstinately silent, the magistrate began
+again after a pause, saying,--
+
+"You know what you are accused of? They suspect that you fired at
+Lieut. Champcey with intent to kill."
+
+"That is an abominable lie!"
+
+"So you say. How did you hear that the officers of 'The Conquest' had
+arranged a large hunting-party?"
+
+"I had heard them speak of it at /table d'hote/."
+
+"And you left your service in order to attend this hunt, some twelve
+miles from Saigon? That is certainly singular."
+
+"Not at all; for I am very fond of hunting. And then I thought, if I
+could bring back a large quantity of game, I would probably be able to
+sell it very well."
+
+"And you would have added the profit to your other savings, wouldn't
+you?"
+
+Crochard, surnamed Bagnolet, was stung by the point of this ironical
+question, as if he had received a sharp cut. But, as he said nothing,
+the magistrate continued,--
+
+"Explain to us how the thing happened."
+
+On this ground the murderer knew he was at home, having had ample time
+to get ready; and with an accuracy which did great honor to his
+memory, or to his veracity, he repeated what he had told the surgeon
+on the spot, and at the time of the catastrophe. He only added, that
+he had concealed himself, because he had seen at once to what terrible
+charges he would be exposed by his awkwardness. And as he continued
+his account, warming up with its plausibility, he recovered the
+impudence, or rather the insolence, which seemed to be the prominent
+feature of his character.
+
+"Do you know the officer whom you have wounded?" asked the magistrate
+when he had finished.
+
+"Of course, I do, as I have made the voyage with him. He is Lieut.
+Champcey."
+
+"Have you any complaint against him?"
+
+"None at all."
+
+Then he added in a tone of bitterness and resentment,--
+
+"What relations do you think could there be between a poor devil like
+myself and a great personage like him? Would he have condescended even
+to look at me? Would I have dared to speak to him? If I know him, it
+is only because I have seen him, from afar off, walk the quarter-deck
+with the other officers, a cigar in his mouth, after a good meal,
+while we in the forecastle had our salt fish, and broke our teeth with
+worm-eaten hard-tack."
+
+"So you had no reason to hate him?"
+
+"None; as little as anybody else."
+
+Seated upon a wretched little footstool, his paper on his knees, an
+inkhorn in his hand, the clerk was rapidly taking down the questions
+and the answers. The magistrate made him a sign that it was ended, and
+then said, turning to the murderer,--
+
+"That is enough for to-day. I am bound to tell you, that, having so
+far only kept you as a matter of precaution, I shall issue now an
+order for your arrest."
+
+"You mean I am to be put in jail?"
+
+"Yes, until the court shall decide whether you are /guilty/ of murder,
+or of involuntary homicide."
+
+Crochard, surnamed Bagnolet, seemed to have foreseen this conclusion:
+at least he coolly shrugged his shoulders, and said in a hoarse
+voice,--
+
+"In that case I shall have my linen changed pretty often here; for, if
+I had been wicked enough to plot an assassination, I should not have
+been fool enough to say so."
+
+"Who knows?" replied the magistrate. "Some evidence is as good as an
+avowal."
+
+And, turning to the clerk, he said,--
+
+"Read the deposition to the accused."
+
+A moment afterwards, when this formality had been fulfilled, the
+magistrate and the old doctor left the room. The former looked
+extremely grave, and said,--
+
+"You were right, doctor; that man is a murderer. The so-called friend,
+whose name he would not tell us, is no other person than the rascal
+whose tool he is. And I mean to get that person's name out of him, if
+M. Champcey recovers, and will give me the slightest hint. Therefore,
+doctor, nurse your patient."
+
+To recommend Daniel to the surgeon was at least superfluous. If the
+old original was inexorable, as they said on board ship, for those
+lazy ones who pretended to be sick for the purpose of shirking work,
+he was all tenderness for his real patients; and his tenderness grew
+with the seriousness of their danger. He would not have hesitated a
+moment between an admiral who was slightly unwell, and the youngest
+midshipman of the fleet who was dangerously wounded. The admiral might
+have waited a long time before he would have left the midshipman,--an
+originality far less frequent than we imagine.
+
+It would have been enough, therefore, for Daniel to be so dangerously
+wounded. But there was something else besides. Like all who had ever
+sailed with Daniel, the surgeon, also, had conceived a lively interest
+in him, and was filled with admiration for his character. Besides
+that, he knew that his patient alone could solve this great mystery,
+which puzzled him exceedingly.
+
+Unfortunately, Daniel's condition was one of those which defy all
+professional skill, and where all hope depends upon time, nature, and
+constitution. To try to question him would have been absurd; for he
+had so far continued delirious. At times he thought he was on board
+his sloop in the swamps of the Kamboja; but most frequently he
+imagined himself fighting against enemies bent upon his ruin. The
+names of Sarah Brandon, Mrs. Brian, and Thomas Elgin, were constantly
+on his lips, mixed up with imprecations and fearful threats.
+
+For twenty days he remained so; and for twenty days and twenty nights
+his "man," Baptist Lefloch, who had caught the murderer, was by his
+bedside, watching his slightest movement, and ever bending over him
+tenderly. Not one of those noble daughters of divine wisdom, whom we
+meet in every part of the globe, wherever there is a sick man to
+nurse, could have been more patient, more attentive, or more
+ingenious, than this common sailor. He had put off his shoes, so as to
+walk more softly; and he came and went on tiptoe, his face full of
+care and anxiety, preparing draughts, and handling with his huge bony
+hands, with laughable, but almost touching precautions, the small
+phials out of which he had to give a spoonful to his patient at stated
+times.
+
+"I'll have you appointed head nurse of the navy, Lefloch," said the
+old surgeon.
+
+But he shook his head and answered,--
+
+"I would not like the place, commandant. Only, you see, when we were
+down there on the Kamboja, and Baptist Lefloch was writhing like a
+worm in the grip of the cholera, and when he was already quite blue
+and cold, Lieut. Champcey did not send for one of those lazy Annamites
+to rub him, he came himself, and rubbed him till he brought back the
+heat and life itself. Now, you see, I want to do some little for him."
+
+"You would be a great scamp if you did not."
+
+The surgeon hardly left the wounded man himself. He visited him four
+or five times a day, once at least every night, and almost every day
+remained for hours sitting by his bedside, examining the patient, and
+experiencing, according to the symptoms, the most violent changes from
+hope to fear, and back again. It was thus he learned a part, at least,
+of Daniel's history,--that he was to marry a daughter of Count Ville-
+Handry, who himself had married an adventuress; and that they had
+separated him from his betrothed by a forged letter. The doctor's
+conjectures were thus confirmed: such cowardly forgers would not
+hesitate to hire an assassin.
+
+But the worthy surgeon was too deeply impressed with the dignity of
+his profession to divulge secrets which he had heard by the bedside of
+a patient. And when the magistrate, devoured by impatience, came to
+him every three or four days, he always answered,--
+
+"I have nothing new to tell you. It will take weeks yet before you can
+examine my patient. I am sorry for it, for the sake of Evariste
+Crochard, surnamed Bagnolet, who must be tired of prison; but he must
+wait."
+
+In the meantime, Daniel's long delirium had been succeeded by a period
+of stupor. Order seemed gradually to return to his mind. He recognized
+the persons around him, and even stammered a few sensible words. But
+he was so excessively weak, that he remained nearly all the time
+plunged in a kind of torpor which looked very much like death itself.
+When he was aroused for a time, he always asked in an almost inaudible
+voice,--
+
+"Are there no letters for me from France?"
+
+Invariably, Lefloch replied, according to orders received from the
+doctor,--
+
+"None, lieutenant."
+
+But he told a falsehood. Since Daniel was confined to his bed, three
+vessels had arrived from France, two French and one English; and among
+the despatches there were eight or ten letters for Lieut. Champcey.
+But the old surgeon said to himself, not without good reason,--
+
+"Certainly it is almost a case of conscience to leave this unfortunate
+man in such uncertainty: but this uncertainty is free from danger, at
+least; while any excitement would kill him as surely and as promptly
+as I could blow out a candle."
+
+A fortnight passed; and Daniel recovered some little strength; at last
+he entered upon a kind of convalescence--if a poor man who could not
+turn over in bed unaided can be called a convalescent. But, with his
+returned consciousness, his sufferings also reappeared; and, as he
+gradually ascertained how long he had been confined, his anxiety
+assumed an alarming character.
+
+"There must be letters for me," he said to his man; "you keep them
+from me. I must have them."
+
+The doctor at last came to the conclusion that this excessive
+agitation was likely to become as dangerous as the excitement he
+dreaded so much; so he said one day,--
+
+"Let us run the risk."
+
+It was a burning hot afternoon, and Daniel had now been an invalid for
+seven weeks. Lefloch raised him on his pillows, stowed him away, as he
+called it; and the surgeon handed him his letters.
+
+Daniel uttered a cry of delight.
+
+At the first glance he had recognized on three of the envelopes
+Henrietta's handwriting. He kissed them, and said,--
+
+"At last she writes!"
+
+The shock was so violent, that the doctor was almost frightened.
+
+"Be calm, my dear friend," he said. "Be calm! Be a man, forsooth!"
+
+But Daniel only smiled, and replied,--
+
+"Never mind me, doctor; you know joy is never dangerous; and nothing
+but joy can come to me from her who writes to me. However, just see
+how calm I am!"
+
+So calm, that he did not even take the time to see which was the
+oldest of his letters.
+
+He opened one of them at haphazard, and read:--
+
+
+ "Daniel, my dear Daniel, my only friend in this world, and my sole
+  hope, how could you intrust me to such an infamous person? How
+  could you hand over your poor Henrietta to such a wretch? This
+  Maxime de Brevan, this scoundrel, whom you considered your friend,
+  if you knew"--
+
+
+This was the long letter written by Henrietta the day after M. de
+Brevan had declared to her that he loved her, and that sooner or
+later, whether she chose or not, she should be his, giving her the
+choice between the horrors of starvation and the disgrace of becoming
+his wife.
+
+As Daniel went on reading, a deadly pallor was spreading over his
+face, pale as it was already; his eyes grew unnaturally large; and big
+drops of perspiration trickled down his temples. A nervous trembling
+seized him, so violent, that it made his teeth rattle; sobs rose from
+his chest; and a pinkish foam appeared on his discolored lips. At last
+he reached the concluding lines,--
+
+
+ "Now," the young girl wrote, "since, probably, none of my letters
+  have reached you, they must have been intercepted. This one will
+  reach you; for I am going to carry it to the post-office myself.
+  For God's sake, Daniel, return! Come back quick, if you wish to
+  save, not your Henrietta's honor, for I shall know how to die, but
+  your Henrietta's life!"
+
+
+Then the surgeon and the sailor witnessed a frightful sight.
+
+This man, who but just now had not been able to raise himself on his
+pillows; this unfortunate sufferer, who looked more like a skeleton
+than a human being; this wounded man, who had scarcely his breath left
+him,--threw back his blankets, and rushed to the middle of the room,
+crying, with a terrible voice,--
+
+"My clothes, Lefloch, my clothes!"
+
+The doctor had hastened forward to support him; but he pushed him
+aside with one arm, continuing,--
+
+"By the holy name of God, Lefloch, make haste! Run to the harbor,
+wretch! there must be a steamer there. I buy it. Let it get up steam,
+instantly. In an hour I must be on my way."
+
+But this great effort had exhausted him. He tottered; his eyes dosed;
+and he fainted away in the arms of his sailor, stammering,--
+
+"That letter, doctor, that letter; read it, and you will see I must
+go."
+
+Raising his lieutenant, and holding him like a child in his arms,
+Lefloch carried him back to his bed; but, for more than ten minutes,
+the doctor and the faithful sailor were unable to tell whether they
+had not a corpse before their eyes, and were wasting all their
+attentions.
+
+No! It was Lefloch who first noticed a slight tremor.
+
+"He moves!" he cried out. "Look, commandant, he moves! He is alive!
+We'll pull him through yet."
+
+They succeeded, in fact, to rekindle this life which had appeared so
+nearly extinct; but they did /not/ bring back that able intellect. The
+cold and indifferent look with which Daniel stared at them, when he at
+last opened his eyes once more, told them that the tottering reason of
+the poor man had not been strong enough to resist this new shock. And
+still he must have retained some glimpses of the past; for his efforts
+to collect his thoughts were unmistakable. He passed his hands
+mechanically over his forehead, as if trying to remove the mist which
+enshrouded his mind. Then a convulsion shook him; and his lips
+overflowed with incoherent words, in which the recollection of the
+fearful reality, and the extravagant conceptions of delirium, were
+strangely mixed.
+
+"I foresaw it," said the chief surgeon. "I foresaw it but too fully."
+
+He had by this time exhausted all the resources of his skill and long
+experience; he had followed all the suggestions nature vouchsafed; and
+he could do nothing more now, but wait. Picking up the fatal letter,
+he went into the embrasure of one of the windows to read it. Daniel
+had in his wanderings said enough to enable the doctor to understand
+the piercing cry of distress contained in the poor girl's letter; and
+Lefloch, who watched him, saw a big tear running down his cheek, and
+in the next moment a flood of crimson overspread his face.
+
+"This is enough to madden a man!" he growled. "Poor Champcey!"
+
+And like a man who no longer possesses himself, who must move somehow,
+he stuffed the letter in his pocket, and went out, swearing till the
+plaster seemed to fall from the ceiling.
+
+Precisely at the same hour, the magistrate, who had been notified of
+the trial, came to ask for news. Seeing the old surgeon cross the
+hospital yard, he ran up and asked, as soon as he was within
+hearing,--
+
+"Well?"
+
+The doctor went a few steps farther, and then replied in a tone of
+despair,--
+
+"Lieut. Champcey is lost!"
+
+"Great God! What do you mean?"
+
+"What I think. Daniel has a violent brain-fever, or rather congestion
+of the brain. Weakened, exhausted, extenuated as he is, how can he
+endure it? He cannot; that is evident. It would take another miracle
+to save him now; and you may rest assured it won't be done. In less
+than twenty-four hours he will be a dead man, and his assassins will
+triumph."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+The old surgeon's eyes glared with rage; and a sardonic smile curled
+his lips as he continued,--
+
+"And who could keep those rascals from triumphing? If Daniel dies, you
+will be bound to release that scamp, the wretched murderer whom you
+keep imprisoned,--that man Crochard, surnamed Bagnolet; for there will
+be no evidence. Or, if you send him before a court, he will be
+declared guilty of involuntary homicide. And yet you know, as well as
+I do, he has wantonly fired at one of the noblest creatures I have
+ever known. And, when he has served his term, he will receive the
+price of Champcey's life, and he will spend it in orgies; and the
+others, the true criminals, who have hired him, will go about the
+world with lofty pride, rich, honored, and haughty."
+
+"Doctor!"
+
+But the old original was not to be stopped. He went on,--
+
+"Ah, let me alone! Your human justice,--do you want me to tell you
+what I think of it? I am ashamed of it! When you send every year three
+or four stupid murderers to the scaffold, and some dozens of miserable
+thieves to the penitentiary, you fold your black gowns around you, and
+proudly proclaim that all is well, and that society, thus protected,
+may sleep soundly. Well, do you know what is the real state of things?
+You only catch the stupid, the fools. The others, the strong, escape
+between the meshes of your laws, and, relying on their cleverness and
+your want of power, they enjoy the fruit of their crimes in all the
+pride of their impunity, until"--
+
+He hesitated, and added, unlike his usual protestations of atheism,--
+
+"Until the day of divine judgment."
+
+Far from appearing hurt by such an outburst of indignation, the
+magistrate, after having listened with impassive face, said, as soon
+as the doctor stopped for want of breath,--
+
+"You must have discovered something new."
+
+"Most assuredly. I think I hold at last the thread of the fearful plot
+which is killing my poor Daniel. Ah, if he would but live! But he
+cannot live."
+
+"Well, well, console yourself, doctor. You said human justice has its
+limits, and hosts of criminals escape its vengeance; but in this case,
+whether Lieut. Champcey live or die, justice shall be done, I promise
+you!"
+
+He spoke in a tone of such absolute certainty, that the old surgeon
+was struck by it. He exclaimed,--
+
+"Has the murderer confessed the crime?"
+
+The magistrate shook his head.
+
+"No," he replied; "nor have I seen him again since the first
+examination. But I have not been asleep. I have been searching; and I
+think I have sufficient evidence now to bring out the truth. And if
+you, on your side, have any positive information"--
+
+"Yes, I have; and I think I am justified now in communicating it to
+you. I have, besides, a letter"--
+
+He was pulling the letter out of his pocket; but the magistrate
+stopped him, saying,--
+
+"We cannot talk here in the middle of the court, where everybody can
+watch us from the windows. The court-room is quite near: suppose we go
+there, doctor."
+
+For all answer the surgeon put on his cap firmly, took his friend's
+arm, and the next moment the soldier on duty at the gate of the
+hospital saw them go out, engaged in a most animated conversation.
+When they had reached the magistrate's room, he shut the door
+carefully; and, after having invited the surgeon to take a seat, he
+said:--
+
+"I shall ask you for your information in a moment. First listen to
+what I have to say. I know now who Evariste Crochard, surnamed
+Bagnolet, really is; and I know the principal events of his life. Ah!
+it has cost me time and labor enough; but human justice is patient,
+doctor. Considering that this man had sailed on board 'The Conquest'
+for more than four months, in company with one hundred and fifty
+emigrants, I thought it would be unlikely that he should not have
+tried to break the monotony of such a voyage by long talks with
+friends. He is a good speaker, a Parisian, a former soldier, and a
+great traveller. He was, no doubt, always sure of an audience. I sent,
+therefore, one by one, for all the former passengers on board 'The
+Conquest,' whom I could find, a hundred, perhaps; and I examined them.
+I soon found out that my presumption was not unfounded.
+
+"Almost every one of them had found out some detail of Bagnolet's
+life, some more, some less, according to the degree of honesty or
+demoralization which Bagnolet thought he discovered in them. I
+collected all the depositions of these witnesses; I completed and
+compared them, one by the other; and thus, by means of the confessions
+of the accused, certain allusions and confidences of his made to
+others, and his indiscretions when he was drunk, I was enabled to make
+up his biography with a precision which is not likely to be doubted."
+
+Without seeming to notice the doctor's astonishment, he opened a large
+case on his table; and, drawing from it a huge bundle of papers, he
+held it up in the air, saying,--
+
+"Here are the verbal depositions of my hundred and odd witnesses."
+
+Then, pointing at four or five sheets of paper, which were covered
+with very fine and close writing, he added,--
+
+"And here are my extracts. Now, doctor, listen,--"
+
+And at once he commenced reading this biography of his "accused,"
+making occasional remarks, and explaining what he had written.
+
+"/Evariste Crochard/, surnamed /Bagnolet/, was born at Bagnolet in
+1829, and is, consequently, older than he says, although he looks
+younger. He was born in February; and this month is determined by the
+deposition of a witness, to whom the accused offered, during the
+voyage, a bottle, with the words, 'To-day is my birthday.'
+
+"From all the accounts of the accused, it appears that his parents
+were evidently very honest people. His father was foreman in a copper
+foundry; and his mother a seamstress. They may be still living; but
+for many years they have not seen their son.
+
+"The accused was sent to school; and, if you believe him, he learned
+quickly, and showed remarkable talents. But from his twelfth year he
+joined several bad companions of his age, and frequently abandoned his
+home for weeks, roaming about Paris. How did he support himself while
+he was thus vagabondizing?
+
+"He has never given a satisfactory explanation. But he has made such
+precise statements about the manner in which youthful thieves maintain
+themselves in the capital, that many witnesses suspect him of having
+helped them in robbing open stalls in the streets.
+
+"The positive result of these investigations is, that his father,
+distressed by his misconduct, and despairing of ever seeing him mend
+his ways, had him sent to a house of correction when he was fourteen
+years old.
+
+"Released at the end of eighteen months, he says he was bound out as
+an apprentice, and soon learned his business well enough to support
+himself. This last allegation, however, cannot be true; for four
+witnesses, of whom one at least is of the same profession as Crochard,
+declare that they have seen him at work, and that, if he ever was a
+skilled mechanic, he is so no longer. Besides, he cannot have been
+long at work; for he had been a year in prison again, when the
+revolution of 1848 began. This fact he has himself stated to more than
+twenty-five persons. But he has explained his imprisonment very
+differently; and almost every witness has received a new version. One
+was told that he had been sentenced for having stabbed one of his
+companions while drunk; another, that it was for a row in a drinking-
+saloon; and a third, that he was innocently involved with others in an
+attempt to rob a foreigner.
+
+"The prosecution is, therefore, entitled to conclude fairly that
+Crochard was sentenced simply as a thief.
+
+"Set free soon after the revolution, he did not resume his profession,
+but secured a place as machinist in a theatre on the boulevards. At
+the end of three months he was turned off, because of 'improper
+conduct with women,' according to one; or, if we believe another
+statement, because he was accused of a robbery committed in one of the
+boxes.
+
+"Unable to procure work, he engaged himself as groom in a wandering
+circus, and thus travelled through the provinces. But at Marseilles,
+he is wounded in a fight, and has to go to a hospital, where he
+remains three months.
+
+"After his return to Paris, he associated himself with a rope-dancer,
+but was soon called upon to enter the army. He escaped conscription by
+good luck. But the next year we find him negotiating with a dealer in
+substitutes; and he confesses having sold himself purely from a mad
+desire to possess fifteen hundred francs at once, and to be able to
+spend them in debauch. Having successfully concealed his antecedents,
+he is next admitted as substitute in the B Regiment of the line; but,
+before a year had elapsed, his insubordination has caused him to be
+sent to Africa as a punishment.
+
+"He remained there sixteen months, and conducted himself well enough
+to be incorporated in the First Regiment of Marines, one battalion of
+which was to be sent to Senegambia. He had, however, by no means given
+up his bad ways; for he was very soon after condemned to ten years'
+penal servitude for having broken into a house by night as a robber."
+
+The chief surgeon, who had for some time given unmistakable signs of
+impatience, now rose all of a sudden, and said,--
+
+"Pardon me, if I interrupt you, sir; but can you rely upon the
+veracity of your witnesses?"
+
+"Why should I doubt them?"
+
+"Because it seems to me very improbable that a cunning fellow, such as
+this Crochard seems to be, should have denounced himself."
+
+"But he has not denounced himself."
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"He has often mentioned this condemnation; but he has always
+attributed it to acts of violence against a superior; On that point he
+has never varied in his statements."
+
+"Then how on earth did you learn"--
+
+"The truth? Oh, very simply. /I/ inquired at Saigon; and I succeeded
+in finding a sergeant in the Second Regiment of Marines, who was in
+the First Regiment at the same time with Crochard. He gave me all
+these details. And there is no mistake about the identity; for, as
+soon as I said 'Crochard' the sergeant exclaimed, 'Oh, yes! Crochard,
+surnamed Bagnolet.'"
+
+And, as the doctor bowed without saying a word, the magistrate said,--
+
+"I resume the account. The statements of the accused since his arrest
+are too insignificant to be here reported. There is only one
+peculiarity of importance for the prosecution, which may possibly
+serve to enable us to trace the instigators of this crime. On three
+occasions, and in the presence of, at least, three witnesses each
+time, Crochard has used, in almost the same terms, these words,--
+
+"'No one would believe the strange acquaintances one makes in prisons.
+You meet there young men of family, who have done a foolish thing, and
+lots of people, who, wishing to make a fortune all at once, had no
+chance. When they come out from there, many of these fellows get into
+very good positions; and then, if you meet them, they don't know you.
+I have known some people there, who now ride in their carriages.'"
+
+The doctor had become silent.
+
+"Oh!" he said half aloud, "might not some of these people whom the
+assassin has known in prison have put arms in his hand?"
+
+"That is the very question I asked myself."
+
+"Because, you see, some of Daniel's enemies are fearful people; and if
+you knew what is in this letter here in my hand, which, no doubt, will
+be the cause of that poor boy's death"--
+
+"Allow me to finish, doctor," said the man of law. And then, more
+rapidly, he went on,--
+
+"Here follows a blank. How the accused lived in Paris, to which he had
+returned after his release, is not known. Did he resort to mean
+cheating, or to improper enterprises, in order to satisfy his
+passions? The prosecution is reduced to conjectures, since Crochard
+has refused to give details, and only makes very general statements as
+to these years.
+
+"This fact only is established, that every thing he took with him when
+he left Paris was new,--his tools, the linen in his valise, the
+clothes he wore, from the cap on his head to his shoes. Why were they
+all new?"
+
+As the magistrate had now reached the last line on the first sheet,
+the surgeon rose, bowed low, and said,--
+
+"Upon my word, sir, I surrender; and I do begin to hope that Lieut.
+Champcey may still be avenged."
+
+A smile of pleased pride appeared for a moment on the lips of the
+lawyer; but assuming his mask of impassiveness instantly again, as if
+he had been ashamed of his weakness, he said with delicate irony,--
+
+"I really think human justice may this time reach the guilty. But wait
+before you congratulate me."
+
+The old surgeon was too candid to make even an attempt at concealing
+his astonishment.
+
+"What!" he said, "you have more evidence still?"
+
+The magistrate gravely shook his head, and said,--
+
+"The biography which I have just read establishes nothing. We do not
+succeed by probabilities and presumptions; however strong they are in
+convincing a jury. They want and require proof, positive proof, before
+they condemn. Well, such proof I have."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+From the same box from which he had taken the papers concerning
+Crochard he now drew a letter, which he shook in the air with a
+threatening gesture. "Here is something," he said, "which was sent to
+the state attorney twelve days after the last attempt had been made on
+M. Champcey's life. Listen!" And he read thus,--
+
+
+ "Sir,--A sailor, who has come over to Boen-Hoa, where I live with
+  my wife, has told us that a certain Crochard, surnamed Bagnolet,
+  has shot, and perhaps mortally wounded, Lieut. Champcey of the
+  ship 'Conquest.'
+
+ "In connection with this misfortune, my wife thinks, and I also
+  consider it a matter of conscience, that we should make known to
+  you a very serious matter.
+
+ "One day I happened to be on a yardarm, side by side with Crochard,
+  helping the sailors to furl a sail, when I saw him drop a huge
+  block, which fell upon Lieut. Champcey, and knocked him down.
+
+ "No one else had noticed it; and Crochard instantly pulled up the
+  block again. I was just considering whether I ought to report him,
+  when he fell at my feet, and implored me to keep it secret; for he
+  had been very unfortunate in life, and if I spoke he would be
+  ruined.
+
+ "Thinking that he had been simply awkward, I allowed myself to be
+  moved, and swore to Crochard that the matter should remain between
+  us. But what has happened since proves very clearly, as my wife
+  says, that I was wrong to keep silence; and I am ready now to tell
+  all, whatever may be the consequences.
+
+ "Still, sir, I beg you will protect me, in case Crochard should
+  think of avenging himself on me or on my family,--a thing which
+  might very easily happen, as he is a very bad man, capable of any
+  thing.
+
+ "As I cannot write, my wife sends you this letter. And we are, with
+  the most profound respect, &c."
+
+
+The doctor rubbed his hands violently.
+
+"And you have seen this blacksmith?" he asked.
+
+"Certainly! He has been here, he and his wife. Ah! if the man had been
+left to his own counsels, he would have kept it all secret, so
+terribly is he afraid of this Crochard; but, fortunately, his wife had
+more courage."
+
+"Decidedly," growled the surgeon. "The women are, after all, the
+better part of creation."
+
+The magistrate carefully replaced the letter in the box, and then went
+on in his usual calm voice,--
+
+"Thus the first attempt at murder is duly and fully proven. As for the
+second,--the one made on the river,--we are not quite so far advanced.
+Still I have hopes. I have found out, for instance, that Crochard is a
+first-rate swimmer. Only about three months ago he made a bet with one
+of the waiters at the hotel where he is engaged, that he would swim
+across the Dong-Nai twice, at a place where the current is strongest;
+and he did it."
+
+"But that is evidence; is it not?"
+
+"No; it is only a probability in favor of the prosecution. But I have
+another string to my bow. The register on board ship proves that
+Crochard went on shore the very evening after the arrival of the
+vessel. Where, and with whom, did he spend the evening? Not one of my
+hundred and odd witnesses has seen him that night. And that is not
+all. No one has noticed, the next day, that his clothes were wet.
+Therefore he must have changed his clothes; and, in order to do that,
+he must have bought some; for he had taken nothing with him out of the
+ship but what he had on. Where did he buy these clothes? I mean to
+find that out as soon as I shall no longer be forced to carry on the
+investigation secretly, as I have done so far. For I never forget one
+thing, that the real criminals are in France, and that they will
+surely escape us, if they hear that their wretched accomplice here is
+in trouble."
+
+Once more the surgeon drew Henrietta's letter from his pocket, and
+handed it to the lawyer, saying,--
+
+"I know who they are, the really guilty ones. I know Daniel's enemies,
+--Sarah Brandon, Maxime de Brevan, and the others."
+
+But the magistrate waved back the letter, and replied,--
+
+"It is not enough for us to know them, doctor; we want evidence
+against them,--clear, positive, irrefutable evidence. This evidence we
+will get from Crochard. Oh, I know the ways of these rascals! As soon
+as they see they are overwhelmed by the evidence against them, and
+feel they are in real danger, they hasten to denounce their
+accomplices, and to aid justice, with all their perversity to discover
+them. The accused will do the same. When I shall have established the
+fact that he was hired to murder M. Champcey, he will tell me by whom
+he was hired; and he will have to confess that he was thus hired, when
+I show him how much of the money he received for the purpose is now
+left."
+
+The old surgeon once more jumped up from his chair.
+
+"What!" he said, "you have found Crochard's treasure?"
+
+"No," replied the lawyer, "not yet; but"--
+
+He could hardly keep from smiling grimly; but he added at once,--
+
+"But I know where it is, I think. Ah! I can safely say it was not on
+the first day exactly that I saw where the truth probably was hid. I
+have had a good deal of perplexity and trouble. Morally sure as I was,
+after the first examination of the accused, that he had a relatively
+large sum hidden somewhere, I first gave all my attention to his
+chamber. Assisted by a clever police-agent, I examined that room for a
+whole fortnight, till I was furious. The furniture was taken to
+pieces, and examined, the lining taken out of the chairs, and even the
+paper stripped from the walls. All in vain. I was in despair, when a
+thought struck me,--one of those simple thoughts which make you wonder
+why it did not occur to you at once. I said to myself, 'I have found
+it!' And, anxious to ascertain if I was right, I immediately sent for
+the man with whom Crochard had made the bet about swimming across the
+Dong-Nai. He came; and-- But I prefer reading you his deposition."
+
+He took from the large bundle of papers a single sheet, and, assuming
+an air of great modesty, read the affidavit.
+
+
+ "/Magistrate/.--At what point of the river did Crochard swim
+  across?
+
+ "/Witness/.--A little below the town.
+
+ "/M/.--Where did he undress?
+
+ "/W/.--At the place where he went into the water, just opposite the
+  tile-factory of M. Wang-Tai.
+
+ "/M/.--What did he do with his clothes?
+
+ "/W/. (very much surprised).-- Nothing.
+
+ "/M/.--Excuse me; he must have done something. Try to recollect.
+
+ "/W/. (striking his forehead).-- Why, yes! I remember now. When
+  Bagnolet had undressed, I saw he looked annoyed, as if he disliked
+  going into the water. But no! that was not it. He was afraid about
+  his clothes; and he did not rest satisfied till I had told him I
+  would keep watch over them. Now, his clothes consisted of a mean
+  pair of trousers and a miserable blouse. As they were in my way, I
+  put them down on the ground, at the foot of a tree. He had in the
+  meantime done his work, and came back; but, instead of listening
+  to my compliments, he cried furiously, 'My clothes!'--'Well,' I
+  said, 'they are not lost. There they are.' Thereupon he pushed me
+  back fiercely, without saying a word, and ran like a madman to
+  pick up his clothes."
+
+
+The chief surgeon was electrified; he rose, and said,--
+
+"I understand; yes, I understand."
+
+
+
+                                 XXV.
+
+Thus proceeding from one point to another, and by the unaided power of
+his sagacity, coupled with indefatigable activity, the magistrate had
+succeeded in establishing Crochard's guilt, and the existence of
+accomplices who had instigated the crime. No one could doubt that he
+was proud of it, and that his self-esteem had increased, although he
+tried hard to preserve his stiff and impassive appearance. He had even
+affected a certain dislike to the idea of reading Henrietta's letter,
+until he should have proved that he could afford to do without such
+assistance.
+
+But, now that he had proved this so amply, he very quickly asked for
+the letter, and read it. Like the chief surgeon, he, also, was struck
+and amazed by the wickedness of M. de Brevan.
+
+"But here is exactly what we want," he exclaimed,--"an irrefragable
+proof of complicity. He would never have dared to abuse Miss Ville-
+Handry's confidence in so infamous a manner, if he had not been
+persuaded, in fact been quite sure, that Lieut. Champcey would never
+return to France."
+
+Then, after a few minutes' reflection, he added,--
+
+"And yet I feel that there is something underneath still, which we do
+not see. Why had they determined upon M. Champcey's death even before
+he sailed? What direct and pressing interest could M. de Brevan have
+in wishing him dead at that time? Something must have happened between
+the two which we do not know."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Ah! that is what I cannot conceive. But remember what I say, doctor:
+the future reserves some fearful mysteries yet to be revealed to us
+hereafter."
+
+The two men had been so entirely preoccupied with their thoughts, that
+they were unconscious of the flight of time; and they were not a
+little astonished, therefore, when they now noticed that the day was
+gone, and night was approaching. The lawyer rose, and asked, returning
+Henrietta's letter to the doctor,--
+
+"Is this the only one M. Champcey has received?"
+
+"No; but it is the only one he has opened."
+
+"Would you object to handing me the others?"
+
+The excellent doctor hesitated.
+
+"I will hand them to you," he said at last, "if you will assure me
+that the interests of justice require it. But why not wait"--
+
+He did not dare say, "Why not wait for M. Champcey's death?" but the
+lawyer understood him.
+
+"I will wait," he said.
+
+While thus talking, they had reached the door. They shook hands; and
+the chief surgeon, his heart fall of darkest presentiments, slowly
+made his way to the hospital.
+
+A great surprise awaited him there. Daniel, whom he had left in a
+desperate condition, almost dying,--Daniel slept profoundly, sweetly.
+His pale face had recovered its usual expression; and his respiration
+was free and regular.
+
+"It is almost indescribable," said the old doctor, whose experience
+was utterly at fault. "I am an ass; and our science is a bubble."
+
+Turning to Lefloch, who had respectfully risen at his entrance, he
+asked,--
+
+"Since when has your master been sleeping in this way?"
+
+"For an hour, commandant."
+
+"How did he fall asleep?"
+
+"Quite naturally, commandant. After you left, the lieutenant was for
+some time pretty wild yet; but soon he quieted down, and finally he
+asked for something to drink. I gave him a cup of your tea; he took
+it, and then asked me to help him turn over towards the wall. I did
+so, and I saw him remain so, his arm bent, and his head in his hand,
+like a man who is thinking profoundly. But about a quarter of an hour
+later, all of a sudden, I thought I heard him gasp. I came up softly
+on tiptoe, and looked. I was mistaken; the lieutenant was not gasping,
+he was crying like a baby; and what I had heard were sobs. Ah,
+commandant! I felt as if somebody had kicked me in the stomach.
+Because, you see, I know him; and I know, that, before a man such as
+he is goes to crying like a little child, he must have suffered more
+than death itself. Holy God! If I knew where I could catch them, these
+rascals who give him all this trouble"--
+
+His fists rose instinctively, and most undoubtedly something bright
+started from his eyes which looked prodigiously like a tear rolling
+slowly down one of the deep furrows in his cheek.
+
+"Now," he continued in a half-stifled voice, "I saw why the lieutenant
+had wished to turn his face to the wall, and I went back without
+making a noise. A moment after that, he began talking aloud. But he
+was right in his senses now, I tell you."
+
+"What did he say?"
+
+"Ah! he said something like, 'Henrietta, Henrietta!' Always that good
+friend of his, for whom he was forever calling when he had the fever.
+And then he said, 'I am killing her, I! I am the cause of her death.
+Fool, stupid, idiot that I am! He has sworn to kill me and Henrietta,
+the wretch! He swore it no doubt, the very day on which I, fool as I
+was, confided Henrietta and my whole fortune to him.'"
+
+"Did he say that?"
+
+"The very words, commandant, but better, a great deal better."
+
+The old surgeon seemed to be amazed.
+
+"That cunning lawyer had judged rightly," he said. "He suspected there
+was something else; and here it is."
+
+"You say, commandant?" asked the good sailor.
+
+"Nothing of interest to you. Go on."
+
+"Well, after that--but there is nothing more to tell, except that I
+heard nothing more. The lieutenant remained in the same position till
+I came to light the lamp; then he ordered me to make him tack ship,
+and to let down the screen over the lamp. I did so. He gave out two or
+three big sighs, and then goodnight, and nothing more. He was asleep
+as you see him now."
+
+"And how did his eyes look when he fell asleep?"
+
+"Quite calm and bright."
+
+The doctor looked like a man to whom something has happened which is
+utterly inexplicable to him, and said in a low voice,--
+
+"He will pull through, I am sure now. I said there could not be
+another miracle; and here it is!"
+
+Then turning to Lefloch, he asked,--
+
+"You know where I am staying?"
+
+"Yes, commandant."
+
+"If your officer wakes up in the night, you will send for me at once."
+
+"Yes, commandant."
+
+But Daniel did not wake up; and he had hardly opened his eyes on the
+next morning, about eight o'clock, when the chief surgeon entered his
+room. At the first glance at his patient, he exclaimed,--
+
+"I am sure our imprudence yesterday will have no bad effects!"
+
+Daniel said nothing; but, after the old surgeon had carefully examined
+him, he began,--
+
+"Now, doctor, one question, a single one: in how many days will I be
+able to get up and take ship?"
+
+"Ah! my dear lieutenant, there is time enough to talk about that."
+
+"No, doctor, no! I must have an answer. Fix a time, and I shall have
+the fortitude to wait; but uncertainty will kill me. Yes, I shall
+manage to wait, although I suffer like"--
+
+The surgeon was evidently deeply touched.
+
+"I know what you suffer, my poor Champcey," he said; "I read that
+letter which came much nearer killing you than Crochard's ball. I
+think in a month you will be able to sail."
+
+"A month!" said Daniel in a tone as if he had said an age. And after a
+pause he added,--
+
+"That is not all, doctor: I want to ask you for the letters which I
+could not read yesterday."
+
+"What? You would-- But that would be too great an imprudence."
+
+"No, doctor, don't trouble yourself. The blow has fallen. If I did not
+lose my mind yesterday, that shows that my reason can stand the most
+terrible trial. I have, God be thanked, all my energy. I know I must
+live, if I want to save Henrietta,--to avenge her, if I should come
+too late. That thought, you may rest assured, will keep me alive."
+
+The surgeon hesitated no longer: the next moment Daniel opened the
+other two letters from Henrietta. One, very long, was only a
+repetition of the first he had read. The other consisted only of a few
+lines:--
+
+
+ "M. de Brevan has just left me. When the man told me mockingly that
+  I need not count upon your return, and cast an atrocious look at
+  me, I understood. Daniel, that man wants your life; and he has
+  hired assassins. For my sake, if not for your own, I beseech you
+  be careful. Take care, be watchful; think that you are the only
+  friend, the sole hope here below, of your Henrietta."
+
+
+Now it was truly seen that Daniel had not presumed too much on his
+strength and his courage. Not a muscle in his face changed; his eye
+remained straight and clear; and he said in an accent of coldest,
+bitterest irony,--
+
+"Look at this, doctor. Here is the explanation of the strange ill luck
+that has pursued me ever since I left France."
+
+At a glance the doctor read Henrietta's warning, which came, alas! so
+much too late.
+
+"You ought to remember this, also, that M. de Brevan could not foresee
+that the assassin he had hired would be caught."
+
+This was an unexpected revelation; and Daniel was all attention.
+
+"What?" he said. "The man who fired at me has been arrested?"
+
+Lefloch was unable to restrain himself at this juncture, and
+replied,--
+
+"I should say so, lieutenant, and by my hand, before his gun had
+cooled off."
+
+The doctor did not wait for the questions which he read in the eyes of
+his patient. He said at once,--
+
+"It is as Lefloch says, my dear lieutenant; and, if you have not been
+told anything about it, it was because the slightest excitement would
+become fatal. Yesterday's experience has only proved that too clearly.
+Yes, the assassin is in jail."
+
+"And his account is made up," growled the sailor.
+
+But Daniel shrugged his shoulders, and said,--
+
+"I do not want him punished, any more than the ball which hit me. That
+wretched creature is a mere tool. But, doctor, you know who are the
+real guilty ones."
+
+"And justice shall be done, I swear!" broke in the old surgeon, who
+looked upon the cause of his patient with as much interest as if it
+were his own. "Our lucky star has sent us a lawyer who is no trifler,
+and who, if I am not very much mistaken, would like very much to leave
+Saigon with a loud blast of trumpets."
+
+He remained buried in thought for a while, watching his patient out of
+the corner of his eye, and then said suddenly,--
+
+"Now I think of it, why could you not see the lawyer? He is all
+anxiety to examine you. Consider, lieutenant, do you feel strong
+enough to see him?"
+
+"Let him come," cried Daniel, "let him come! Pray, doctor, go for him
+at once!"
+
+"I shall do my best, my dear Champcey. I will go at once, and leave
+you to finish your correspondence."
+
+He left the room with these words; and Daniel turned to the letters,
+which were still lying on his bed. There were seven of them,--four
+from the Countess Sarah, and three from Maxime. But what could they
+tell him now? What did he care for the falsehoods and the calumnies
+they contained? He ran over them, however.
+
+Faithful to her system, Sarah wrote volumes; and from line to line, in
+some way or other, her real or feigned love for Daniel broke forth
+more freely, and no longer was veiled and hidden under timid reserve
+and long-winded paraphrases. She gave herself up, whether her prudence
+had forsaken her, or whether she felt quite sure that her letters
+could never reach Count Ville-Handry. It sounded like an intense,
+irresistible passion, escaping from the control of the owner, and
+breaking forth terribly, like a long smouldering fire. Of Henrietta
+she said but little,--enough, however, to terrify Daniel, if he had
+not known the truth.
+
+"That unfortunate, wayward girl," she wrote, "has just caused her aged
+father such cruel and unexpected grief, that he was on the brink of
+the grave. Weary of the control which her indiscretions rendered
+indispensable, she has fled, we know not with whom; and all our
+efforts to find her have so far been unsuccessful."
+
+On the other hand, M. de Brevan wrote, "Deaf to my counsel and prayers
+even, Miss Ville-Handry has carried out the project of leaving her
+paternal home. Suspected of having favored her escape, I have been
+called out by Sir Thorn, and had to fight a duel with him. A paper
+which I enclose will give you the details of our meeting, and tell you
+that I was lucky enough to wound that gentleman of little honor, but
+of great skill with the pistol.
+
+"Alas! my poor, excellent Daniel, why should I be compelled by the
+duties of friendship to confess to you that it was not for the purpose
+of remaining faithful to you, that Miss Henrietta was so anxious to be
+free? Do not desire to return, my poor friend! You would suffer too
+much in finding her whom you have loved so dearly unworthy of an
+honest man, unworthy of you. Believe me, I did all I could to prevent
+her irregularities, which now have become public. I only drew her
+hatred upon me, and I should not be surprised if she did all she could
+to make us all cut our throats."
+
+This impudence was bold enough to confound anybody's mind, and to make
+one doubt one's own good sense. Still he found the newspaper, which
+had been sent to him with the letter, and in it the account of the
+duel between M. de Brevan and M. Thomas Elgin. What did that signify?
+He once more read over, more attentively than at first, the letters of
+Maxime and the Countess Sarah; and, by comparing them with each other,
+he thought he noticed in them some traces of a beginning disagreement.
+
+"It may be that there is discord among my enemies," he said to
+himself, "and that they do no longer agree, now that, in their view,
+the moment approaches when they are to divide the proceeds of their
+crimes. Or did they never agree, and am I the victim of a double plot?
+Or is the whole merely a comedy for the purpose of deceiving me, and
+keeping me here, until the murderer has done his work?"
+
+He was not allowed to torture his mind long with efforts to seek the
+solution of this riddle. The old doctor came back with the lawyer, and
+for more than half an hour he had to answer an avalanche of questions.
+But the investigation had been carried on with such rare sagacity,
+that Daniel could furnish the prosecution only a single new fact,--the
+surrender of his entire fortune into the hands of M. de Brevan.
+
+And even this fact must needs, on account of its extreme
+improbability, remain untold in an investigation which was based upon
+logic alone. Daniel very naturally, somewhat ashamed of his
+imprudence, tried to excuse himself; and, when he had concluded his
+explanations, the lawyer said,--
+
+"Now, one more question: would you recognize the man who attempted to
+drown you in the Dong-Nai in a boat which he had offered to you, and
+which he upset evidently on purpose?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Ah! that is a pity. That man was Crochard, I am sure; but he will
+deny it; and the prosecution will have nothing but probabilities to
+oppose to his denial, unless I can find the place where he changed his
+clothes."
+
+"Excuse me, there is a way to ascertain his identity."
+
+"How?"
+
+"The voice of the wretch is so deeply engraven on my mind, that even
+at this moment, while I am speaking to you, I think I can hear it in
+my ear; and I would recognize it among a thousand."
+
+The lawyer made no reply, weighing, no doubt, in his mind the chances
+of a confrontation. Then he made up his mind, and said,--
+
+"It is worth trying."
+
+And handing his clerk, who had been a silent witness of this scene, an
+order to have the accused brought to the hospital, he said,--
+
+"Take this to the jail, and let them make haste."
+
+It was a month now since Crochard had been arrested; and his
+imprisonment, so far from discouraging him, had raised his spirits. At
+first, his arrest and the examination had frightened him; but, as the
+days went by, he recovered his insolence.
+
+"They are evidently looking for evidence," he said; "but, as they
+cannot find any, they will have to let me go."
+
+He looked, therefore, as self-assured as ever when he came into
+Daniel's room, and exclaimed, while still in the door, with an air of
+intolerable arrogance,--
+
+"Well? I ask for justice; I am tired of jail. If I am guilty, let them
+cut my throat; if I am innocent"--
+
+But Daniel did not let him finish.
+
+"That is the man!" he exclaimed; "I am ready to swear to it, that is
+the man!"
+
+Great as was the impudence of Crochard, surnamed Bagnolet, he was
+astonished, and looked with rapid, restless eyes at the chief surgeon,
+at the magistrate, and last at Lefloch, who stood immovable at the
+foot of the bed of his lieutenant. He had too much experience of legal
+forms not to know that he had given way to absurd illusions,--and that
+his position was far more dangerous than he had imagined. But what was
+their purpose? what had they found out? and what did they know
+positively? The effort he made to guess all this gave to his face an
+atrocious expression.
+
+"Did you hear that, Crochard?" asked the lawyer.
+
+But the accused had recovered his self-control by a great effort; and
+he replied,--
+
+"I am not deaf." And there was in his voice the unmistakable accent of
+the former vagabond of Paris. "I hear perfectly well; only I don't
+understand."
+
+The magistrate, finding that, where he was seated, he could not very
+well observe Crochard, had quietly gotten up, and was now standing
+near the mantle-piece, against which he rested.
+
+"On the contrary," he said severely, "you understand but too well
+Lieut. Champcey says you are the man who tried to drown him in the
+Dong-Nai. He recognizes you."
+
+"That's impossible!" exclaimed the accused. "That's impossible; for"--
+
+But the rest of the phrase remained in his throat. A sudden reflection
+had shown him the trap in which he had been caught,--a trap quite
+familiar to examining lawyers, and terrible by its very simplicity.
+But for that reflection, he would have gone on thus,--
+
+"That's impossible; for the night was too dark to distinguish a man's
+features."
+
+And that would have been equivalent to a confession; and he would have
+had nothing to answer the magistrate, if the latter had asked at
+once,--
+
+"How do you know that the darkness was so great on the banks of the
+Dong-Nai? It seems you were there, eh?"
+
+Quite pallid with fright, the accused simply said,--
+
+"The officer must be mistaken."
+
+"I think not," replied the magistrate.
+
+Turning to Daniel, he asked him,--
+
+"Do you persist in your declaration, lieutenant?"
+
+"More than ever, sir; I declare upon honor that I recognize the man's
+voice. When he offered me a boat, he spoke a kind of almost
+unintelligible jargon, a mixture of English and Spanish words; but he
+did not think of changing his intonation and his accent."
+
+Affecting an assurance which he was far from really feeling, Crochard,
+surnamed Bagnolet, shrugged his shoulders carelessly, and said,--
+
+"Do I know any English? Do I know any Spanish?"
+
+"No, very likely not; but like all Frenchmen who live in this colony,
+and like all the marines, you no doubt know a certain number of words
+of these two languages."
+
+To the great surprise of the doctor and of Daniel, the prisoner did
+not deny it; it looked as if he felt that he was on dangerous ground.
+
+"Never mind!" he exclaimed in the most arrogant manner. "It is anyhow
+pretty hard to accuse an honest man of a crime, because his voice
+resembles the voice of a rascal."
+
+The magistrate gently shook his head. He said,--
+
+"Do you pretend being an honest man?"
+
+"What! I pretend? Let them send for my employers."
+
+"That is not necessary. I know your antecedents, from the first petty
+theft that procured you four months' imprisonment, to the aggravated
+robbery for which you were sent to the penitentiary, when you were in
+the army."
+
+Profound stupor lengthened all of Crochard's features; but he was not
+the man to give up a game in which his head was at stake, without
+fighting for it.
+
+"Well, there you are mistaken," he said very coolly. "I have been
+condemned to ten years, that is true, when I was a soldier; but it was
+for having struck an officer who had punished me unjustly."
+
+"You lie. A former soldier of your regiment, who is now in garrison
+here in Saigon, will prove it."
+
+For the first time the accused seemed to be really troubled. He saw
+all of a sudden his past rising before him, which until now he had
+thought unknown or forgotten; and he knew full well the weight which
+antecedents like his would have in the scales of justice. So he
+changed his tactics; and, assuming an abject humility, he said,--
+
+"One may have committed a fault, and still be incapable of murdering a
+man."
+
+"That is not your case."
+
+"Oh! how can you say such a thing?--I who would not harm a fly.
+Unlucky gun! Must I needs have such a mishap?"
+
+The magistrate had for some time been looking at the accused with an
+air of the most profound disgust. He interrupted him rudely now, and
+said,--
+
+"Look here, my man! Spare us those useless denials. Justice knows
+everything it wants to know. That shot was the third attempt you made
+to murder a man."
+
+Crochard drew back. He looked livid. But he had still the strength to
+say in a half-strangled voice,--
+
+"That is false!"
+
+But the magistrate had too great an abundance of evidence to allow the
+examination to continue. He said simply,--
+
+"Who, then, threw, during the voyage, an enormous block at M.
+Champcey's head? Come, don't deny it. The emigrant who was near you,
+who saw you, and who promised he would not report you at that time,
+has spoken. Do you want to see him?"
+
+Once more Crochard opened his lips to protest his innocence; but he
+could not utter a sound. He was crushed, annihilated; he trembled in
+all his limbs; and his teeth rattled in his mouth. In less than no
+time, his features had sunk in, as it were, till he looked like a man
+at the foot of the scaffold. It may be, that, feeling he was
+irretrievably lost, he had had a vision of the fatal instrument.
+
+"Believe me," continued the lawyer, "do not insist upon the
+impossible; you had better tell the truth."
+
+For another minute yet, the miserable man hesitated. Then, seeing no
+other chance of safety, except the mercy of the judges, he fell
+heavily on his knees, and stammered out,--
+
+"I am a wretched man."
+
+At the same instant a cry of astonishment burst from the doctor, from
+Daniel, and the worthy Lefloch. But the man of law was not surprised.
+He knew in advance that the first victory would be easily won, and
+that the real difficulty would be to induce the prisoner to confess
+the name of his principal. Without giving him, therefore time to
+recover, he said,--
+
+"Now, what reasons had you for persecuting M. Champcey in this way?"
+
+The accused rose again; and, making an effort, he said slowly,--
+
+"I hated him. Once during the voyage he had threatened to have me put
+in irons."
+
+"The man lies!" said Daniel.
+
+"Do you hear?" asked the lawyer. "So you will not tell the truth?
+Well, I will tell it for you. They had hired you to kill Lieut.
+Champcey, and you wanted to earn your money. You got a certain sum of
+money in advance; and you were to receive a larger sum after his
+death."
+
+"I swear"--
+
+"Don't swear! The sum in your possession, which you cannot account
+for, is positive proof of what I say."
+
+"Alas! I possess nothing. You may inquire. You may order a search."
+
+Under the impassive mask of the lawyer, a certain degree of excitement
+could at this moment be easily discerned. The time had come to strike
+a decisive blow, and to judge of the value of his system of induction.
+Instead, therefore, of replying to the prisoner, he turned to the
+gendarmes who were present and said to them,--
+
+"Take the prisoner into the next room. Strip him, and examine all his
+clothes carefully: see to it that there is nothing hid in the lining."
+
+The gendarmes advanced to seize the prisoner, when he suddenly jumped
+up, and said in a tone of ill-constrained rage,--
+
+"No need for that! I have three one thousand-franc-notes sewn into the
+lining of my trousers."
+
+This time the pride of success got completely the better of the
+imperturbable coldness of the magistrate. He uttered a low cry of
+satisfaction, and could not refrain from casting a look of triumph at
+Daniel and the doctor, which said clearly,--
+
+"Well? What did I tell you?"
+
+It was for a second only; the next instant his features resumed their
+icy immobility; and, turning to the accused, he said in a tone of
+command,--
+
+"Hand me the notes!"
+
+Crochard did not stir; but his livid countenance betrayed the fierce
+suffering he endured. Certainly, at this moment, he did not play a
+part. To take from him his three thousand francs, the price of the
+meanest and most execrable crime; the three thousand francs for the
+sake of which he had risked the scaffold,--this was like tearing his
+entrails from him.
+
+Like an enraged brute who sees that the enemy is all-powerful, he
+gathered all his strength, and, with a furious look, glanced around
+the room to see if he could escape anywhere, asking himself, perhaps,
+upon which of the men he ought to throw himself for the purpose.
+
+"The notes!" repeated the inexorable lawyer. "Must I order force to be
+used?"
+
+Convinced of the uselessness of resistance, and of the folly of any
+attempt at escape, the wretch hung his head.
+
+"But I cannot undo the seams of my trousers with my nails," he said.
+"Let them give me a knife or a pair of scissors."
+
+They were careful not to do so. But, at a sign given by the
+magistrate, one of the gendarmes approached, and, drawing a penknife
+from his pocket, ripped the seam at the place which the prisoner
+pointed out. A genuine convulsion of rage seized the assassin, when a
+little paper parcel appeared, folded up, and compressed to the
+smallest possible size. By a very curious phenomenon, which is,
+however, quite frequently observed in criminals, he was far more
+concerned about his money than about his life, which was in such
+imminent danger.
+
+"That is my money!" he raged. "No one has a right to take it from me.
+It is infamous to ill use a man who has been unfortunate, and to rob
+him."
+
+The magistrate, no doubt quite accustomed to such scenes, did not even
+listen to Crochard, but carefully opened the packet. It contained
+three notes of a thousand francs each, wrapped up in a sheet of
+letter-paper, which was all greasy, and worn out in the folds. The
+bank-notes had nothing peculiar; but on the sheet of paper, traces
+could be made out of lines of writing; and at least two words were
+distinctly legible,--/University/ and /Street/.
+
+"What paper is this, Crochard?" asked the lawyer.
+
+"I don't know. I suppose I picked it up somewhere."
+
+"What? Are you going to lie again? What is the use? Here is evidently
+the address of some one who lives in University Street."
+
+Daniel was trembling on his bed.
+
+"Ah, sir!" he exclaimed, "I used to live in University Street, Paris."
+
+A slight blush passed over the lawyer's face, a sign of unequivocal
+satisfaction in him. He uttered half loud, as if replying to certain
+objections in his own mind,--
+
+"Everything is becoming clear."
+
+And yet, to the great surprise of his listeners, he abandoned this
+point; and, returning to the prisoner, he asked him,--
+
+"So you acknowledge having received money for the murder of Lieut.
+Champcey?"
+
+"I never said so."
+
+"No; but the three thousand francs found concealed on your person say
+so very clearly. From whom did you receive this money?"
+
+"From nobody. They are my savings."
+
+The lawyer shrugged his shoulders; and, looking very sternly at
+Crochard, he said,--
+
+"I have before compelled you to make a certain confession. I mean to
+do so again and again. You will gain nothing, believe me, by
+struggling against justice; and you cannot save the wretches who
+tempted you to commit this crime. There is only one way left to you,
+if you wish for mercy; and that is frankness. Do not forget that!"
+
+The assassin was, perhaps, better able to appreciate the importance of
+such advice than anybody else there present. Still he remained silent
+for more than a minute, shaken by a kind of nervous tremor, as if a
+terrible struggle was going on in his heart. He was heard to mutter,--
+
+"I do not denounce anybody. A bargain is a bargain. I am not a tell-
+tale."
+
+Then, all of a sudden, making up his mind, and showing himself just
+the man the magistrate had expected to find, he said with a cynic
+laugh,--
+
+"Upon my word, so much the worse for them! Since I am in the trap, let
+the others be caught as well! Besides, who would have gotten the big
+prize, if I had succeeded? Not I, most assuredly; and yet it was I who
+risked most. Well, then, the man who hired me to 'do the lieutenant's
+business' is a certain Justin Chevassat."
+
+The most intense disappointment seized both Daniel and the surgeon.
+This was not the name they had been looking for with such deep
+anxiety.
+
+"Don't you deceive me, Crochard?" asked the lawyer, who alone had been
+able to conceal all he felt.
+
+"You may take my head if I lie!"
+
+Did he tell the truth? The lawyer thought he did; for, turning to
+Daniel, he asked,--
+
+"Do you know anybody by the name of Chevassat, M. Champcey?"
+
+"No. It is the first time in my life I hear that name."
+
+"Perhaps that Chevassat was only an agent," suggested the doctor.
+
+"Yes, that may be," replied the lawyer; "although, in such matters,
+people generally do their own work."
+
+And, continuing his examination, he asked the accused,--
+
+"Who is this Justin Chevassat?"
+
+"One of my friends."
+
+"A friend richer than yourself, I should think?"
+
+"As to that--why, yes; since he has always plenty of money in his
+pockets, dresses in the last fashion, and drives his carriage."
+
+"What is he doing? What is his profession?"
+
+"Ah! as to that, I know nothing about it. I never asked him, and he
+never told me. I once said to him, 'Do you know you look like a
+prodigiously lucky fellow?' And he replied, 'Oh, not as much so as you
+think;' but that is all."
+
+"Where does he live?"
+
+"In Paris, Rue Louis, 39."
+
+"Do you write to him there? For I dare say you have written to him
+since you have been in Saigon."
+
+"I send my letters to M. X. O. X. 88."
+
+It became evident now, that, so far from endeavoring to save his
+accomplices, Crochard, surnamed Bagnolet, would do all he could to aid
+justice in discovering them. He began to show the system which the
+wretch was about to adopt,--to throw all the responsibility and all
+the odium of the crime on the man who had hired him, and to appear the
+poor devil, succumbing to destitution when he was tempted and dazzled
+by such magnificent promises, that he had not the strength to resist.
+The lawyer continued,--
+
+"Where and how did you make the acquaintance of this Justin
+Chevassat?"
+
+"I made his acquaintance at the galleys."
+
+"Ah! that is becoming interesting. And do you know for what crime he
+had been condemned?"
+
+"For forgery, I believe, and also for theft."
+
+"And what was he doing before he was condemned?"
+
+"He was employed by a banker, or perhaps as cashier in some large
+establishment. At all events, he had money to handle; and it stuck to
+his fingers."
+
+"I am surprised, as you are so well informed with regard to this man's
+antecedents, that you should know nothing of his present means of
+existence."
+
+"He has money, plenty of money; that is all I know."
+
+"Have you lost sight of him?"
+
+"Why, yes. Chevassat was set free long before I was. I believe he was
+pardoned; and I had not met him for more than fifteen years."
+
+"How did you find him again?"
+
+"Oh! by the merest chance, and a very bad chance for me; since, but
+for him, I would not be here."
+
+
+
+                                XXVI.
+
+Never would a stranger who should have suddenly come into Daniel's
+chamber, upon seeing Crochard's attitude, have imagined that the
+wretch was accused of a capital crime, and was standing there before a
+magistrate, in presence of the man whom he had tried three times to
+assassinate.
+
+Quite at home in the law, as far as it was studied at the galleys, he
+had instantly recognized that his situation was by no means so
+desperate as he had at first supposed; that, if the jury rendered a
+verdict of guilty of death, it would be against the instigator of the
+crime, and that he would probably get off with a few years' penal
+servitude.
+
+Hence he had made up his mind about his situation with that almost
+bestial indifference which characterizes people who are ready for
+everything, and prepared for everything. He had recovered from that
+stupor which the discovery of his crime had produced in him, and from
+the rage in which he had been thrown by the loss of his bank-notes.
+Now there appeared, under the odious personage of the murderer, the
+pretentious and ridiculous orator of the streets and prisons, who is
+accustomed to make himself heard, and displays his eloquence with
+great pride.
+
+He assumed a studied position; and it was evident that he was
+preparing himself for his speech, although, afterwards, a good many
+words escaped him which are found in no dictionary, but belong to the
+jargon of the lowest classes, and serve to express the vilest
+sentiments.
+
+"It was," he began, "a Friday, an unlucky day,--a week, about, before
+'The Conquest' sailed. It might have been two o'clock. I had eaten
+nothing; I had not a cent in my pockets and I was walking along the
+boulevards, loafing, and thinking how I could procure some money.
+
+"I had crossed several streets, when a carriage stopped close to me;
+and I saw a very fine gentleman step out, a cigar in his mouth, a gold
+chain across his waistcoat, and a flower in his buttonhole. He entered
+a glove-shop.
+
+"At once I said to myself, 'Curious! I have seen that head somewhere.'
+
+"Thereupon, I go to work, and remain fixed to the front of the shop, a
+little at the side, though, you know, at a place where, without being
+seen myself, I could very well watch my individual, who laughed and
+talked, showing his white teeth, while a pretty girl was trying on a
+pair of gloves. The more I looked at him, the more I thought,
+'Positively, Bagnolet, although that sweet soul don't look as if he
+were a member of your society, you know him.'
+
+"However, as I could not put a name to that figure, I was going on my
+way, when suddenly my memory came back to me, and I said, '/Cretonne/,
+it is an old comrade. I shall get my dinner.'
+
+"After all, I was not positively sure; because why? Fifteen years make
+a difference in a man, especially when he does not particularly care
+to be recognized. But I had a little way of my own to make the thing
+sure.
+
+"I waited, therefore, for my man; and, at the moment when he crossed
+the sidewalk to get into his carriage, I stepped up, and cried out,
+though not very loud, 'Eh, Chevassat!'
+
+"The scamp! They might have fired a cannon at his ear, and he would
+not have jumped as he did when I spoke to him. And white he was,--as
+white as his collar. But, nevertheless, he was not without his
+compass, the screw. He puts up his eyeglass, and looks at me up and
+down; and then he says in his finest manner, 'What is it, my good
+fellow? Do you want to speak to me?'
+
+"Thereupon, quite sure of my business now, I say, 'Yes, to you, Justin
+Chevassat. Don't you recall me? Evariste Crochard, surnamed Bagnolet;
+eh? Do you recollect now?' However, the gentleman continued to hold
+his head high, and to look at me. At last he says, '/If/ you do not
+clear out, I will call a policeman.' Well, the mustard got into my
+nose, and I began to cry, to annoy him, so as to collect a crowd,--
+
+"'What, what! Policemen, just call them, please do! They will take us
+before a magistrate. If I am mistaken, they won't hang me; but, if I
+am not mistaken, they will laugh prodigiously. What have I to risk?
+Nothing at all; for I have nothing.'
+
+"I must tell you, that, while I said all this, I looked at him fixedly
+with the air of a man who has nothing in his stomach, and who is bent
+upon putting something into it. He also looked at me fixedly; and, if
+his eyes had been pistols--but they were not. And, when he saw I was
+determined, the fine gentleman softened down.
+
+"'Make no noise,' he whispered, looking with a frightened air at all
+the idlers who commenced to crowd around us. And pretending to laugh
+very merrily,--for the benefit of the spectators, you know,--he said,
+speaking very low and very rapidly,--
+
+"'In the costume that you have on, I cannot ask you to get into my
+carriage; that would only compromise us both uselessly. I shall send
+my coachman back, and walk home. You can follow quietly; and, when we
+get into a quiet street, we will take a cab, and talk.'
+
+"As I was sure I could catch him again, if he should try to escape, I
+approved the idea. 'All right. I understand.'"
+
+The magistrate suddenly interrupted the accused. He thought it of
+great importance that Crochard's evidence should be written down, word
+for word; and he saw, that, for some little while, the clerk had been
+unable to follow.
+
+"Rest a moment, Crochard," he said.
+
+And when the clerk had filled up what was wanting, and the magistrate
+had looked it over, he said to the prisoner,--
+
+"Now you can go on, but speak more slowly."
+
+The wretch smiled, well pleased. This permission gave him more time to
+select his words, and this flattered his vanity; for even the lowest
+of these criminals have their weak point, in which their vanity is
+engaged.
+
+"Don't let your soup get cold," he continued. "Chevassat said a few
+words to his coachman, who whipped the horse, and there he was,
+promenading down the boulevard, turning his cane this way, puffing out
+big clouds of smoke, as if he had not the colic at the thought that
+his friend Bagnolet was following on his heels.
+
+"I ought to say that he had lots of friends, very genteel friends, who
+wished him good-evening as they passed him. There were some even who
+stopped him, shook hands with him, and offered to treat him; but he
+left them all promptly, saying, 'Excuse me, pray, I am in a hurry.'
+
+"Why, yes, he was in a hurry; and I who was behind him, and saw and
+heard it all, I laughed in my sleeve most heartily."
+
+Whatever advantage there may be in not interrupting a great talker,
+who warms up as he talks, and consequently forgets himself, the
+magistrate became impatient.
+
+"Spare us your impressions," he said peremptorily.
+
+This was not what Crochard expected. He looked hurt, and went on
+angrily,--
+
+"In fine, my individual goes down the boulevard as far as the opera,
+turns to the right, crosses the open square, and goes down the first
+street to the left. Here a cab passes; he hails it; orders the driver
+to take /us/ to Vincennes. We get in; and his first care is to let
+down the curtains. Then he looks at me with a smile, holds out his
+hand, and says, 'Well, old man! how are you?'
+
+"At first, when I saw myself so well received, I was quite overcome.
+Then reflecting, I thought, 'It is not natural for him to be so soft.
+He is getting ready for some trick. Keep your eyes open, Bagnolet.'
+
+"'Then you are not angry that I spoke to you; eh?' He laughs, and
+says, 'No.'
+
+"Then I, 'However, you hadn't exactly a wedding-air when I spoke to
+you, and I thought you were looking for a way to get rid of me
+unceremoniously.' But he said very seriously, 'Look here, I am going
+to talk to you quite openly! For a moment I was surprised; but I was
+not annoyed. I have long foreseen something of the kind would happen;
+and I know that every time I go out I run the risk of meeting a former
+comrade. You are not the first who has recognized me, and I am
+prepared to save myself all annoyance. If I wanted to get rid of you,
+this very evening you would have lost all trace of me, thanks to a
+little contrivance I have arranged. Besides, as you are in Paris
+without leave, before twenty-four hours are over, you would /be/ in
+jail.' He told me all this so calmly, that I felt it was so, and that
+the scamp had some special trick.
+
+"'Then,' I said, 'you rather like meeting an old friend, eh?'
+
+"He looked me straight in the face and replied, 'Yes; and the proof of
+it is, that if you were not here, sitting at my side, and if I had
+known where to find you, I should have gone in search of you. I have
+something to do for you.'"
+
+Henceforth Bagnolet had reason to be satisfied.
+
+Although the magistrate preserved his impassive appearance, Daniel and
+the chief surgeon listened with breathless attention, feeling that the
+prisoner had come to the really important part of his confession, from
+which, no doubt, much light would be obtained. Lefloch himself
+listened with open mouth; and one could follow on his ingenuous
+countenance all the emotions produced by the recital of the criminal,
+who, but for him, would probably have escaped justice.
+
+"Naturally," continued Crochard, "when he talked of something to do, I
+opened my ears wide. 'Why,' I said, 'I thought you had retired from
+business.' And I really thought he had. 'You are mistaken,' he
+replied. 'Since I left that place you know of, I have been living
+nicely. But I have not put anything aside; and if an accident should
+happen to me, which I have reason to fear, I would be destitute.'
+
+"I should have liked very much to know more; but he would not tell me
+anything else concerning himself; and I had to give him my whole
+history since my release. Oh! that was soon done. I told him how
+nothing I had undertaken had ever succeeded; that, finally, I had been
+a waiter in a drinking-shop; that they had turned me out; and that for
+a month now I had been walking the streets, having not a cent, no
+clothes, no lodgings, and no bed but the quarries.
+
+"'Since that is so,' he said, 'you shall see what a comrade is.' I
+ought to say that the cab had been going all the time we were talking,
+and that we were out in the suburbs now. My Chevassat raised the blind
+to look out; and, as soon as he saw a clothing store, he ordered the
+driver to stop there. The driver did so; and then Chevassat said to
+me, 'Come, old man, we'll begin by dressing you up decently.' So we
+get out; and upon my word, he buys me a shirt, trousers, a coat, and
+everything else that was needful; he pays for a silk hat, and a pair
+of varnished boots. Farther down the street was a watchmaker. I
+declare he makes me a present of a gold watch, which I still have, and
+which they seized when they put me in jail. Finally, he has spent his
+five hundred francs, and gives me eighty francs to boot, to play the
+gentleman.
+
+"You need not ask if I thanked him, when we got back into the cab.
+After such misery as I had endured, my morals came back with my
+clothes. I would have jumped into the fire for Chevassat. Alas! I
+would not have been so delighted, if I had known what I should have to
+pay for all this; for in the first place"--
+
+"Oh, go on!" broke in the lawyer; "go on!"
+
+Not without some disappointment, Crochard had to acknowledge that
+everything purely personal did not seem to excite the deepest
+interest. He made a face, full of spite, and then went on, speaking
+more rapidly,--
+
+"All these purchases had taken some time; so that it was six o'clock,
+and almost dark, when we reached Vincennes. A little before we got
+into the town, Chevassat stopped the cab, paid the driver, sends him
+back, and, taking me by the arm, says, 'You must be hungry: let us
+dine.'
+
+"So we first absorb a glass of absinthe; then he carries me straight
+to the best restaurant, asks for a private room, and orders a dinner.
+Ah, but a dinner! Merely to hear it ordered from the bill of fare made
+my mouth water.
+
+"We sit down; and I, fearing nothing, would not have changed places
+with the pope. And I talked, and I ate, and I drank; I drank, perhaps,
+most; for I had not had anything to drink for a long time; and,
+finally, I was rather excited. Chevassat seemed to have unbuttoned,
+and told me lots of funny things which set me a-laughing heartily. But
+when the coffee had been brought, with liquors in abundance, and
+cigars at ten cents apiece, my individual rises, and pushes the latch
+in the door; for there was a latch.
+
+"Then he comes back, and sits down right in front of me, with his
+elbows on the table. 'Now, old man,' he says, 'we have had enough
+laughing and talking. I am a good fellow, you know; but you understand
+that I am not treating you for the sake of your pretty face alone. I
+want a good stout fellow; and I thought you might be the man.'
+
+"Upon my word, he told me that in such a peculiar way, that I felt as
+if somebody had kicked me in the stomach; and I began to be afraid of
+him. Still I concealed my fears, and said, 'Well, let us see; go it!
+What's the row?'
+
+"At once he replies, 'As I told you before, I have not laid up a cent.
+But if anything should happen to a certain person whom I think of, I
+should be rich; and you--why, you might be rich too, if you were
+willing to give him a little push with the elbow, so that the thing
+might happen to him a little sooner.'"
+
+Earnestly bent upon the part which he had to play for the sake of
+carrying out his system of defence, the prisoner assumed more and more
+hypocritical repentance, an effort which gave to his wicked face a
+peculiarly repulsive expression.
+
+The magistrate, however, though no doubt thoroughly disgusted with
+this absurd comedy, did not move a muscle of his face, nor make a
+gesture, anxious, as he was, not to break the thread of this important
+deposition.
+
+"Ah, sir!" exclaimed Crochard, his hand upon his heart, "when I heard
+Chevassat talk that way, my heart turned within me, and I said,
+'Unfortunate man, what do you mean? I should commit a murder? Never!
+I'd rather die first!' He laughed, and replied, 'Don't be a fool; who
+talks to you of murder? I spoke of an accident. Besides, you would not
+risk anything. The thing would happen to him abroad.' I continued,
+however, to refuse, and I spoke even of going away; when Chevassat
+seized a big knife, and said, now that I had his secret, I was bound
+to go on. If not!--he looked at me with such a terrible air, that,
+upon my word, I was frightened, and sat down again.
+
+"Then, all at once, he became as jolly again as before; and, whilst he
+kept pouring the brandy into my glass, he explained to me that I would
+be a fool to hesitate; that I could never in all my life find such a
+chance again of making a fortune; that I would most certainly succeed;
+and that then I would have an income, keep a carriage as he did, wear
+fine clothes, and have every day a dinner like the one we had just
+been enjoying together.
+
+"I became more and more excited. This lot of gold which he held up
+before my mind's eyes dazzled me; and the strong drink I had been
+taking incessantly got into my head. Then he flourished again the big
+knife before my face; and finally I did not know what I was saying or
+doing. I got up; and, striking the table with my fist, I cried out, 'I
+am your man!'"
+
+Although, probably, the whole scene never took place, except in the
+prisoner's imagination, Daniel could not help trembling under his
+cover, at the thought of these two wretches arranging for his death,
+while they were there, half drunk, glass in hand, and their elbows
+resting on a table covered with wine-stains. Lefloch, on his part,
+stood grasping the bedstead so hard with his hand, that the wood
+cracked. Perhaps he dreamed he held in his grasp the neck of the man
+who was talking so coolly of murdering his lieutenant. The lawyer and
+the doctor thought of nothing but of watching the contortions of the
+accused. He had drawn a handkerchief from his pocket, and rubbed his
+eyes hard, as if he hoped thus to bring forth a few tears.
+
+"Come, come!" said the "magistrate. "No scene!"
+
+Crochard sighed deeply, and then continued in a tearful tone,--
+
+"They might cut me to pieces, and I would not be able to say what
+happened after that. I was dead drunk, and do not recollect a thing
+any more. From what Chevassat afterwards told me, I had to be carried
+to the carriage; and he took me to a hotel in the suburb, where he
+hired a lodging for me. When I woke the next day, a little before
+noon, my head was as heavy as lead; and I tried to recall what had
+happened at the restaurant, and if it was not perhaps merely the bad
+wine that had given me the nightmare.
+
+"Unfortunately, it was no dream; and I soon found that out, when a
+waiter came up and brought me a letter. Chevassat wrote me to come to
+his house, and to breakfast with him for the purpose of talking
+business.
+
+"Of course I went. I asked the concierge where M. Justin Chevassat
+lives in the house; and he directs me to go to the second floor, on
+the right hand. I go up, ring the bell; a servant opens the door; I
+enter, and find, in an elegant apartment, my brigand in a dressing-
+gown, stretched out on a sofa. On the way I had made up my mind to
+tell him positively that he need not count upon me; that the thing was
+a horror to me; and that I retracted all I had said. But, as soon as I
+began, he became perfectly furious, calling me a coward and a traitor,
+and telling me that I had no choice but to make my fortune, or to
+receive a blow with the big knife between my shoulders. At the same
+time he spread out before me a great heap of gold. Then, yes, then I
+was weak. I felt I was caught. Chevassat frightened me; the gold
+intoxicated me. I pledged my word; and the bargain was made."
+
+As he said this, Crochard, surnamed Bagnolet, sighed deeply and
+noisily, like a man whose heart has been relieved of a grievous
+burden. He really felt prodigiously relieved. To have to confess
+everything on the spot, without a moment's respite to combine a plan
+of apology, was a hard task. Now, the wretch had stood this delicate
+and dangerous trial pretty well, and thought he had managed cleverly
+enough to prepare for the day of his trial a number of extenuating
+circumstances. But the magistrate hardly gave him time to breathe.
+
+"Not so fast," he said: "we are not done yet. What were the conditions
+which you and Chevassat agreed upon?"
+
+"Oh! very simple, sir. I, for my part, said yes to everything he
+proposed. He magnetized me, I tell you, that man! We agreed,
+therefore, that he would pay me four thousand francs in advance, and
+that, after the accident, he would give me six thousand certain, and a
+portion of the sum which he would secure."
+
+"Thus you undertook, for ten thousand francs, to murder a man?"
+
+"I thought"--
+
+"That sum is very far from those fabulous amounts by which you said
+you had been blinded and carried away."
+
+"Pardon me! There was that share in the great fortune."
+
+"Ah! You knew very well that Chevassat would never have paid you
+anything."
+
+Crochard's hands twitched nervously. He cried out,--
+
+"Chevassat cheat me! /cochonnere/! I would have--but no; he knows me;
+he would never have dared"--
+
+The magistrate had caught the prisoner's eye, and, fixing him sternly,
+he said good-naturedly,--
+
+"Why did you tell me, then, that that man magnetized you, and
+frightened you out of your wits?"
+
+The wretch had gone into the snare, and, instead of answering, hung
+his head, and tried to sob.
+
+"Repentance is all very well," said the lawyer, who did not seem to be
+in the least touched; "but just now it would be better for you to
+explain how your trip to Cochin China was arranged. Come, collect
+yourself, and give us the details."
+
+"As to that," he resumed his account, "you see Chevassat explained to
+me everything at breakfast; and the very same day he gave me the
+address which you found on the paper in which the bank-notes were
+wrapped up."
+
+"What did he give you M. Champcey's address for?"
+
+"So that I might know him personally."
+
+"Well, go on."
+
+"At first, when I heard he was a lieutenant in the navy, I said I must
+give it up, knowing as I did that with such men there is no trifling.
+But Chevassat scolded me so terribly, and called me such hard names,
+that I finally got mad, and promised everything.
+
+"'Besides,' he said to me, 'listen to my plan. The navy department
+wants mechanics to go to Saigon. They have not gotten their full
+number yet: so you go and offer yourself. They will accept you, and
+even pay your journey to Rochefort: a boat will carry you out to the
+roadstead on board the frigate "Conquest." Do you know whom you will
+find on board? Our man, Lieut. Champcey. Well, now, I tell you! that
+if any accident should happen to him, either during the voyage, or at
+Saigon, that accident will pass unnoticed, as a letter passes through
+the post-office.'
+
+"Yes, that's what he told me, every word of it; and I think I hear him
+now. And I--I was so completely bewildered, that I had nothing to say
+in return. However, there was one thing which troubled me; and I
+thought, 'Well, after all, they won't accept me at the navy
+department, with my antecedents.'
+
+"But, when I mentioned the difficulty to Chevassat, he laughed. Oh,
+but he laughed! it made me mad.
+
+"'You are surely more of a fool than I thought,' he said. 'Are your
+condemnations written on your face? No, I should say. Well, as you
+will exhibit your papers in excellent order, they will take you.'
+
+"I opened my eyes wide, and said, 'That's all very pretty, what you
+say; but the mischief is, that, as I have not worked at my profession
+for more than fifteen years, I have no papers at all.' He shrugs his
+shoulders, and says, 'You shall have your papers.' That worries me;
+and I reply, 'If I have to steal somebody's papers, and change my
+name, I won't do it.' But the brigand had his notions. 'You shall keep
+your name,' he said, touching me on the shoulder. 'You shall always
+remain Crochard, surnamed Bagnolet; and you shall have your papers as
+engraver on metal as perfect as anybody can have them.'
+
+"And, to be sure, the second day after that he gave me a set of
+papers, signatures, seals, all in perfect order."
+
+"The papers found in your room, you mean?" asked the lawyer.
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"Where did Chevassat get them?"
+
+"Get them? Why, he had made them himself. He can do anything he
+chooses with his pen, the scamp! If he takes it into his head to
+imitate your own handwriting, you would never suspect it."
+
+Daniel and the old surgeon exchanged glances. This was a strong and
+very important point in connection with the forged letter that had
+been sent to the navy department, and claimed to be signed by Daniel
+himself. The magistrate was as much struck by the fact as they were;
+but his features remained unchanged; and, pursuing his plan in spite
+of all the incidents of the examination, he asked,--
+
+"These papers caused no suspicion?"
+
+"None whatever. I had only to show them, and they accepted me.
+Besides, Chevassat said he would enlist some people in my behalf;
+perhaps I had been specially recommended."
+
+"And thus you sailed?"
+
+"Yes. They gave me my ticket, some money for travelling expenses; and,
+five days after my meeting with Chevassat, I was on board 'The
+Conquest.' Lieut. Champcey was not there. Ah! I began to hope he would
+not go out on the expedition at all. Unfortunately, he arrived forty-
+eight hours afterwards, and we sailed at once."
+
+The marvellous coolness of the wretch showed clearly under his
+affected trouble; and, while it confounded Daniel and the old surgeon,
+it filled the faithful Lefloch with growing indignation. He spoke of
+this abominable plot, of this assassination which had been so
+carefully plotted, and of the price agreed upon, and partly paid in
+advance, as if the whole had been a fair commercial operation.
+
+"Now, Crochard," said the lawyer, "I cannot impress it too strongly on
+your mind, how important it is for your own interests that you should
+tell the truth. Remember, all your statements will be verified. Do you
+know whether Chevassat lives in Paris under an assumed name?"
+
+"No, sir! I have always heard him called Chevassat by everybody."
+
+"What? By everybody?"
+
+"Well, I mean his concierge, his servants."
+
+The magistrate seemed for a moment to consider how he should frame his
+next question; and then he asked, all of a sudden,--
+
+"Suppose that the--accident, as you call it, had succeeded, you would
+have taken ship; you would have arrived in France; you reach Paris;
+how would you have found Chevassat to claim your six thousand francs?"
+
+"I should have gone to his house, where I breakfasted with him; and,
+if he had left, the concierge would have told me where he lived now."
+
+"Then you really think you saw him at his own rooms? Consider. If you
+left him only for a couple of hours, between the time when you first
+met him and the visit you paid him afterwards, he might very well have
+improvised a new domicile for himself."
+
+"Ah! I did not lie, sir. When dinner was over, I had lost my
+consciousness, and I did not get wide awake again till noon on the
+next day. Chevassat had the whole night and next morning."
+
+Then, as a suspicion suddenly flashed through Crochard's mind, he
+exclaimed,--
+
+"Ah, the brigand! Why did he urge me never to write to him otherwise
+than 'to be called for'?"
+
+The magistrate had turned to his clerk.
+
+"Go down," he said, "and see if any of the merchants in town have a
+Paris Directory."
+
+The clerk went off like an arrow, and appeared promptly back again
+with the volume in question. The magistrate hastened to look up the
+address given by the prisoner, and found it entered thus: "/Langlois/,
+sumptuous apartments for families and single persons. Superior
+attendance."
+
+"I was almost sure of it," he said to himself.
+
+Then handing Daniel the paper on which the words "University" and
+"Street" could be deciphered, he asked,--
+
+"Do you know that handwriting, M. Champcey?"
+
+Too full of the lawyer's shrewd surmises to express any surprise,
+Daniel looked at the words, and said coolly,--
+
+"That is Maxime de Brevan's handwriting."
+
+A rush of blood colored instantly the pale face of Crochard. He was
+furious at the idea of having been duped by his accomplice, by the
+instigator of the crime he had committed, and for which he would
+probably never have received the promised reward.
+
+"Ah, the brigand!" he exclaimed. "And I, who was very near not
+denouncing him at all!"
+
+A slight smile passed over the lawyer's face. His end had been
+attained. He had foreseen this wrath on the part of the prisoner; he
+had prepared it carefully, and caused it to break out fully; for he
+knew it would bring him full light on the whole subject.
+
+"To cheat me, me!" Crochard went on with extraordinary vehemence,--"to
+cheat a friend, an old comrade! Ah the rascal! But he sha'n't go to
+paradise, if I can help it! Let them cut my throat, I don't mind it; I
+shall be quite content even, provided I see his throat cut first."
+
+"He has not even been arrested yet."
+
+"But nothing is easier than to catch him, sir. He must be uneasy at
+not hearing from me; and I am sure he is going every day to the post-
+office to inquire if there are no letters yet for M. X. O. X. 88. I
+can write to him. Do you want me to write to him? I can tell him that
+I have once more missed it, and that I have been caught even, but that
+the police have found out nothing, and that they have set me free
+again. I am sure, after that, the scamp will keep quiet; and the
+police will have nothing to do but to take the omnibus, and arrest him
+at his lodgings."
+
+The magistrate had allowed the prisoner to give free vent to his fury,
+knowing full well by experience how intensely criminals hate those of
+their accomplices by whom they find themselves betrayed. And he was in
+hopes that the rage of this man might suggest a new idea, or furnish
+him with new facts. When he saw he was not likely to gain much, he
+said,--
+
+"Justice cannot stoop to such expedients." Then he added, seeing how
+disappointed Crochard looked,--
+
+"You had better try and recollect all you can. Have you forgotten or
+concealed nothing that might assist us in carrying out this
+examination?"
+
+"No; I think I have told you every thing."
+
+"You cannot furnish any additional evidence of the complicity of
+Justin Chevassat, of his efforts to tempt you to commit this crime, or
+of the forgery he committed in getting up a false set of papers for
+you?"
+
+"No! Ah, he is a clever one, and leaves no trace behind him that could
+convict him. But, strong as he is, if we could be confronted in court,
+I'd undertake, just by looking at him, to get the truth out of him
+somehow."
+
+"You shall be confronted, I promise you."
+
+The prisoner seemed to be amazed.
+
+"Are you going to send for Chevassat?" he asked.
+
+"No. You will be sent home, to be tried there."
+
+A flash of joy shone in the eyes of the wretch. He knew the voyage
+would not be a pleasant one; but the prospect of being tried in France
+was as good as an escape from capital punishment to his mind. Besides,
+he delighted in advance in the idea of seeing Chevassat in court,
+seated by his side as a fellow-prisoner.
+
+"Then," he asked again, "they will send me home?"
+
+"On the first national vessel that leaves Saigon."
+
+The magistrate went and sat down at the table where the clerk was
+writing, and rapidly ran his eye over the long examination, seeing if
+anything had been overlooked. When he had done, he said,--
+
+"Now give me as accurate a description of Justin Chevassat as you
+can."
+
+Crochard passed his hand repeatedly over his forehead; and then, his
+eyes staring at empty space, and his neck stretched out, as if he saw
+a phantom which he had suddenly called up, he said,--
+
+"Chevassat is a man of my age; but he does not look more than twenty
+seven or eight. That is what made me hesitate at first, when I met him
+on the boulevard. He is a handsome fellow, very well made, and wears
+all his beard. He looks clever, with soft eyes; and his face inspires
+confidence at once."
+
+"Ah! that is Maxime all over," broke in Daniel.
+
+And, suddenly remembering something, he called Lefloch. The sailor
+started, and almost mechanically assumed the respectful position of a
+sailor standing before his officer.
+
+"Lieutenant?" he said.
+
+"Since I have been sick, they have brought part of my baggage here;
+have they not?"
+
+"Yes, lieutenant, all of it."
+
+"Well. Go and look for a big red book with silver clasps. You have no
+doubt seen me look at it often."
+
+"Yes, lieutenant; and I know where it is."
+
+And he immediately opened one of the trunks that were piled up in a
+corner of the room, and took from it a photograph album, which, upon a
+sign from Daniel, he handed to the lawyer.
+
+"Will you please," said Daniel at the same time, "ask the prisoner,
+if, among the sixty or seventy portraits in that book, he knows any
+one?"
+
+The album was handed to Crochard, surnamed Bagnolet, who turned over
+leaf after leaf, till all of a sudden, and almost beside himself, he
+cried out,--
+
+"Here he is, Justin Chevassat! Oh! that's he, no doubt about it."
+
+Daniel could, from his bed, see the photograph, and said,--
+
+"That is Maxime's portrait."
+
+After this decisive evidence, there could be no longer any doubt that
+Justin Chevassat and Maxime de Brevan were one and the same person.
+The investigation was complete, as far as it could be carried on in
+Saigon; the remaining evidence had to be collected in Paris. The
+magistrate directed, therefore, the clerk to read the deposition; and
+Crochard followed it without making a single objection. But when he
+had signed it, and the gendarmes were about to carry him off again,
+and to put on the handcuffs, he asked leave to make an addition. The
+magistrate assented; and Crochard said,--
+
+"I do not want to excuse myself, nor to make myself out innocent; but
+I do not like, on the other hand, to seem worse than I am."
+
+He had assumed a very decided position, and evidently aimed at giving
+to his words an expression of coarse but perfect frankness.
+
+"The thing which I had undertaken to do, it was not in my power to do.
+It has never entered my head to kill a man treacherously. If I had
+been a brute, such as these are, the lieutenant would not be there,
+wounded to be sure, but alive. Ten times I might have done his
+business most effectively; but I did not care. I tried in vain to
+think of Chevassat's big promises; at the last moment, my heart always
+failed me. The thing was too much for me. And the proof of it is, that
+I missed him at ten yards' distance. The only time when I tried it
+really in earnest was in the little boat, because there, I ran some
+risk; it was like a duel, since my life was as much at stake as the
+lieutenant's. I can swim as well as anybody, to be sure; but in a
+river like the Dong-Nai, at night, and with a current like that, no
+swimmer can hold his own. The lieutenant got out of it; but I was very
+near being drowned. I could not get on land again until I had been
+carried down two miles or more; and, when I did get on shore, I sank
+in the mud up to my hips. Now, I humbly beg the lieutenant's pardon;
+and you shall see if I am going to let Chevassat escape."
+
+Thereupon he held out his hands for the handcuffs, with a theatrical
+gesture, and left the room.
+
+
+
+                                XXVII.
+
+In the meantime, the long, trying scene had exhausted Daniel; and he
+lay there, panting, on his bed. The surgeon and the lawyer withdrew,
+to let him have some rest.
+
+He certainly needed it; but how could he sleep with the fearful idea
+of his Henrietta--she whom he loved with his whole heart--being in the
+hands of this Justin Chevassat, a forger, a former galley-slave, the
+accomplice and friend of Crochard, surnamed Bagnolet?
+
+"And I myself handed her over to him!" he repeated for the thousandth
+time,--"I, her only friend upon earth! And her confidence in me was so
+great, that, if she had any presentiment, she suppressed it for my
+sake."
+
+Daniel had, to be sure, a certain assurance now, that Maxime de Brevan
+would not be able to escape from justice. But what did it profit him
+to be avenged, when it was too late, long after Henrietta should have
+been forced to seek in suicide the only refuge from Brevan's
+persecution? Now it seemed to him as if the magistrate was far more
+anxiously concerned for the punishment of the guilty than for the
+safety of the victims. Blinded by passion, so as to ask for
+impossibilities, Daniel would have had this lawyer, who was so clever
+in unearthing crimes committed in Saigon, find means rather to prevent
+the atrocious crime which was now going on in France. On his part, he
+had done the only thing that could be done.
+
+At the first glimpse of reason that had appeared after his terrible
+sufferings, he had hastened to write to Henrietta, begging her to take
+courage, and promising her that he would soon be near her. In this
+letter he had enclosed the sum of four thousand francs.
+
+This letter was gone. But how long would it take before it could reach
+her? Three or four months, perhaps even more.
+
+Would it reach her in time? Might it not be intercepted, like the
+others? All these anxieties made a bed of burning coals of the couch
+of the poor wounded man. He twisted and turned restlessly from side to
+side, and felt as if he were once more going to lose his senses. And
+still, by a prodigious effort of his will, his convalescence pursued
+its normal, steady way in spite of so many contrary influences.
+
+A fortnight after Crochard's confession, Daniel could get up; he spent
+the afternoon in an arm-chair, and was even able to take a few steps
+in his chamber. The next week he was able to get down into the garden
+of the hospital, and to walk about there, leaning on the arm of his
+faithful Lefloch. And with his strength and his health, hope, also,
+began to come back; when, all of a sudden, two letters from Henrietta
+rekindled the fever.
+
+In one the poor /girl/ told him how she had lived so far on the money
+obtained from the sale of the little jewelry she had taken with her,
+but added that she was shamefully cheated, and would soon be compelled
+to seek employment of some sort in order to support herself.
+
+"I am quite sure," she said, with a kind of heartrending cheerfulness,
+"that I can earn my forty cents a day; and with that, my friend, I
+shall be as happy as a queen, and wait for your return, free from
+want."
+
+In the other she wrote,--
+
+"None of my efforts to procure work has so far succeeded. The future
+is getting darker and darker. Soon I shall be without bread. I shall
+struggle on to the last extremity, were it only not to give my enemies
+the joy of seeing me dead. But, Daniel, if you wish to see your
+Henrietta again, come back; oh, come back!"
+
+Daniel had not suffered half as much the day when the assassin's ball
+ploughed through his chest. He was evidently reading one of those last
+cries which precede agony. After these two fearful letters, he could
+only expect a last one from Henrietta,--a letter in which she would
+tell him, "All is over. I am dying. Farewell!"
+
+He sent for the chief surgeon, and said, as soon as he entered,--
+
+"I must go!"
+
+The good doctor frowned, and replied rudely,--
+
+"Are you mad? Do you know that you cannot stand up fifteen minutes?"
+
+"I can lie down in my berth."
+
+"You would kill yourself."
+
+"What of that? I would rather suffer death than what I now endure.
+Besides, I have made up my mind irrevocably! Read this, and you will
+see yourself that I cannot do otherwise."
+
+The chief surgeon took in Henrietta's last letter almost at a single
+glance; but he held it in his hand for some time, pretending to read
+it, but in reality meditating.
+
+"I am sure," the excellent man thought in his heart, "I am sure, in
+this man's place, I should do the same. But would this imprudence be
+of any use to him? No; for he could not reach the mouth of the Dong-
+Nai alive. Therefore it is my duty to keep him here: and that can be
+done, since he is as yet unable to go out alone; and Lefloch will obey
+me, I am sure, when I tell him that his master's life depends upon his
+obedience."
+
+Too wise to meet so decided a determination as Daniel's was by a flat
+refusal, he said,--
+
+"Very well, then; be it as you choose!"
+
+Only he came in again the same evening, and, with an air of
+disappointment, said to Daniel,--
+
+"To go is all very well; but there is one difficulty in the way, of
+which neither you nor I have thought."
+
+"And what is that?"
+
+"There is no vessel going home."
+
+"Really, doctor?"
+
+"Ah! my dear friend," replied the excellent man boldly, "do you think
+I could deceive you?"
+
+Evidently Daniel thought him quite capable of doing so; but he took
+good care not to show his suspicions, reserving to himself the right
+of making direct inquiries as soon as the opportunity should offer. It
+came the very next morning. Two friends of his called to see him. He
+sent Lefloch out of the room on some pretext, and then begged them to
+go down to the port, and to engage a passage for him,--no, not for
+him, but for his man, whom urgent business recalled to France.
+
+In the most eager manner the two gentlemen disappeared. They stayed
+away three hours; and, when they came back, their answer was the same
+as the doctor's. They declared they had made inquiries on all sides;
+but they were quite sure that there was not a single vessel in Saigon
+ready to sail for home. Ten other persons whom Daniel asked to do the
+same thing brought him the same answer. And yet, that very week, two
+ships sailed,--one for Havre, the other for Bordeaux. But the
+concierge of the hospital, and Lefloch, were so well drilled, that no
+visitor reached Daniel before having learned his lesson thoroughly.
+
+Thus they succeeded in keeping Daniel quiet for a fortnight; but, at
+the end of that time, he declared that he felt quite well enough to
+look out for a ship himself; and that, if he could do no better, he
+meant to sail for Singapore, where he would be sure to procure a
+passage home. It would, of course, have been simple folly to try and
+keep a man back who was so much bent upon his purpose; and, as his
+first visit to the port would have revealed to him the true state of
+things, the old surgeon preferred to make a clean breast of it. When
+he learned that he had missed two ships, Daniel was at first naturally
+very much incensed.
+
+"That was not right, doctor, to treat me thus," he exclaimed. "It was
+wrong; for you know what sacred duties call me home."
+
+But the surgeon was prepared for his justification. He replied with a
+certain solemnity which he rarely assumed,--
+
+"I have only obeyed my conscience. If I had let you set sail in the
+condition in which you were, I should have virtually sent you to your
+grave, and thus have deprived your betrothed, Miss Ville-Handry, of
+her last and only chance of salvation."
+
+Daniel shook his head sadly, and said,--
+
+"But if I get there too late, too late; by a week, a day, do you
+think, doctor, I shall not curse your prudence? And who knows, now,
+when a ship will leave?"
+
+"When? On Sunday, in five days; and that ship is 'The Saint Louis' a
+famous clipper, and so good a sailor, that you will easily overtake
+the two big three-masters that have sailed before you."
+
+Offering his hand to Daniel, he added,--
+
+"Come, my dear Champcey; don't blame an old friend who has done what
+he thought was his duty to do."
+
+Daniel was too painfully affected to pay much attention to the
+conclusive and sensible reasons alleged by the chief surgeon; he saw
+nothing but that his friends had taken advantage of his condition to
+keep him in the dark. Still he also felt that it would have been black
+ingratitude and stupid obstinacy to preserve in his heart a shadow of
+resentment. He therefore, took the hand that was offered him, and,
+pressing it warmly, replied in a tone of deep emotion,--
+
+"Whatever the future may have in store for me, doctor, I shall never
+forget that I owe my life to your devotion."
+
+As usually, when he felt that excitement was overcoming him,--a very
+rare event, to tell the truth,--the old surgeon fell back into his
+rough and abrupt manner.
+
+"I have attended you as I would have attended any one: that is my
+duty, and you need not trouble yourself about your gratitude. If any
+one owes me thanks, it is Miss Ville-Handry; and I beg you will remind
+her of it when she is your wife. And now you will be good enough to
+dismiss all those dismal ideas, and remember that you have only five
+days longer to tremble with impatience in this abominable country."
+
+He spoke easily enough of it,--five days! It was an eternity for a man
+in Daniel's state of mind. In three hours he had made all his
+preparations for his departure, arranged his business matters, and
+obtained a furlough for Lefloch, who was to go with him. At noon,
+therefore, he asked himself with terror, how he was to employ his time
+till night, when they came, and asked if he would please come over to
+the courthouse, to see the magistrate.
+
+He went at once, and found the lawyer, but so changed, that he hardly
+recognized him at first. The last mail had brought him the news of his
+appointment to a judgeship, which he had long anxiously desired, and
+which would enable him to return, not only to France, but to his
+native province. He meant to sail in a frigate which was to leave
+towards the end of the month, and in which Crochard, also, was to be
+sent home.
+
+"In this way," he said, "I shall arrive at the same time as the
+accused, and very soon after the papers, which were sent home last
+week; and I trust and hope I shall be allowed to conduct the trial of
+an affair, which, so far, has gone smoothly enough in my hands."
+
+His impassive air was gone; and that official mask was laid aside,
+which might have been looked upon as much a part of his official
+costume as the black gown which was lying upon one of his trunks. He
+laughed, he rubbed his hands, and said,--
+
+"I should take pleasure in having him in my court, this Justin
+Chevassat, alias Maxime de Brevan. He must be a cool swindler, brimful
+of cunning and astuteness, familiar with all the tricks of criminal
+courts, and not so easily overcome. It will be no child's play, I am
+sure, to prove that he was the instigator of Crochard's crimes, and
+that he has hired him with his own money. Ah! There will be lively
+discussions and curious incidents."
+
+Daniel listened, quite bewildered.
+
+"He, too," he thought. "Professional enthusiasm carries him away; and
+here he is, troubling himself about the discussions in court, neither
+less nor more than Crochard, surnamed Bagnolet. He thinks only of the
+honor he will reap for having handed over to the jury such a
+formidable rascal as"--
+
+But the lawyer had not sent for Daniel to speak to him of his plans
+and his hopes. Having learned from the chief surgeon that Lieut.
+Champcey was on the point of sailing, he wished to tell him that he
+would receive a very important packet, which he was desired to hand to
+the court as soon as he reached Paris.
+
+"This is, you understand," he concluded, "an additional precaution
+which we take to prevent Maxime de Brevan from escaping us."
+
+It was five o'clock when Daniel left the court-house; and on the
+little square before it he found the old surgeon, waiting to carry him
+off to dinner, and a game of whist in the evening. So, when he
+undressed at night, he said to himself,--
+
+"After all, the day has not been so very long!"
+
+But to-morrow, and the day after to-morrow, and the next days!
+
+He tried in vain to get rid of the fixed idea which filled his mind,--
+a mechanical instinct, so to say, which was stronger than his will,
+and drove him incessantly to the wharf where "The Saint Louis" was
+lying. Sitting on some bags of rice, he spent hour after hour in
+watching the cargo as it was put on board. Never had the Annamites and
+the Chinamen, who in Saigon act as stevedores, appeared to him so
+lazy, so intolerable. Sometimes he felt as if, seeing or guessing his
+impatience, they were trying to irritate him by moving the bales with
+the utmost slowness, and walking with unbearable laziness around with
+the windlass.
+
+Then, when he could no longer bear the sight, he went to the cafe on
+the wharf, where the captain of "The Saint Louis" was generally to be
+found.
+
+"Your men will never finish, captain," he said. "You will never be
+ready by Sunday."
+
+To which the captain invariably replied in his fierce Marseilles
+accent,--
+
+"Don't be afraid, lieutenant. 'The Saint Louis,' I tell you, beats the
+Indian mail in punctuality."
+
+And really, on Saturday, when he saw his passenger come as usual to
+the cafe, the captain exclaimed,--
+
+"Well, what did I tell you? We are all ready. At five o'clock I get my
+mail at the post-office; and to-morrow morning we are off. I was just
+going to send you word that you had better sleep on board."
+
+That evening the officers of "The Conquest," gave Daniel a farewell
+dinner; and it was nearly midnight, when, after having once more
+shaken hands most cordially with the old chief surgeon, he took
+possession of his state-room, one of the largest on board ship, in
+which they had put up two berths, so that, in case of need, Lefloch
+might be at hand to attend his master.
+
+Then at last, towards four o'clock in the morning, Daniel was aroused
+by the clanking of chains, accompanied by the singing of the sailors.
+He hastened on deck. They were getting up anchors; and, an hour after
+that, "The Saint Louis" went down the Dong-Nai, aided by a current,
+rushing along "like lightning."
+
+"And now," said Daniel to Lefloch, "I shall judge, by the time it will
+take us to get home, if fortune is on my side."
+
+Yes, fate, at last, declared for him. Never had the most
+extraordinarily favorable winds hastened a ship home as in this case.
+"The Saint Louis" was a first-class sailer; and the captain,
+stimulated by the presence of a navy lieutenant, always exacted the
+utmost from his ship; so that on the seventeenth day after they had
+left Saigon, on a fine winter afternoon, Daniel could see the hills
+above Marseilles rise from the blue waters of the Mediterranean. He
+was drawing near the end of the voyage and of his renewed anxieties.
+Two days more, and he would be in Paris, and his fate would be
+irrevocably fixed.
+
+But would they let him go on shore that evening? He trembled as he
+thought of all the formalities which have to be observed when a ship
+arrives. The quarantine authorities might raise difficulties, and
+cause a delay.
+
+Standing by the side of the captain, he was watching the masts, which
+looked as if they were loaded down with all the sails they could
+carry, when a cry from the lookout in the bow of the vessel attracted
+his attention. That man reported, at two ship's lengths on starboard,
+a small boat, like a pilot-boat, making signs of distress. The captain
+and Daniel exchanged looks of disappointment. The slightest delay in
+the position in which they were, and at a season when night falls so
+suddenly, deprived them of all hope of going on shore that night. And
+who could tell how long it would take them to go to the rescue of that
+boat?
+
+"Well, never mind!" said Daniel. "We have to do it."
+
+"I wish they were in paradise!" swore the captain.
+
+Nevertheless, he ordered all that was necessary to slacken speed, and
+then to tack so as to come close upon the little boat.
+
+It was a difficult and tedious manoeuvre; but at last, after half an
+hour's work, they could throw a rope into the boat.
+
+There were two men in it, who hastened to come on the deck of the
+clipper. One was a sailor of about twenty, the other a man of perhaps
+fifty, who looked like a country gentleman, appeared ill at ease, and
+cast about him restless glances in all directions. But, whilst they
+were hoisting themselves up by the man-rope; the captain of "The Saint
+Louis" had had time to examine their boat, and to ascertain that it
+was in good condition, and every thing in it in perfect order.
+
+Crimson with wrath, he now seized the young sailor by his collar; and,
+shaking him so roughly as nearly to disjoint his neck, he said with a
+formidable oath,--
+
+"Are you making fun of me? What wretched joke have you been playing?"
+
+Like their captain, the men on board, also, had discovered the perfect
+uselessness of the signals of distress which had excited their
+sympathy; and their indignation was great at what they considered a
+stupid mystification. They surrounded the sailor with a threatening
+air, while he struggled in the captain's hand, and cried in his
+Marseilles jargon,--
+
+"Let go! You are smothering me! It is not my fault. It was the
+gentleman there, who hired my boat for a sail. I, I would not make the
+signal; but"--
+
+Nevertheless, the poor fellow would probably have experienced some
+very rough treatment, if the "gentleman" had not come running up, and
+covered him with his own body, exclaiming,--
+
+"Let that poor boy go! I am the only one to blame!"
+
+The captain, in a great rage, pushed him back, and, looking at him
+savagely, said,--
+
+"Ah! so it is you who have dared"--
+
+"Yes, I did it. But I had my reasons. This is surely 'The Saint
+Louis,' eh, coming from Saigon?"
+
+"Yes. What next?"
+
+"You have on board Lieut. Champcey of the navy?"
+
+Daniel, who had been a silent witness of the scene, now stepped
+forward, very much puzzled.
+
+"I am Lieut. Champcey, sir," he said. "What do you desire?"
+
+But, instead of replying, the "gentleman" raised his hands to heaven
+in a perfect ecstasy of joy, and said in an undertone,--
+
+"We triumph at last!"
+
+Then, turning to Daniel and the captain, he said,--
+
+"But come, gentlemen, come! I must explain my conduct; and we must be
+alone for what I have to tell you."
+
+Pale, and with every sign of seasickness in his face, when he had
+first appeared on deck, the man now seemed to have recovered, and, in
+spite of the rolling of the vessel, followed the captain and Daniel
+with a firm step to the quarter-deck. As soon as they were alone, he
+said,--
+
+"Could I be here, if I had not used a stratagem? Evidently not. And
+yet I had the most powerful interest in boarding 'The Saint Louis'
+before she should enter port; therefore I did not hesitate."
+
+He drew from his pocket a sheet of paper, simply folded twice, and
+said,--
+
+"Here is my apology, Lieut. Champcey; see if it is sufficient."
+
+Utterly amazed, the young officer read,--
+
+
+ "I am saved, Daniel; and I owe my life to the man who will hand you
+  this. I shall owe to him the pleasure of seeing you again. Confide
+  in him as you would in your best and most devoted friend; and, I
+  beseech you, do not hesitate to follow his advice literally.
+
+ "Henrietta."
+
+
+Daniel turned deadly pale, and tottered. This unexpected, intense
+happiness overcame him.
+
+"Then--it is true--she is alive?" he stammered.
+
+"She is at my sister's house, safe from all danger."
+
+"And you, sir, you have rescued her?"
+
+"I did!"
+
+Prompt like thought, Daniel seized the man's hands, and, pressing them
+vehemently, exclaimed with a penetrating voice,--
+
+"Never, sir, never, whatever may happen, can I thank you enough. But
+remember, I pray you, under all circumstances, and for all times, you
+can count upon Lieut. Champcey."
+
+A strange smile played on the man's lips; and, shaking his head, he
+said, "I shall before long remind you of your promise, lieutenant."
+
+Standing between the two men, the captain of "The Saint Louis" was
+looking alternately at the one and the other with an astonished air,
+listening without comprehending, and imagining marvellous things. The
+only point he understood was this, that his presence was, to say the
+least, not useful.
+
+"If that is so," he said to Daniel, "we cannot blame this gentleman
+for the ugly trick he has played us."
+
+"Blame him? Oh, certainly not!"
+
+"Then I'll leave you. I believe I have treated the sailor who brought
+him on board a little roughly; but I am going to order him a glass of
+brandy, which will set him right again."
+
+Thereupon the captain discreetly withdrew; while Papa Ravinet
+continued,--
+
+"You will tell me, M. Champcey, that it would have been simpler to
+wait for you in port, and hand you my letter of introduction there.
+That would have been grievous imprudence. If I heard at the navy
+department of your arrival, others may have learned it as well. As
+soon, therefore, as 'The Saint Louis' was telegraphed in town, you may
+be sure a spy was sent to the wharf, who is going to follow you, never
+losing sight of you, and who will report all your goings and your
+doings."
+
+"What does it matter?"
+
+"Ah! do not say so, sir! If our enemies hear of our meeting, you see,
+if they only find out that we have conversed together, all is lost.
+They would see the danger that threatens them, and they would escape."
+
+Daniel could hardly trust his ears.
+
+"Our enemies?" he asked, emphasizing the word "our."
+
+"Yes: I mean /our/ enemies,--Sarah Brandon, Countess Ville-Handry,
+Maxime de Brevan, Thomas Elgin, and Mrs. Brian."
+
+"You hate them?"
+
+"If I hate them! I tell you for five years I have lived only on the
+hope of being able to avenge myself on them. Yes, it is five years
+now, that, lost in the crowd, I have followed them with the
+perseverance of an Indian,--five years that I have patiently,
+incessantly, inch by inch, undermined the ground beneath their steps.
+And they suspect nothing. I doubt whether they are aware of my
+existence. No, not even-- What would it be to them, besides? They have
+pushed me so far down into the mud, that they cannot imagine my ever
+rising again up to their level. They triumph with impunity; they boast
+of their unpunished wickedness, and think they are strong, and safe
+from all attacks, because they have the prestige and the power of
+gold. And yet their hour is coming. I, the wretched man, who have been
+compelled to hide, and to live on my daily labor,--I have attained my
+end. Every thing is ready; and I have only to touch the proud fabric
+of their crimes to make it come down upon them, and crush them all
+under the ruins. Ah! if I could see them only suffer one-fourth of
+what they have made me suffer, I should die content."
+
+Papa Ravinet seemed to have grown a foot; his hatred convulsed his
+placid face; his voice trembled with rage; and his yellow eyes shone
+with ill-subdued passion.
+
+Daniel wondered, and asked himself what the people who had sworn to
+ruin him and Henrietta could have done to this man, who looked so
+inoffensive with his bright-flowered waistcoat and his coat with the
+high collar.
+
+"But who are you, sir?" he asked.
+
+"Who am I?" exclaimed the man,--"who am I?"
+
+But he paused; and, after waiting a little while, he sunk his head,
+and said,--
+
+"I am Anthony Ravinet, dealer in curiosities."
+
+The clipper was in the meantime making way rapidly. Already the white
+country houses appeared on the high bluffs amid the pine-groves; and
+the outlines of the Castle of If were clearly penned on the deep blue
+of the sky.
+
+"But we are getting near," exclaimed Papa Ravinet; "and I must get
+back into my boat. I did not come out so far, that they might see me
+enter on board 'The Saint Louis.'"
+
+And when Daniel offered him his state-room, where he might remain in
+concealment, he replied,--
+
+"No, no! We shall have time enough to come to an understanding about
+what is to be done in Paris; and I must go back by rail to-night; I
+came down for the sole purpose of telling you this. Miss Henrietta is
+at my sister's house; but you must take care not to come there.
+Neither Sarah nor Brevan know what has become of her; they think she
+has thrown herself into the river; and this conviction is our safety
+and our strength. As they will most assuredly have you watched, the
+slightest imprudence might betray us."
+
+"But I must see Henrietta, sir."
+
+"Certainly; and I have found the means for it. Instead of going to
+your former lodgings, go to the Hotel du Louvre. I will see to it that
+my sister and Miss Ville-Handry shall have taken rooms there before
+you reach Paris; and you may be sure, that, in less than a quarter of
+an hour after your arrival, you will hear news. But, heavens, how near
+we are! I must make haste."
+
+Upon Daniel's request, the ship lay by long enough to allow Papa
+Ravinet and his sailor to get back again into their boat without
+danger. When they were safely stowed away in it, and at the moment
+when they cast off the man-rope, Papa Ravinet called to Daniel,--
+
+"We shall soon see you! Rely upon me! Tonight Miss Henrietta shall
+have a telegram from us."
+
+
+
+                               XXVIII.
+
+At the same hour when Papa Ravinet, on the deck of "The Saint Louis,"
+was pressing Daniel's hand, and bidding him farewell, there were in
+Paris two poor women, who prayed and watched with breathless
+anxiety,--the sister of the old dealer, Mrs. Bertolle, the widow; and
+Henrietta, the daughter of Count Ville-Handry. When Papa Ravinet had
+appeared the evening before, with his carpet-bag in his hand, his
+hurry had been so extraordinary, and his excitement so great, that one
+might have doubted his sanity. He had peremptorily asked his sister
+for two thousand francs; had made Henrietta write in all haste a
+letter of introduction to Daniel; and had rushed out again like a
+tempest, as he had come in, without saying more than this,--
+
+"M. Champcey will arrive, or perhaps has already arrived, in
+Marseilles, on board a merchant vessel, 'The Saint Louis.' I have been
+told so at the navy department. It is all important that I should see
+him before anybody else. I take the express train of quarter past
+seven. To-morrow, I'll send you a telegram."
+
+The two ladies asked for something more, a hope, a word; but no,
+nothing more! The old dealer had jumped into the carriage that had
+brought him, before they had recovered from their surprise; and they
+remained there, sitting before the fire, silent, their heads in their
+hands, each lost in conjectures. When the clock struck seven, the good
+widow was aroused from her grave thoughts, which seemed so different
+from her usual cheerful temper.
+
+"Come, come, Miss Henrietta," she said with somewhat forced gayety,
+"my brother's departure does not condemn us, as far as I know, to
+starve ourselves to death."
+
+She had gotten up as she said this. She set the table, and then sat
+down opposite to Henrietta, to their modest dinner. Modest it was,
+indeed, and still too abundant. They were both too much overcome to be
+able to eat; and yet both handled knife and fork, trying to deceive
+one another. Their thoughts were far away, in spite of all their
+efforts to keep them at home, and followed the traveller.
+
+"Now he has left," whispered Henrietta as it struck eight.
+
+"He is on his way already," replied the old lady.
+
+But neither of them knew anything of the journey from Paris to
+Marseilles. They were ignorant of the distances, the names of the
+stations, and even of the large cities through which the railroad
+passes.
+
+"We must try and get a railway guide," said the good widow. And, quite
+proud of her happy thought, she went out instantly, hurried to the
+nearest bookstore, and soon reappeared, flourishing triumphantly a
+yellow pamphlet, and saying,--
+
+"Now we shall see it all, my dear child."
+
+Then, placing the guide on the tablecloth between them, they looked
+for the page containing the railway from Paris to Lyons and
+Marseilles, then the train which Papa Ravinet was to have taken; and
+they delighted in counting up how swiftly the "express" went, and all
+the stations where it stopped.
+
+Then, when the table was cleared, instead of going industriously to
+work, as usually, they kept constantly looking at the clock, and,
+after consulting the book, said to each other,--
+
+"He is at Montereau now; he must be beyond Sens; he will soon be at
+Tonnerre."
+
+A childish satisfaction, no doubt, and very idle. But who of us has
+not, at least once in his life, derived a wonderful pleasure, or
+perhaps unspeakable relief from impatience, or even grief, from
+following thus across space a beloved one who was going away, or
+coming home? Towards midnight, however, the old lady remarked that it
+was getting late, and that it would be wise to go to bed.
+
+"You think you will sleep, madam?" asked Henrietta, surprised.
+
+"No, my child; but"--
+
+"Oh! I, for my part,--/I/ could not sleep. This work on which we are
+busy is very pressing, you say; why could we not finish it?"
+
+"Well, let us sit up then," said the good widow.
+
+The poor women, reduced as they were to conjectures by Papa Ravinet's
+laconic answers, nevertheless knew full well that some great event was
+in preparation, something unexpected, and yet decisive. What it was,
+they did not know; but they understood, or rather felt, that Daniel's
+return would and must totally change the aspect of affairs. But would
+Daniel really come?
+
+"If he does come," said Henrietta, "why did they only the other day
+tell me, at the navy department, that he was not coming? Then, again,
+why should he come home in a merchant vessel, and not on board his
+frigate?"
+
+"Your letters have probably reached him at last," explained the old
+lady; "and, as soon as he received them, he came home."
+
+Gradually, however, after having exhausted all conjectures, and after
+having discussed all contingencies, Henrietta became silent. When it
+struck half-past three, she said once more,--
+
+"Ah! M. Ravinet is at the Lyons station now."
+
+Then her hand became less and less active in drawing the worsted, her
+head oscillated from side to side, and her eyelids closed
+unconsciously. Her old friend advised her to retire; and this time she
+did not refuse.
+
+It was past ten o'clock when she awoke; and upon entering, fully
+dressed, into the sitting-room, Mrs. Bertolle greeted her with the
+exclamation:--
+
+"At this moment my brother reaches Marseilles!"
+
+"Ah! then it will not be long before we shall have news," replied
+Henrietta.
+
+But there are moments in which we think electricity the slowest of
+messengers. At two o'clock nothing had come; and the poor women began
+to accuse the old dealer of having forgotten them, when, at last, the
+bell was rung.
+
+It was really the telegraph messenger, with his black leather pouch.
+The old lady signed her receipt with marvellous promptness; and,
+tearing the envelope hastily open, she read,--
+
+
+  Marseilles, 12.40 a.m.
+
+  "Saint Louis" signalled by telegraph this morning. Will be in
+  to-night. I hire boat to go and meet her, provided Champcey is on
+  board. This evening telegram.
+
+  Ravinet.
+
+
+"But this does not tell us any thing," said Henrietta, terribly
+disappointed. "Just see, madam, /your/ brother is not even sure
+whether M. Champcey is on board 'The Saint Louis.'"
+
+Perhaps Mrs. Bertolle, also, was a little disappointed; but she was
+not the person to let it be seen.
+
+"But what did you expect, dear child? Anthony has not been an hour in
+Marseilles; how do you think he can know? We must wait till the
+evening. It is only a matter of a few hours."
+
+She said this very quietly; but all who have ever undergone the
+anguish of expectation will know how it becomes more and more
+intolerable as the moment approaches that is to bring the decision.
+However the old lady endeavored to control her excitement, the calm
+and dignified woman could not long conceal the nervous fever that was
+raging within her. Ten times during the afternoon she opened the
+window, to look for--what? She could not have told it herself, as she
+well knew nothing could come as yet. At night she could not stay in
+any one place. She tried in vain to work on her embroidery; her
+fingers refused their service.
+
+At last, at ten minutes past nine, the telegraph man appeared, as
+impassive as ever.
+
+This time it was Henrietta who had taken the despatch; and, before
+opening it, she had half a minute's fearful suspense, as if the paper
+had contained the secret of her fate. Then, by a sudden impulse,
+tearing the envelope, she read, almost at a glance,--
+
+
+  Marseilles, 6.45 p.m.
+
+  I have seen Champcey. All well; devoted to Henrietta. Return this
+  evening. Will be in Paris tomorrow evening at seven o'clock.
+  Prepare your trunks as if you were to start on a month's journey
+  immediately after my return. All is going well.
+
+
+Pale as death, and trembling like a leaf, but with open lips and
+bright eyes, Henrietta had sunk into a chair. Up to this moment she
+had doubted every thing. Up to this hour, until she held the proof in
+her hand, she had not allowed herself to hope. Such great happiness
+does not seem to the unhappy to be intended for them. But now she
+stammered out,--
+
+"Daniel is in France! Daniel! Nothing more to fear; the future is
+ours. I am safe now."
+
+But people do not die of joy; and, when she had recovered her
+equanimity, Henrietta understood how cruel she had been in the
+incoherent phrases that had escaped her in her excitement. She rose
+with a start, and, seizing Mrs. Bertolle's hands, said to her,--
+
+"Great God! what am I saying! Ah, you will pardon me, madam, I am
+sure; but I feel as if I did not know what I am doing. Safe! I owe it
+to you and your brother, if I am safe. Without you Daniel would find
+nothing of me but a cross at the cemetery, and a name stained and
+destroyed by infamous calumnies."
+
+The old lady did not hear a word. She had picked up the despatch, had
+read it; and, overcome by its contents, had sat down near the
+fireplace, utterly insensible to the outside world. The most fearful
+hatred convulsed her ordinarily calm and gentle features; and pale,
+with closed teeth, and in a hoarse voice, she said over and over
+again,--
+
+"We shall be avenged."
+
+Most assuredly Henrietta did not find out only now that the old dealer
+and his sister hated her enemies, Sarah Brandon and Maxime de Brevan,
+mortally; but she had never seen that hatred break out so terribly as
+to-night. What had brought it about? This she could not fathom. Papa
+Ravinet, it was evident, was not a nobody. Ill-bred and coarse in
+Water Street, amid the thousand articles of his trade, he became a
+very different man as soon as he reached his sister's house. As to the
+Widow Bertolle, she was evidently a woman of superior intellect and
+education.
+
+How had they both been reduced to this more than modest condition? By
+reverses of fortune. That accounts for everything, but explains
+nothing.
+
+Such were Henrietta's thoughts, when the old lady roused her from her
+meditations.
+
+"You saw, my dear child," she began saying, "that my brother desires
+us to be ready to set out on a long journey as soon as he comes home."
+
+"Yes, madam; and I am quite astonished."
+
+"I understand; but, although I know no more than you do of my
+brother's intentions, I know that he does nothing without a purpose.
+We ought, therefore, in prudence, comply with his wishes."
+
+They agreed, therefore, at once on their arrangements; and the next
+day Mrs. Bertolle went out to purchase whatever might be necessary,--
+ready-made dresses for Henrietta, shoes, and linen. Towards five
+o'clock in the afternoon, all the preparations of the old lady and the
+young girl had been made; and all their things were carefully stowed
+away in three large trunks. According to Papa Ravinet's despatch, they
+had only about two hours more to wait, three hours at the worst. Still
+they were out of their reckoning. It was half-past eight before the
+good man arrived, evidently broken down by the long and rapid journey
+which he had just made.
+
+"At last!" exclaimed Mrs. Bertolle. "We hardly expected you any longer
+to-night."
+
+But he interrupted her, saying,--
+
+"Oh, my dear sister! don't you think I suffered when I thought of your
+impatience? But it was absolutely necessary I should show myself in
+Water Street."
+
+"You have seen Mrs. Chevassat?"
+
+"I come from her just now. She is quite at her ease. I am sure she has
+not the slightest doubt that Miss Ville-Handry has killed herself; and
+she goes religiously every morning to the Morgue."
+
+Henrietta shuddered.
+
+"And M. de Brevan?" she asked.
+
+Papa Ravinet looked troubled.
+
+"Ah, I don't feel so safe there," he replied. "The man I had left in
+charge of him has foolishly lost sight of him."
+
+Then noticing the trunks, he said,--
+
+"But I am talking, and time flies. You are ready, I see. Let us go. I
+have a carriage at the door. We can talk on the way."
+
+When he noticed some reluctance in Henrietta's face, he added with a
+kindly smile,--
+
+"You need not fear anything, Miss Henrietta; we are not going away
+from M. Champcey, very far from it. Here, you see, he could not have
+come twice without betraying the secret of your existence."
+
+"But where are we going?" asked Mrs. Bertolle.
+
+"To the Hotel du Louvre, dear sister, where you will take rooms for
+Mrs. and Miss Bertolle. Be calm; my plans are laid."
+
+Thereupon, he ran out on the staircase to call the concierge to help
+him in taking down the trunks.
+
+Although the manoeuvres required by Papa Ravinet's appearance on board
+"The Saint Louis" had taken but little time, the delay had been long
+enough to prevent the ship from going through all the formalities that
+same evening. She had, therefore, to drop anchor at some distance from
+the harbor, to the great disgust of the crew, who saw Marseilles all
+ablaze before them, and who could count the wineshops, and hear the
+songs of the half-drunken people as they walked down the wharves in
+merry bands.
+
+The least unhappy of them all was, for once, Daniel. The terrible
+excitement he had undergone had given way to utter prostration. His
+nerves, strained to the utmost, relaxed; and he felt the delight of a
+man who can at last throw down a heavy burden which he has long borne
+on his shoulders. Papa Ravinet had given him no details; but he did
+not regret it, he hardly noticed it. He knew positively that his
+Henrietta was alive; that she was in safety; and that she still loved
+him. That was enough.
+
+"Well, lieutenant," said Lefloch, delighted at his master's joy, "did
+I not tell you? Good wind during the passage always brings good news
+upon landing."
+
+That night, while "The Saint Louis" was rocking lazily over her
+anchors, was the first night, since Daniel had heard of Count Ville-
+Handry's marriage, that he slept with that sweet sleep given by hope.
+He was only aroused by the noise of the people who came in the
+quarantine boat; and, when he came on deck, he found that there was
+nothing any longer to prevent his going on shore. The men had been
+actively engaged ever since early in the morning, to set things right
+aloft and below, so as to "dress" "The Saint Louis;" for every ship,
+when it enters port, is decked out gayly, and carefully conceals all
+traces of injuries she has suffered, like the carrier-pigeon, which,
+upon returning to his nest after a storm, dries and smooths his
+feathers in the sun.
+
+Soon the anchors were got up again; and the great clock on the wharf
+struck twelve, when Daniel jumped on the wharf at Marseilles, followed
+by his faithful man, and dazzled by the most brilliant sunlight. Ah!
+when he felt his foot once more standing on the soil of France, whence
+a vile plot had driven him long ago, his eyes flashed, and a
+threatening gesture boded ill to his enemies. It looked as if he were
+saying to them,--
+
+"Here I am, and my vengeance will be terrible!"
+
+Neither his joy nor his excitement, however, could make him forget the
+apprehensions of Papa Ravinet, although he thought they were
+eccentric, and very much exaggerated. That a spy should be waiting for
+him in the harbor, concealed in this busy, noisy crowd, to follow his
+track, and report his minutest actions,--this seemed to him, if not
+impossible, at least very improbable.
+
+Nevertheless, he determined to ascertain the fact. Instead, therefore,
+of simply following the wharf, of going up Canebiere Street, and
+turning to the right on his way to the Hotel du Luxembourg, he went
+through several narrow streets, turning purposely every now and then.
+When he reached the hotel, he was compelled to acknowledge that the
+old dealer had acted wisely.
+
+A big fellow, dark complexioned, and wicked looking, had followed the
+same route as he, always keeping some thirty yards behind him. The man
+who thus watched him, with his nose in the air and his hands in his
+pockets, hardly suspected the danger which he ran by practising his
+profession within reach of Lefloch. The idea of being tracked put the
+worthy sailor into a red-hot fury; and he proposed nothing less than
+to "run foul" of the spy, and make an end of him for good.
+
+"I can do it in a second," he assured his master. "I just go up to
+him, without making him aware of my presence. /I/ seize him by his
+cravat; I give him two turns, like that--and good-night. He won't
+track anybody again."
+
+Daniel had to use all his authority to keep him back, and found it
+still harder to convince him of the necessity to let the scamp not
+know that he had been discovered.
+
+"Besides," he added, "it is not proved yet that we are really watched;
+it may be merely a curious coincidence."
+
+"That may be so," growled Lefloch.
+
+But they could no longer doubt, when, just before dinner, as they
+looked out of the window, they saw the same man pass the hotel. At
+night they saw him again at the depot; and he took the same express
+train of 9.45 for Paris, in which they went. They recognized him in
+the refreshment-room at Lyons. And the first person they saw as they
+got out at Paris was the same man.
+
+But Daniel did not mind the spy. He had long since forgotten him. He
+thought of nothing but the one fact that he was in the same town now
+with Henrietta. Too impatient to wait for his trunks, he left Lefloch
+in charge, and jumped into a cab, promising the driver two dollars if
+he would go as fast as he could to the Hotel du Louvre. For such pay,
+the lean horses of any cab become equal to English thoroughbreds; and
+in three-quarters of an hour Daniel was installed in his room at the
+hotel, and waited with anxiety the return of the waiter. Now that he
+was really here, a thousand doubts assailed him: "Had he understood
+Papa Ravinet correctly? Had the good old man given him the right
+directions? Might they not, excited as they both were, have easily
+made a mistake?"
+
+"In less than a quarter of an hour after your arrival," Papa Ravinet
+had said to Daniel, "you shall have news."
+
+Less than a quarter of an hour! It seemed to Daniel as if he had been
+an eternity in this room. Thinking that Henrietta might possibly
+occupy a room on the same floor with him, on the same side of the
+house, that he might even be separated from her only by a partition-
+wall, he felt like cursing Papa Ravinet, when there came a knock at
+the door.
+
+"Come in!" he cried.
+
+A waiter appeared, and handed him a visiting-card, on which was
+written, "Mrs. Bertolle, third story. No. 5."
+
+As the waiter did not instantly disappear, Daniel said almost
+furiously,--
+
+"Did I not tell you it was all right?"
+
+He did not want the man to see his excitement, the most intense
+excitement he had ever experienced in all his life. His hands shook;
+he felt a burning sensation in his throat; his knees gave way under
+him. He looked at himself in the glass, and was startled; he looked
+deadly pale.
+
+"Am I going to be ill? " he thought.
+
+On the table stood a carafe with water. He filled a large glass, and
+drank it at one draught; this made him feel better, and he went out.
+But, once outside, he was so overcome, that he lost his way in the
+long passages and interminable staircases, in spite of the directions
+hung up at every turn, and had finally to ask a waiter, who pointed
+out a door which he had passed half a dozen times, and said,--
+
+"That is No. 5."
+
+He knocked gently, and the door opened instantly, as if somebody had
+been standing behind it, ready to open it promptly. As he entered, he
+tottered, and, almost in a mist, saw on his right side Papa Ravinet
+and an old lady, then, farther back, near the window, Henrietta.
+
+He uttered a cry, and went forward. But as quickly she bounded to meet
+him, casting both arms around his neck, and leaning upon his bosom,
+sobbing and stammering,--
+
+"Daniel, Daniel! At last!"
+
+
+
+                                XXIX.
+
+It was exactly two years since Daniel and Henrietta had been parted by
+the foulest treachery,--two years since that fatal evening when the
+stupidly ironical voice of Count Ville-Handry had suddenly made itself
+heard near them under the old trees of the garden of the palace.
+
+What had not happened since then? What unheard-of, most improbable
+events; what trials, what tribulations, what sufferings! They had
+endured all that the human heart can endure. There was not a day, so
+to say, in these two years, that had not brought them its share of
+grief and sorrow. How often both of them had despaired of the future!
+How many times they had sighed for death!
+
+And yet, after all these storms, here they were reunited once more, in
+unspeakable happiness, forgetting every thing,--their enemies and the
+whole world, the anxieties of the past, and the uncertainty of the
+future.
+
+They remained thus for a long time, holding each other closely,
+overcome with happiness, unable, as yet, to believe in the reality for
+which they had sighed so long, unable to utter a word, laughing and
+weeping in one breath.
+
+Now and then they would move apart a little, throwing back the head in
+order the better to look at each other; then swiftly they would fold
+each other again closely in their arms, as if they were afraid they
+might be separated anew.
+
+"How they love each other!" whispered Mrs. Bertolle in her brother's
+ear,--"the poor young people!"
+
+And big tears rolled down her cheeks, while the old dealer, not less
+touched, but showing his emotion differently, closed his hands
+fiercely, and said,--
+
+"All right, all right! They will have to pay for everything."
+
+Daniel, in the meantime, was recovering himself gradually; and reason
+once more got the better of his feelings. He led Henrietta to an arm-
+chair at the corner of the fireplace, and sitting down in front of
+her, after having taken her hands in his own, he asked her to give him
+a faithful account of the two terrible years that had just come to an
+end.
+
+She had to tell him everything,--her humiliations in her father's
+house, the insults she had endured, the wicked slanders by which her
+honor had been tainted, the incomprehensible blindness of the count,
+the surly provocations of her step-mother, the horrible attentions of
+Sir Thorn; in fine, the whole abominable plot which had been formed,
+as she found out too late, for the purpose of driving her to seek
+safety in flight, and to give herself up to Maxime de Brevan.
+
+Trembling with rage, livid, his eyes bloodshot, Daniel suddenly let go
+Henrietta's hands, and exclaimed in a half-smothered voice,--
+
+"Ah, Henrietta! your father deserved-- Wretched old man! to abandon
+his child to the mercy of such miserable wretches!"
+
+And, when the poor girl looked at him imploringly, he replied,--
+
+"Be it so! I will say nothing more of the count. He is your father,
+and that is enough."
+
+Then he added coldly,--
+
+"But that M. Thomas Elgin, I swear by God he shall die by my hand; and
+as to Sarah Brandon"--
+
+He was interrupted by the old dealer, who tapped him lightly on the
+shoulder, and said with an indescribable smile,--
+
+"You shall not do that honor to the Hon. M. Elgin, M. Champcey. People
+like him do not die by the sword of honest men."
+
+In the meantime Henrietta had resumed her history, and spoke of her
+surprise and amazement when she reached that bare room in Water
+Street, with its scanty second-hand furniture.
+
+"And yet, Henrietta," here broke in Daniel, "I had handed that man all
+my money to be placed at your disposal in case of any accident."
+
+"What!" exclaimed the old dealer, "you had"--
+
+He did not finish, but looked at the young officer with an utterly
+amazed air, as if he were an improbable phenomenon, never seen before.
+
+Daniel shook his head sadly.
+
+"Yes," he said, "I know it was an insane thing. But it was less insane
+than to intrust my betrothed to his care. I believed in the friendship
+of that man."
+
+"And besides," remarked Mrs. Bertolle, "how could you suppose such
+atrocious treachery? There are crimes which honest hearts never even
+conceive."
+
+Henrietta continued, describing her sensations when she found herself
+for the first time in her life harassed by want, destitution, hunger.
+But, when she came to the disgusting ill-treatment she received at the
+hands of the concierge's wife, Daniel cried out,--
+
+"Stop!"
+
+And, fearfully excited, he asked her,--
+
+"Did I hear right? Did you say the concierge of that house in Water
+Street, and his wife, were called Chevassat?"
+
+"Yes, why?"
+
+"Because Maxime de Brevan's real name is Justin Chevassat."
+
+Papa Ravinet started up as if he had been shot.
+
+"What," he said, "you know that?"
+
+"I learned it three months ago. I also know that my friend, the proud
+nobleman, Maxime de Brevan, who has been received in the most
+aristocratic /salons/ of Paris, has been a galley-slave, condemned for
+forgery."
+
+Henrietta had risen, filled with terror.
+
+"Then," she stammered, "this wretched man was"--
+
+"Chevassat's son; yes, madam," replied Mrs. Bertolle.
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed the poor girl, "oh!"
+
+And she fell heavily back into her chair, overcome by this discovery.
+The old dealer alone preserved his calm appearance.
+
+"How did you learn that?" he asked Daniel.
+
+"Through the man whom my friend Maxime had hired to murder me."
+
+Positively this threatened to be too much for Henrietta's mind.
+
+"Ah! I thought the mean coward would try to get you out of the way,
+Daniel. I wrote to you to be careful."
+
+"And I received your letter, my darling, but too late. After having
+missed me twice, the assassin fired at me; and I was in my bed, a ball
+in my chest, dying."
+
+"What has become of the murderer?" asked Papa Ravinet.
+
+"He was arrested."
+
+"Then he confessed?"
+
+"Yes, thanks to the astonishing cleverness of the magistrate who
+carried on the investigation."
+
+"What has become of him?"
+
+"He has left Saigon by this time. They have sent him home to be tried
+here."
+
+"And Brevan?"
+
+"I am surprised he has not yet been arrested. The papers in the case
+were sent to Paris by a vessel which left a fortnight before I left.
+To be sure, 'The Saint Louis' may have gotten ahead of her. At all
+events, I have in my keeping a letter to the court."
+
+Papa Ravinet seemed to be almost delirious with joy. He gesticulated
+like a madman; he laughed nervously, and almost frightfully, till his
+sides shook; and at last he said,--
+
+"I shall see Brevan on the scaffold! Yes, I shall!"
+
+But from that moment there was an end of that logical order which the
+old gentleman had so far kept up. As it always happens with people who
+are under the influence of some passion, eager to learn what they do
+not know, and little disposed to tell what they do know, confusion
+prevailed soon. Questions crossed each other, and followed, without
+order or connection. Answers came at haphazard. Each wanted to be
+heard; and all were speaking at once. Thus the explanations, which, by
+a little management, might have been given in twenty minutes, took
+them more than two hours.
+
+At last, after the lapse of this time, and by dint of great efforts,
+it became possible to ascertain the sum total of the information given
+by Papa Ravinet, Daniel, and Henrietta. The truth began to show itself
+in the midst of this chaos; and the plot of Sarah Brandon and her
+accomplices appeared in all its hideous outlines. A plan of striking
+simplicity, the success of which seemed to have hung upon a hair. If
+the old dealer, instead of going down by the backstairs, had taken the
+front staircase, he would never have heard Henrietta's agony, and the
+poor child would have been lost.
+
+If Crochard's ball had been a few lines nearer the heart, Daniel would
+have been killed.
+
+And still the old dealer was not quite satisfied. He hung his lip, and
+winked with his yellow eyes, as if he wished it to be understood that
+he was by no means fully convinced, and that there were certain points
+which required fuller explanation.
+
+"Look here, M. Champcey," he began at last, "the more I think of it,
+the more /I/ am convinced that Sarah Brandon had nothing to do with
+these attempts at assassination, which so nearly made an end of you.
+She is too strong in her perversity to stoop to such coarse means,
+which always leave traces behind, and finally lead to a court of
+justice. She always acts alone, when her mind is made up; and her
+accomplices aid her only unconsciously, so that they can never betray
+her."
+
+Daniel had been thoughtful.
+
+"What you tell me," he answered, "I was told before by M. de Brevan."
+
+The old gentleman did not seem to hear him, so intensely did he apply
+all the faculties of his mind to the problem before him.
+
+"Still," he continued, "there is no doubt about the manner in which
+Crochard, surnamed Bagnolet, was employed. Could Brevan have done so
+without Sarah's knowledge, and perhaps even contrary to her wishes?"
+
+"That is quite possible; but then why should he have done so?"
+
+"To secure to himself the fortune which M. Champcey had so imprudently
+intrusted to him," said Henrietta.
+
+But Papa Ravinet shook his head, looking very wise, and said,--
+
+"That is one explanation. I do not say no to it; but it is not the
+true one yet. Murder is so dangerous an expedient, that even the
+boldest criminals only resort to it in the last extremity, and
+generally very much against their inclination. Could not Brevan have
+possessed himself of M. Champcey's property without a murder? Of
+course, he could.
+
+"Then we must look for another motive. You may say, it was fear which
+drove him to it. No; for at the time when he engaged Crochard, he
+could not foresee the atrocious outrages of which he would have become
+guilty during the succeeding year. Believe my experience; I discern in
+the whole affair a hurry and an awkwardness which betray a passion, a
+violent hatred, or, perhaps"--
+
+He stopped suddenly, and seemed to reflect and deliberate, while he
+was mechanically stroking his chin. Then all of a sudden, looking
+strangely at Daniel, he asked him,--
+
+"Could the Countess Sarah be in love with you, M. Champcey?"
+
+Daniel's face turned crimson. He had not forgotten that fatal evening,
+when, in the house in Circus Street, he had held Sarah Brandon in his
+arms; and the intoxicating delirium of that moment had left in his
+heart a bitter and undying pang of remorse. He had never dared confess
+to Henrietta that Sarah had actually come to his rooms alone. And even
+to-night, while giving very fully all the details of his passage out,
+and his residence in Saigon, he had not said a word of the letters
+which had been addressed to him by the countess.
+
+"Sarah Brandon in love with me?" he stammered. "What an idea!"
+
+But he could not tell a falsehood; and Henrietta would not have been a
+woman, if she had not noticed his embarrassment.
+
+"Why not?" she asked.
+
+And, looking fixedly at Daniel, she went on,--
+
+"That wretched woman impudently boasted to my face that she loved you;
+more than that, she swore that you, also, had loved her, and were
+still in love with her. She laughed at me contemptuously, telling me
+that she had it in her power to make you do anything she chose, and
+offering to show me your letters"--
+
+She paused a moment, turned her head aside, and said with a visible
+effort,--
+
+"Finally, M. Thomas Elgin assured me that Sarah Brandon had been your
+mistress, and that the marriage with my father took place only in
+consequence of a quarrel between you."
+
+Daniel had listened to her, trembling with indignation. He now cried
+out,--
+
+"And you could believe these false calumnies! Oh, no, no! tell me that
+there is no need for me to justify myself to"--
+
+Then turning to Papa Ravinet, he said,--
+
+"Suppose, we admit, for a moment, that she might have been in love, as
+you say, what would that prove?"
+
+The cunning old dealer remained apparently unmoved for a time; but his
+small eyes were sparkling with malicious delight and satisfaction.
+
+"Ah! you would not talk so, if you knew Sarah Brandon's antecedents as
+well as I do. Ask my sister about her and Maxime de Brevan, and she
+will tell you why I look upon that apparently trifling circumstance as
+so very important."
+
+Mrs. Bertolle made a sign that she assented; and he, sure, henceforth,
+that his sagacity had not been at fault, continued,--
+
+"Pardon me, M. Champcey, if I insist, and especially if I do so in
+Miss Henrietta's presence; but our interest, I might almost say our
+safety, requires it. Maxime de Brevan is caught, to be sure; but he is
+only a vulgar criminal; and we have, as yet, neither Thomas Elgin, nor
+Mrs. Brian, who are far more formidable, nor, above all, Sarah
+Brandon, who is a thousand times more wicked, and more guilty, than
+all the rest. You will tell me that we have ninety-nine chances out of
+a hundred on our side; maybe! Only a single, slight mistake may lead
+us altogether astray; and then there is an end to all our hopes, and
+these rascals triumph after all!"
+
+He was but too right. Daniel felt it; and hence he said, without
+hesitating any longer, but looking stealthily at Henrietta's face,--
+
+"Since that is so, I will not conceal from you that the Countess Sarah
+has written me a dozen letters of at least extraordinary nature."
+
+"You have kept them, I hope?"
+
+"Yes; they are all in one of my trunks."
+
+Papa Ravinet was evidently much embarrassed; but at last he said,--
+
+"Ah! if I might dare? But no; it would be asking too much, perhaps, to
+beg you to let me see them?"
+
+He did not know how ready Daniel was to grant the request. Ready as he
+was, to tell Henrietta everything, he could not but wish that she
+should read these letters, as she would see from them, that, if the
+countess had written to him, he had never returned an answer.
+
+"You can never ask too much, M. Ravinet," he replied. "Lefloch, my
+servant, must have come up by this time with the trunks; and, if you
+give me time to go down to my room, you shall have the letters at
+once."
+
+He was on the point of leaving the room, when the old dealer held him
+back, and said,--
+
+"Sir, you forget the man who has been following you all the way from
+Marseilles. Wait till my sister has made sure that there is nobody
+watching you."
+
+Mrs. Bertolle at once went out; but she noticed nothing suspicious,
+and found all the passages silent and deserted. The spy had probably
+gone to make his report to his employers. Daniel went down promptly;
+and, when he came back, he held in his hand a bundle of faded and
+crumpled papers, which he handed to Papa Ravinet, with the words,--
+
+"Here they are!"
+
+Strange as it may seem, when the old gentleman touched these letters,
+impregnated with the peculiar perfume affected by Sarah Brandon, he
+trembled and turned pale. Immediately, however, perhaps in order to
+conceal his embarrassment, or to be the better able to reflect, he
+took a candlestick from the mantlepiece, and sat down aside, at one of
+the small tables. Mrs. Bertolle, Daniel, and Henrietta were silent;
+and nothing broke the stillness but the rustling of the paper, and the
+old gentleman's voice as he muttered,--
+
+"This is fabulous,--Sarah writing such things! She did not even
+disguise her handwriting,--she who never committed an imprudence in
+her life; she ruins herself. And she signs her name!"
+
+But he had seen enough. He folded up the letters, and, rising again,
+said to Champcey,--
+
+"No doubt now! Sarah loves you madly, insanely. Ah! how she does love!
+Well, well, all heartless women love thus when a sudden passion
+conquers them, setting their brains and their senses on fire, and"--
+
+Daniel noticed in Henrietta's face a sign of concern; and, quite
+distressed, he beckoned to the old gentleman to say nothing more. But
+he saw nothing, full as he was of his notion, and went on,--
+
+"Now I understand. Sarah Brandon has not been able to keep her secret;
+and Brevan, seeing her love, and furious with jealousy, did not
+consider that to hire an assassin was to ruin himself."
+
+The indignation he felt had restored the blood to his face; and, as he
+struck the packet of letters with the palm of his hand, he
+exclaimed,--
+
+"Yes, all is clear now; and by this correspondence, Sarah Brandon, you
+are ours!"
+
+What could be the plan of Papa Ravinet? Did he expect to use these
+letters as weapons against her? or did he propose to send them to
+Count Ville-Handry in order to open his eyes? Daniel trembled at the
+idea; for his loyalty rebelled against such a vengeance; he felt as if
+he would have become a traitor.
+
+"You see, to use a woman's correspondence, however odious and
+contemptible she may be, would always be very repugnant to me."
+
+"I had no idea of asking such a thing of you," replied the old dealer.
+"No; it is something very different I want you to do."
+
+And, when Daniel still seemed to be embarrassed, he added,--
+
+"You ought not to give way to such exaggerated delicacy, M. Champcey.
+All weapons are fair when we are called upon to defend our lives and
+our honor against rascals; and that is where we are. If we do not
+hasten to strike Sarah Brandon, she will anticipate us; and then"--
+
+He had been leaning against the mantlepiece, close to Mrs. Bertolle,
+who sat there silent and immovable; and now he raised his head, and,
+looking attentively at Henrietta and Daniel by turns, he added,--
+
+"Perhaps you are both not exactly conscious of the position in which
+you stand. Having been reunited to-night, after such terrible trials,
+and having, both of you, escaped, almost by a miracle, from death, you
+feel, no doubt, as if all trouble was at an end, and the future was
+yours. I must undeceive you. You are precisely where you were the day
+before M. Champcey left France. You cannot any more now than at that
+time marry without Count Ville-Handry's consent. Will he give it? You
+know very well that the Countess Sarah will not let him. Will you defy
+prejudices, and proudly avow your love? Ah, have a care! If you sin
+against social conventionalities, you risk your whole happiness of
+life. Will you hide yourself, on the other hand? However careful you
+may be, the world will find you out; and fools and hypocrites will
+overwhelm you with slander. And Miss Henrietta has been too much
+calumniated already."
+
+To soar in the azure air, and suddenly to fall back into the mud on
+earth; to indulge in the sweetest of dreams, and all at once to be
+recalled to stern reality,--this is what Daniel and Henrietta endured
+at that moment. The calm, collected voice of the old dealer sounded
+cruel to them. Still he was but a sincere friend, who did his painful
+duty in awakening them from such deceptive illusions.
+
+"Now," he went on, "mind that I take everything at the best; and even
+suppose the case, that Count Ville-Handry leaves his daughter free to
+choose: would that be enough? Evidently not; for the moment Sarah
+Brandon hears that Miss Henrietta has not committed suicide, but is,
+instead, at the Hotel du Louvre, within easy reach of M. Daniel
+Champcey, she will prevail on her husband to shut his daughter up in a
+convent. For another year, Miss Henrietta is yet under paternal
+control; that is, in this case, at the mercy of a revengeful step-
+mother, who looks upon her as a successful rival."
+
+At this idea, that Henrietta might be once more taken from him, Daniel
+felt his blood chill off in his veins; and he exclaimed,--
+
+"Ah, and I never dreamed of any of these things! I was mad! Joy had
+blinded my eyes completely."
+
+But the old gentleman beckoned to him to say nothing, and with an
+almost imperious gesture went on,--
+
+"Oh, wait! I have not yet shown you the most urgent danger: Count
+Ville-Handry, who, when you knew him, had, I know not how many
+millions, is completely ruined. Of all he once owned, of his lands,
+forests, castles, deeds, and bonds, there is nothing left. His last
+cent, his last rod of land, has been taken from him. You left him
+living like a prince in his forefathers' palace: you will find him
+vegetating in the fourth story of a lodging-house. You know, that,
+being poor, he is deemed guilty. The day is drawing near when Sarah
+Brandon will get rid of him, as she has gotten rid of Kergrist, of
+Malgat the poor cashier, and others. The means are at hand. Already
+the name of Count Ville-Handry is seriously compromised. The company
+which he has established is breaking to pieces; and the papers hold
+him up to public contempt. If he cannot pay to-day, he will be
+to-morrow accused of fraudulent bankruptcy. Now, I ask you, is the
+count a man who will survive such a disgrace?"
+
+For some time Henrietta had been unable to suppress her sobs; under
+this terrible threat she broke out in loud weeping.
+
+"Ah, sir!" she said, "you have misled me. You assured me that my
+father's life was in no danger."
+
+"And I promise you still, it is not in danger. Would I be here, if I
+did not think that Sarah was not quite ready yet?"
+
+Daniel, also, had suffered terribly during this discussion; and he now
+said passionately,--
+
+"Would it not be a crime for us to think, to wait, and to calculate,
+when such great dangers are impending? Come, sir, let us go"--
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Ah, how do I know? Into court, to the count, to a lawyer who can
+advise us. There must be something that can be done."
+
+The old dealer did not stir.
+
+"Poor, honest young man!" he said with an accent of bitter irony. "And
+what could we tell the lawyer? That Sarah Brandon has made an old man,
+the Count Ville-Handry, fall madly in love with her? That is no crime.
+That she has made him marry her? That was her right. That the count
+has launched forth in speculations? She opposed it. That he understood
+nothing of business? She could not help that. That he has been duped,
+cheated, and finally ruined in two short years? Apparently she is as
+much ruined as he is. That, in order to delay the catastrophe, he has
+resorted to illegal means? She is sorry for it. That he will not
+survive the taint on his ancient name? What can she do? Sarah, who was
+able to clear herself the day after Malgat's disappearance, will not
+be at a loss now to establish her innocence."
+
+"But the count, sir, the count! Can we not go to him?"
+
+"Count Ville-Handry would say to you-- But you shall hear to-morrow
+what he will tell you."
+
+Daniel began to feel utterly dismayed.
+
+"What can be done, then? " he asked.
+
+"We must wait till we have sufficient evidence in hand to crush at one
+blow Sarah Brandon, Thorn, and Mrs. Brian."
+
+"Well; but how shall we get such evidence?"
+
+The old gentleman cast a look of intelligence at his sister, smiled,
+and said with a strange accent in his voice,--
+
+"I have collected some. As to the rest" --
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well, my dear M. Champcey, I am no longer troubled about getting
+more, since I have found out that the Countess Sarah is in love with
+you."
+
+Now Daniel began to understand the part Papa Ravinet expected him to
+play. Still he did not object; he bowed his head under the clear eye
+of Henrietta, and said in a low voice,--
+
+"I will do what you wish me to do, sir."
+
+The old gentleman uttered a low cry of delight, as if he had been
+relieved of an overwhelming anxiety.
+
+"Then," he said, "we will begin the campaign tomorrow morning. But we
+must know exactly who the enemies are whom we have to meet. Listen,
+therefore!"
+
+
+
+                                 XXX.
+
+It struck midnight; but the poor people in the little parlor in the
+Hotel du Louvre hardly thought of sleep. How could they have become
+aware of the flight of time, as long as all their faculties were bent
+upon the immense interests that were at stake? On the struggle which
+they were about to undertake depended Count Ville-Handry's life and
+honor, and the happiness and whole future life of Daniel and
+Henrietta.
+
+And Papa Ravinet and his sister had said,--"As for us, even more than
+that depends upon it." The old dealer, therefore, drew up an easy-
+chair, sat down, and began in a somewhat husky voice,--
+
+"The Countess Sarah is not Sarah Brandon, and is not an American. Her
+real name, by which she was known up to her sixteenth year, is
+Ernestine Bergot; and she was born in Paris, in the suburb of Saint
+Martin, just on the line of the corporation. To tell you in detail
+what the first years of Sarah were like would be difficult indeed.
+There are things of that kind which do not bear being mentioned. Her
+childhood might be her excuse, if she could be excused at all.
+
+"Her mother was one of those unfortunate women of whom Paris devours
+every year several thousands; who come from the provinces in wooden
+shoes, and are seen, six months later, dressed in all the fashion; and
+who live a short, gay life, which invariably ends in the hospital.
+
+"Her mother was neither better nor worse than the rest. When her
+daughter came, she had neither the sense to part with her, nor the
+courage--perhaps (who knows?) she had not the means--to mend her ways.
+Thus the little one grew up by God's mercy, but at the Devil's
+bidding, living by chance, now stuffed with sweet things, and now
+half-killed by blows, fed by the charity of neighbors, while her
+mother remained for weeks absent from her lodgings.
+
+"Four years old, she wandered through the neighborhood dressed in
+fragments of silk or velvet, with a faded ribbon in her hair, but with
+bare feet in her torn shoes, hoarse, and shivering with severe colds,
+--very much after the fashion of lost dogs, who rove around open-air
+cooking-shops,--and looking in the gutters for cents with which to buy
+fried potatoes or spoilt fruit.
+
+"At a later time she extended the circle of her excursions, and
+wandered all over Paris, in company of other children like herself,
+stopping on the boulevards, before the brilliant shops or performing
+jugglers, trying to learn how to steal from open stalls, and at night
+asking in a plaintive voice for alms in behalf of her poor sick
+father. When twelve years old she was as thin as a plank, and as green
+as a June apple, with sharp elbows and long red hands. But she had
+beautiful light hair, teeth like a young dog's, and large, impudent
+eyes. Merely upon seeing her go along, her head high with an air of
+saucy indifference, coquettish under her rags, and walking with
+elastic steps, you would have guessed in her the young Parisian girl,
+the sister of the poor 'gamin,' a thousand times more wicked than her
+brothers, and far more dangerous to society. She was as depraved as
+the worst of sinners, fearing neither God nor the Devil, nor man, nor
+anything.
+
+"However, she did fear the police.
+
+"For from them she derived the only notions of morality she ever
+possessed; otherwise, it would have been love's labor lost to talk to
+her of virtue or of duty. These words would have conveyed no meaning
+to her imagination; she knew no more about them than about the
+abstract ideas which they represent.
+
+"One day, however, her mother, who had virtually made a servant of
+her, had a praiseworthy inspiration. Finding that she had some money,
+she dressed her anew from head to foot, bought her a kind of outfit,
+and bound her as an apprentice to a dressmaker.
+
+"But it came too late.
+
+"Every kind of restraint was naturally intolerable to such a vagabond
+nature. The order and the regularity of the house in which she lived
+were a horror to her. To sit still all day long, a needle in her hand,
+appeared to her harder than death itself. The very comforts around her
+embarrassed her, and she felt as a savage would feel in tight boots.
+At the end of the first week, therefore, she ran away from the
+dressmaker, stealing a hundred francs. As long as these lasted, she
+roved over Paris. When they were spent, and she was hungry, she came
+back to her mother.
+
+"But her mother had moved away, and no one knew what had become of
+her. She was inquired after, but never found. Any other person would
+have been in despair. Not she. The same day she entered as waiter in a
+cheap coffee-house. Turned out there, she found employment in a low
+restaurant, where she had to wash up the dishes and plates. Sent away
+here, also, she became a servant in two or three other places of still
+lower character; then, at last, utterly disgusted, she determined to
+do nothing at all.
+
+"She was sinking into the gutter, she was on the point of being lost
+before she had reached womanhood, like fruit which spoils before it is
+ripe, when a man turned up who was fated to arm her for life's
+Struggle, and to change the vulgar thief into the accomplished monster
+of perversity whom you know."
+
+Here Papa Ravinet suddenly paused, and, looking at Daniel, said,--
+
+"You must not believe, M. Champcey, that these details are imaginary.
+I have spent five years of my life in tracing out Sarah's early life,
+--five years, during which I have been going from door to door, ever
+in search of information. A dealer in second-hand goods enters
+everywhere without exciting suspicion. And then I have witnesses to
+prove everything I have told you so far,--witnesses whom I shall
+summon, and who will speak whenever the necessity arises to establish
+the identity of the Countess Sarah."
+
+Daniel made no reply.
+
+Like Henrietta, even like Mrs. Bertolle, at this moment he was
+completely fascinated by the old gentleman's manner and tone. The
+latter, after having rested for a few minutes, went on,--
+
+"The man who picked up Sarah was an old German artist, painter and
+musician both, of rare genius, but a maniac, as they called him. At
+all events, he was a good, an excellent man.
+
+"One winter morning, as he was at work in his studio, he was struck by
+the strange ring in a woman's voice, which recited in the court-yard
+below a popular song. He went to the window, and beckoned the singer
+to come up. It was Sarah; and she came. The good German used often to
+speak of the deep compassion which seized him as he saw this tall girl
+of fourteen come into his studio,--a child, stained by vice already,
+thin like hunger itself, and shivering in her thin calico dress. But
+he was at the same time almost dazzled by the rich promises of beauty
+in her face, the pure notes of her superb voice, which had withstood
+so far, and the surprising intelligence beaming in her features.
+
+"He guessed what there was in her; he saw her, in his mind's eye, such
+as she was to be at twenty.
+
+"Then he asked her how she had come to be reduced to such misery, who
+she was, where her parents lived, and what they did for a living. When
+she had told him that she stood quite alone, and was dependent on no
+one, he said to her,--
+
+"'Well, if you will stay with me, I will adopt you; you shall be my
+daughter; and I will make you an eminent artist.'
+
+"The studio was warm, and it was bitterly cold outside. Sarah had no
+roof over her head, and had eaten nothing for twenty-four hours. She
+accepted.
+
+"She accepted, be it understood, not doubting, in her perversity, but
+that this kind old man had other intentions besides those he mentioned
+in offering her a home. She was mistaken. He recognized in her
+marvellous talents, and thought of nothing but of making of her a true
+marvel, which should astonish the world. He devoted himself heart and
+soul to his new favorite, with all the enthusiastic ardor of an
+artist, and all the jealous passion of an amateur.
+
+"It was a hard task, however, which he had undertaken. Sarah could not
+even read. She knew nothing, except sin.
+
+"How the old German went to work to keep this untamable vagabond at
+home, how he made her bend to his will, and submit to his lessons, no
+one will ever be able to tell. It was long a problem for me also. Some
+of the neighbors told me that he treated her harshly, beating her
+often brutally; but neither threats nor blows were apt to make an
+impression on Sarah Brandon. A friend of the old man's thought he had
+guessed the riddle: he thought the old artist had succeeded in
+arousing Sarah's pride. He had kindled in her a boundless ambition and
+the most passionate covetousness. He intoxicated her with fairylike
+hopes.
+
+"'Follow my counsels,' he used to say to her, 'and at twenty you will
+be a queen,--a queen of beauty, of wit, and of genius. Study, and the
+day will come when you will travel through Europe, a renowned artist,
+welcomed in every capital, /feted/ everywhere, honored, and glorified.
+Work, and wealth will come with fame,--immense, boundless wealth,
+surpassing all your dreams. You will have the finest carriages, the
+most magnificent diamonds; you will draw from inexhaustible purses;
+the whole world will be at your feet; and the women will turn pale
+with envy and jealousy when they see you. Among men there will be none
+so noble, none so great, none so rich, but he will beg for one of your
+looks; and they will fight for one of your smiles. Only work and
+study!'
+
+"At all events, Sarah did work, and studied with a steady perseverance
+which spoke of her faith in the promises of her old master, and of the
+influence he had obtained over her through her vanity. At first she
+had been deterred by the extreme difficulties which beset so late a
+beginning; but her amazing natural gifts had soon begun to show
+themselves, and in a short time her progress was almost miraculous.
+
+"It is true that her innate sagacity had made her soon find out how
+ignorant she was of the world. She saw that society did not
+exclusively consist, as she had heretofore imagined, of people like
+those she had known. She felt, for instance, what she had never
+suspected before, that her unfortunate mother, with all her friends
+and companions, were only the rare exceptions, laid under the ban by
+the immense majority.
+
+"At last she actually learned to know the tree of good fruit, after
+having for so many years known only the tree of forbidden fruit. She
+listened with eager curiosity to all the old artist had to tell her.
+And he knew much; for the eccentric old man had travelled for a long
+time over the world, and observed man on every step of the social
+ladder. He had been a favorite artist at the court of Vienna; he had
+had several of his operas brought out in Italy; and he had been
+admitted to the best society in Paris. At night, therefore, while
+sipping his coffee, his feet on the andirons, and his long pipe in his
+mouth, he would soon forget himself amid the recollections of his
+youth. He described to her the splendor of courts, the beauty of
+women, the magnificence of their toilets, and the intrigues which he
+had seen going on around him. He spoke to her of the men whose
+portraits he had painted, of the manners and the jealousies behind the
+stage, and of the great singers who had sung in his operas.
+
+"Thus it came about, that, two years later, no one would have
+recognized the lean, wretched-looking vagabond of the suburbs in this
+fresh, rosy girl, with the lustrous eyes and the modest mien, whom
+they called in the house the 'pretty artist in the fifth story.'
+
+"And yet the change was only on the surface.
+
+"Sarah was already too thoroughly corrupted, when the good German
+picked her up, to be capable of being entirely changed. He thought he
+had infused his own rough honesty into her veins: he had only taught
+her a new vice,--hypocrisy.
+
+"The soul remained corrupt; and all the charms with which it was
+outwardly adorned became only so many base allurements, like those
+beautiful flowers which unfold their splendor on the surface of
+bottomless swamps, and thus lead those whom they attract to miserable
+death.
+
+"At that time, however, Sarah did not yet possess that marvellous
+self-control which became one of her great charms hereafter; and at
+the end of two years she could endure this peaceful atmosphere no
+longer; she grew homesick after sin.
+
+"As she was already a very fair musician, and her voice, trained by a
+great master, possessed amazing power, she urged her old teacher to
+procure her an engagement at one of the theatres. He refused in a
+manner which made it clear to her that he would never change his mind
+on that subject. He wanted to secure to his pupil one of those debuts
+which are an apotheosis; and he had decided, as he told her, that she
+should not appear in public till she had reached the full perfection
+of her voice and her talent,--certainly not before her nineteenth or
+twentieth year.
+
+"That meant she should wait three or four years longer,--a century!
+
+"In former days Sarah would not have hesitated a moment; she would
+have run away.
+
+"But education had changed her ideas. She was quite able now to
+reflect and to calculate. She asked herself where she could go, alone,
+without money, without friends, and what she should do, and what would
+become of her.
+
+"She knew what destitution meant, and she was afraid of it now.
+
+"When she thought of the life her mother had led,--a long series of
+nights spent in orgies, and of days without bread; that life of
+distress and disgrace, when she depended on the whims of a good-for-
+nothing, or the suspicions of a police constable,--Sarah felt the cold
+perspiration break out on her temples.
+
+"She wanted her liberty; but she did not want it without money. Vice
+attracted her irresistibly; but it was gorgeous vice, seated in a
+carriage, and bespattering with mud the poor, honest women who had to
+walk on foot, while it was envied by the crowd, and worshipped by the
+foolish. She remained, therefore, and studied hard.
+
+"Perhaps, in spite of everything, in spite of herself and her
+execrable instincts, Sarah might have become a great artist, if the
+old German had not been taken from her by a terrible accident.
+
+"One fine afternoon in April, in the beginning of spring, he was
+smoking his pipe at the window, when he heard a noise in the street,
+and leaned over to see.
+
+"The bar broke,--he tried in vain to hold on to the window-frame,--and
+the next moment he fell from the fifth story to the ground, and was
+killed instantly.
+
+"I have held in my own hands the police report of the accident. It
+states that the fall was unavoidable; and that, if no such calamity
+had occurred before, this was due to the simple fact, that, during the
+bad weather, nobody had thought of looking out of the window. The
+castings of the little railing in front were found to be broken in two
+places, and so long ago, that a thick layer of rust had filled up the
+cracks.
+
+The wooden part had become perfectly loose, as the mortar that
+originally had kept it in place had been apparently eaten away by the
+winter frosts."
+
+Daniel and Henrietta had turned very pale. It was evident that the
+same terrible suspicion had flashed upon their mind.
+
+"Ah! it was Sarah's work," they exclaimed simultaneously. "It was
+Sarah who had broken the bar, and loosened the wooden rods; she had,
+no doubt, been watching for months to see her benefactor fall and kill
+himself."
+
+Papa Ravinet shook his head.
+
+"I do not say that," he said; "and, at all events, it would be
+impossible to prove it at this time,--I mean, to prove it against her
+denial. It is certain that no one suspected Sarah. She seemed to be in
+despair; and everybody pitied her sincerely. Was she not ruined by
+this misfortune?
+
+"The old artist had left no will. His relatives, of whom several lived
+in Paris, rushed to his rooms; and their first act was to dismiss
+Sarah, after having searched her trunks, and after giving her to
+understand that she ought to be very grateful if she was allowed to
+take away all she said she owed to the munificence of her late patron.
+
+"Still the inheritance was by no means what the heirs had expected.
+Knowing that the deceased had had ample means, and how simply he had
+always lived, they expected to find in his bureau considerable
+savings. There was nothing. A single bond for less than two thousand
+dollars, and a small sum in cash, were all that was found.
+
+"Ah! I have long endeavored to find out what had become of the various
+bonds and the ready money of the old artist; for everybody who had
+known him agreed that there must be some. Do you know what I
+discovered by dint of indefatigable investigations? I procured leave
+to examine the books of the savings-bank in which he invested his
+earnings for the year of his death; and I found there, that on the
+I7th of April, that is, five days before the poor German's fall, a
+certain Ernestine Bergot had deposited a sum of fifteen hundred
+francs."
+
+"Ah, you see!" exclaimed Daniel. "Weary of the simple life with the
+old man, she murdered him in order to get hold of his money."
+
+But the old gentleman continued, as if he had heard nothing,--
+
+"What Sarah did during the three first months of her freedom, I cannot
+tell. If she went and rented furnished lodgings, she did it under a
+false name. A clerk in the mayor's office, who is a great lover of
+curiosities, and for whom I have procured many a good bargain, had all
+the lists of lodging-houses for the four months from April to July
+carefully examined; but no Ernestine Bergot could be found.
+
+"I am quite sure, however, that she thought of the stage. One of the
+former secretaries of the Lyric Theatre told me he recollected
+distinctly a certain Ernestine, beautiful beyond description, who,
+came several times, and requested a trial. She was, however, refused,
+simply because her pretensions were almost ridiculous. And this was
+quite natural; for her head was still full of all the ambitious dreams
+of the old artist.
+
+"The first positive trace I find of Sarah in that year appears towards
+the end of summer. She was then living in a fashionable street with a
+young painter full of talent, and very rich, called Planix. Did she
+really love him? The friends of the unfortunate young man were sure
+she did not. But he--he worshipped her; he loved her passionately,
+madly, and was so absurdly jealous, that he became desperate if she
+stayed out an hour longer than he expected. Hence she often complained
+of his love, which restrained her cherished liberty; and still she
+bore it patiently till fate threw in her way Maxime de Brevan."
+
+At the name of the wretch who had been so bent upon ruining them both,
+and who had been so nearly successful, Henrietta and Daniel trembled,
+and looked at each other. But Papa Ravinet did not give them, time to
+ask any questions, and continued, as calmly as if he had been reading
+a report,--
+
+"It was several years before this, that Justin Chevassat, released
+from the galleys, had made a nobleman of himself, and claimed before
+all the world to be Maxime de Brevan. We need not be surprised, in
+this age of ours, where impudence takes the place of everything else,
+that he should have promptly succeeded in making his way into high
+life, and in being admitted to many houses which were considered more
+or less exclusive. In a society which seems to have adopted for its
+motto the words 'Toleration and Discretion,' and where, consequently,
+anybody is admitted without question, Justin Chevassat very naturally
+had a great success. He had carefully prepared his way, like those
+adventurers who never appear abroad without having their passports in
+much better order than most honest travellers. He had learned prudence
+by experience; for his antecedents were stormy enough, though less so
+than Sarah's.
+
+"Justin's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Chevassat, now concierges of No. 23
+Water Street, were, some thirty-eight or forty years ago, living in
+the upper part of the suburb of Saint Honore. They had a very modest
+little shop, partly restaurant, partly bar: their customers were
+generally the servants of the neighborhood. They were people of easy
+principles and loose morals,--as there are so many in our day,--honest
+enough as long as there is nothing to be gained by being otherwise. As
+their trade prospered, they were not dishonest; and, when any of their
+customers forgot their portemonnaies at the shop, they always returned
+them. The husband was twenty-four, and the wife nineteen years old,
+when, to their great joy, a son was born. There was rejoicing in the
+shop; and the child was christened Justin, in honor of his godfather,
+who was no less a personage than the valet of the Marquis de Brevan.
+
+"But to have a son is a small matter. To bring him up till he is seven
+or eight years old, is nothing. The difficulty is to give him an
+education which shall secure him a position in the world. This thought
+now began to occupy the minds of his parents incessantly. These stupid
+people, who had a business which supported them handsomely, and
+enabled them, in the course of time, to amass a small fortune, did not
+see that the best thing they could have done would have been to
+enlarge it, and to leave it to their son. But no. They vowed they
+would sacrifice all their savings, and deprive themselves even of the
+necessaries of life, in order that their Justin might become a
+'gentleman.'
+
+"And what a gentleman! The mother dreamed of him as a rich broker, or,
+at the very least, a notary's first clerk. The father preferred seeing
+him a government official, holding one of those much-coveted places,
+which give the owner, after twenty-five years' service, a title, and
+an income of some six or seven hundred dollars.
+
+"The result of all these speculations was, that, at the age of nine,
+Master Justin was sent to a high school. He conducted himself there
+just badly enough to be perpetually on the brink of being sent away,
+without ever being really expelled. This made but little impression
+upon the two Chevassats. They had become so accustomed to look upon
+their son as a superior being, that it never entered their mind to
+think he was not the first, the best, and the most remarkable pupil of
+the establishment. If Justin's reports were bad,--and they were always
+bad,--they accused the teachers of partiality. If he gained no prize
+at the end of the year,--and he never got any,--they did not know what
+to do for him to console him for having been victimized by such cruel
+injustice.
+
+"The consequences of such a system need hardly be stated.
+
+"When Justin was fourteen years old, he despised his parents
+thoroughly, treated them like servants, and was so much ashamed of
+them, that he would not allow his mother to come and see him in the
+parlor of the college to which he had been admitted of late. When he
+was at home during vacations, he would have cut his right arm off
+rather than help his father, or pour out a glass of wine for a
+customer. He even stayed away from the house on the plea that he could
+not endure the odors from the kitchen.
+
+"Thus he reached his seventeenth year. His course was not completed;
+but, as he was tired of college-life, he declared he would not return
+there, and he never did return. When his father asked him timidly what
+he proposed doing, he shrugged his shoulders as his sole reply. What
+did he do? Nothing. He idled about Paris.
+
+"To dress in the height of fashion; to walk up and down before the
+most renowned restaurants, with a toothpick in his mouth; to hire a
+carriage, and drive it himself, having a hired groom in livery by his
+side,--this was the delight of those days. At night he gambled; and,
+when he lost, there was the till in his father's shop.
+
+"His parents had rented for him, and comfortably furnished, a nice set
+of rooms in their house, and tried by all manner of servility to keep
+him at home, neglecting even their own business in order to be always
+ready for his orders. But this did not prevent him from being
+constantly away. He said he could not possibly receive his friends in
+a house where his name was to be seen on the signboard of such a low
+establishment.
+
+"It was his despair to be the son of a restaurant-keeper, and to be
+called Chevassat.
+
+"But greater grief was to come to him after two years' idle and
+expensive life such as has been described.
+
+"One fine morning when he needed a couple of hundred dollars, his
+parents told him, with tears in their eyes, that they had not twenty
+dollars in the house; that they were at the end of their resources;
+that the day before a note of theirs had been protested; and that they
+were at that moment on the brink of bankruptcy. They did not reproach
+Justin with having spent all their savings; oh, no! On the contrary,
+they humbly asked his pardon, if they were no longer able to provide
+for his wants. And, with fear and trembling, they at last ventured to
+suggest, that perhaps it would be well if he should seek some kind of
+work.
+
+"He told them coolly that he would think it over, but that he must
+have his two hundred dollars. And he got them. His father and mother
+had still a watch and some jewelry; they pawned everything and brought
+him the proceeds.
+
+"Still he saw that the till he had considered inexhaustible was really
+empty, and that henceforth his pockets also would be empty, unless he
+could devise some means to fill them. He went, therefore, in search of
+some employment; and his godfather, the valet, found one for him at
+the house of a banker, who was in want of a reliable young man to be
+trained for his business, and hereafter to be intrusted with the
+management of his funds."
+
+Papa Ravinet's voice changed so perceptibly as he uttered these last
+words, that Daniel and Henrietta, with one impulse, asked him,--
+
+"Is anything the matter, sir?"
+
+He did not make any reply; but his sister, Mrs. Bertolle, said,--
+
+"No, there is nothing the matter with my brother;" and she looked at
+him with a nod of encouragement.
+
+"I am all right," he said, like an echo. Then, making a great effort,
+he continued,--
+
+"Justin Chevassat was at twenty precisely what you know him to be as
+Maxime de Brevan,--a profound dissembler, a fierce egotist devoured by
+vanity, in fine, a man of ardent passions, and capable of anything to
+satisfy his desires.
+
+"The hope of getting rich at once by some great stroke was already so
+deeply rooted in his mind, that it gave him the strength to change his
+habits and manner of life from one day to another, and to keep up the
+deceit with a perseverance unheard of at his age. This lazy,
+profligate gambler rose with the day, worked ten hours a day, and
+became the model of all clerks. He had resolved to win the favor of
+his patron, and to be trusted. He succeeded in doing it by the most
+consummate hypocrisy. So that, only two years after he had first been
+admitted into the house, he had already been promoted to a place which
+conferred upon him the keeping of all the valuables of the firm.
+
+"This occurred before those accidents which have, since that time,
+procured for the keepers of other people's money such a sad
+reputation. Nowadays it seems almost an ordinary event to hear of some
+cashier's running away with the funds intrusted to his keeping; and no
+one is astonished. To create a sensation by such an occurrence, the
+sum must be almost fabulous, say, two or three millions. And, even in
+that case, the loser is by no means the man in whom the world is most
+interested.
+
+"At the time of which I am now speaking, defalcations were quite rare
+as yet. Financial companies and brokers did not contemplate being
+robbed by their own clerks as one of the ordinary risks. When they
+knew the keys of their safe to be in the hands of an honest man, whose
+family and mode of life were well known, they slept soundly. Justin
+Chevassat's patron was thus sleeping soundly for ten months, when one
+Sunday he was specially in need of certain bonds which Justin used to
+keep in one of the drawers of his desk. He did not like to have his
+clerk hunted up on such a day; so he simply sent for a locksmith to
+open the drawer.
+
+"The first thing he saw was a draft signed by himself; and yet he had
+never put his name to such a paper. Still, most assuredly, it was his
+signature; he would have sworn to it in court. And yet he was as sure
+as he was standing there, that it was not he who had put his name, and
+the somewhat complicated ornament belonging to it, where he saw it
+written.
+
+"His first amazement was succeeded by grievous apprehension. He had
+the other drawers opened likewise, searched them, and soon discovered
+all the details of a formidable and most ingenious plan, by which he
+was to be robbed at a single blow of more than a million.
+
+"If he had slept soundly one month longer, he would have been ruined.
+His favorite clerk was a wretch, a forger of matchless skill. He
+instantly sent for a detective; and the next morning, when Justin
+Chevassat came as usual, he was arrested. It was then thought that his
+crime was confined to this abortive attempt. Not so. A minute and
+careful examination of all the papers soon revealed other misdeeds.
+Evidence was found, that, on the very next day after the day on which
+he had been appointed confidential clerk, he had stolen a thousand
+dollars, concealing his theft by a false entry. Since that time not a
+week had passed without his laying hands on a more or less
+considerable sum; and all these thefts had been most ingeniously
+covered by such skilful imitations of other people's signatures, that
+he had once been sick for a fortnight, and yet his substitute had
+never become aware of anything. In fine, it appeared that the sum
+total of his defalcations amounted to some eighty thousand dollars.
+
+"What had he done with all that money? The magistrate before whom he
+was brought at once asked that question. He replied that he had not a
+cent left. His explanations and his excuses were the old story pleaded
+by all who put their hands into their neighbors' pockets.
+
+"To hear him, no one could be more innocent than he was, however
+guilty he might appear at first sight. He was like one of those men
+who allow their little finger to be caught in a machine. His only
+fault was the desire to speculate on 'Change. Did not his employer
+speculate himself? Having lost some money, and fearing to lose his
+place if he did not pay, the fatal thought had occurred to him to
+borrow from the strong box. From that moment he had only cherished one
+thought,--to restore what he had taken. If he speculated anew, it was
+from extreme honesty, and because he constantly hoped to gain enough
+to make restitution. But most extraordinary ill luck had pursued him;
+so that, seeing the deficit growing larger and larger, and overcome
+with remorse and terror, he had almost gone mad, and ceased to put any
+restraint upon himself.
+
+"He laid great stress upon the fact that his whole eighty thousand
+dollars had been lost on 'Change, and that he would have looked upon
+himself as the meanest of rascals, if he had spent any part of it on
+his personal enjoyments. Unfortunately the forged checks and drafts in
+his drawer destroyed the force of this plea. Convinced that the sums
+he had thus obtained were not lost, the investigating magistrate
+suspected the parents of the accused. He questioned them, and obtained
+sufficient evidence against them to justify their arrest. But they
+could not be convicted at the trial, and had to be released. Justin
+Chevassat, however, appeared at the assizes.
+
+"Matters looked very serious for him; but he had the good luck of
+falling in with a young lawyer who initiated in his case a system of
+pleading which has since become very popular. He made no effort to
+exculpate his client: he boldly accused the banker. 'Was it the act of
+a sensible man,' he said, 'to trust so young a man with such important
+sums? Was it not tempting him beyond his powers of resistance, and
+almost provoking him to become dishonest? What, this banker never
+examined his books for so many months? What kind of a business was it,
+where a cashier could so easily take eighty thousand dollars, and
+remain undiscovered? And then, what immorality in a banker to
+speculate on 'Change, and thus to set so bad an example to his young,
+inexperienced clerks!'
+
+"Justin Chevassat escaped with twenty years' penal servitude.
+
+"What he was at the galleys, you may imagine from what you know of
+him. He played the 'repentant criminal,' overflowing with professions
+of sorrow for the past, and amendment in future, and cringing and
+crouching at the feet of the officials of the prison. He carried on
+this comedy so successfully, that, after three years and a half, he
+was pardoned. But he had not lost his time in prison. The contact with
+the vilest of criminals had sharpened his wits, and completed his
+education in rascality. He came out of prison an accomplished felon.
+And even while he still dragged the chain and ball along with him, he
+was already planning and maturing new plots for the future, which he
+afterwards executed with success. He conceived the idea of bursting
+forth in a new shape, under which no one would ever suspect his former
+identity.
+
+"How he went about to do this, I am enabled to tell you accurately.
+Through his godfather, the valet, who had died before his trial,
+Justin Chevassat knew the history of the Brevan family in its minutest
+details. It was a very sad story. The old marquis had died insolvent,
+after having lost his five sons, who had gone abroad to make their
+fortunes. The noble family had thus become extinct; but Justin
+proposed to continue its lineage. He knew that the Brevans were
+originally from Maine; that they had formerly owned immense estates in
+the neighborhood of Mans; and that they had not been there for more
+than twenty years. Would they still be remembered in a land where they
+had once been all powerful? Most assuredly they would. Would people
+take the trouble to inquire minutely what had become of the marquis
+and his five sons? As assuredly not.
+
+"Chevassat's plot was based upon these calculations.
+
+"As soon as he was free once more, he devoted all his energies to the
+destruction of every trace of his identity; and, when he thought he
+had accomplished this, he went to Mans, assuming the name of one of
+the sons of the marquis, who had been nearly of his own age. No one
+doubted for a moment that he was Maxime de Brevan. Who could have
+doubted it, when he purchased the old family mansion for a
+considerable sum, although it only consisted of a ruinous castle, and
+a small farm adjoining the house? He paid cash, moreover, proving thus
+the correctness of the magistrate's suspicions as to his story about
+losses on 'Change, and as to the complicity of his parents. He even
+took the precaution of living on his little estate for four years,
+practising the life of a country-gentleman, received with open arms by
+the nobility of the neighborhood, forming friendships, gaining
+supporters, and becoming more and more identified with Maxime de
+Brevan.
+
+"What was his aim at that time? I always thought he was looking out
+for a wealthy wife, so as to consolidate his position; and he came
+near realizing his hopes.
+
+"He was on the point of marrying a young lady from Mans, who would
+have brought him half a million in money, and the banns had already
+been published, when, all of a sudden, the marriage was broken off, no
+one knew why.
+
+"This only is certain: he was so bitterly disappointed by his failure,
+that he sold his property, and left the country. For the next three
+years, he lived in Paris, more completely Maxime de Brevan than ever;
+and then he met Sarah Brandon."
+
+Papa Ravinet had been speaking now for nearly three hours, and he was
+beginning to feel exhausted. He showed his weariness in his face; and
+his voice very nearly gave out. Still it was in vain for Daniel,
+Henrietta, and Mrs. Bertolle herself to unite in begging him to go and
+lie down for a few moments.
+
+"No," he replied, "I will go to the end. You do not know how important
+it is that M. Champcey should be in a position to act to-morrow, or
+rather to-day.
+
+"It was at a fancy ball," he went on, "given by M. Planix, that Sarah
+Brandon, at that time still known as Ernestine Bergot, and Justin
+Chevassat, now Maxime de Brevan, met for the first time. He was
+completely overpowered by her marvellous beauty, and she--she was
+strangely impressed by the peculiar expression in Maxime's face.
+Perhaps they divined each other's character, perhaps they had an
+intuitive perception of who they were. At all events, they soon became
+acquainted, drawn as they were to each other by an instinctive and
+irresistible attraction. They danced several times together; they sat
+side by side; they talked long and intimately; and, when the ball came
+to an end, they were friends already.
+
+"They met frequently; and, if it were not profanation, I would say
+they loved each other. They seemed to be made on purpose to
+understand, and, so to say, compliment, each other, equally corrupt as
+they were, devoured by the same sinful desires, and alike free from
+all the old-fashioned prejudices, as they called it, about justice,
+morals, and honor. They could hardly help coming soon to some
+understanding by which they agreed to associate their ambitions and
+their plans for the future.
+
+"For in those early days, when their feelings were still undented,
+they had no secrets for each other. Love had torn the mask from their
+faces; and each one vied with the other in letting the foulness of
+their past days be seen clearly. This, no doubt, secured, first the
+constancy of their passion, and the continuation of their intimacy
+long after they had ceased loving each other.
+
+"For now they hate each other; but they are also afraid of each other.
+Ten times they have tried to break off their intimacy; and as often
+they have been compelled to renew it, bound as they feel they are to
+each other by a chain far more oppressive and solid than the one
+Justin Chevassat wore at the galleys.
+
+"At first, however, they had to conceal their intimacy; for they had
+no money. By joining what she had stolen from her benefactor, to what
+she had obtained from M. Planix, Sarah could not make up more than
+some forty thousand francs. 'That was not enough,' she said, 'to "set
+up" the most modest establishment.' As to M. de Brevan, however
+economical he had been, he had come to an end of the sums stolen from
+his employer. For eight or ten months now, he had been reduced to all
+kinds of dangerous expedients in order to live. He rode in his
+carriage; but he had been more than once very happy when he could
+extort a twenty-franc-piece from his parents. He visited them, of
+course only in secret; for they had in the meantime exchanged their
+shop, for the modest little box assigned to the concierge of No. 23
+Water Street.
+
+"Far, therefore, from being able to be useful to Sarah, he was
+perfectly delighted when she brought him one fine day ten thousand
+francs to alleviate his distress.
+
+"'Ah!' she said to him on this occasion, and often thereafter, 'why
+can't we have that fool's money?' meaning her friend and lover, M.
+Planix.
+
+"The next step was naturally an attempt at obtaining this much coveted
+treasure. To begin, Sarah induced him to make a last will, in which he
+made her his residuary legatee. One would be at a loss to guess how
+she could obtain this from a young, healthy man, full of life and
+happiness, if it were not that love will explain everything. When this
+success had been achieved, M. de Brevan undertook to introduce in the
+society frequented by Sarah and M. Planix one of his friends, who was
+considered, and who really was, the best swordsman in Paris, a good
+fellow otherwise, honor itself, and rather patient in temper than
+given to quarrelling.
+
+"Without compromising herself, and with that abominable skill which is
+peculiarly her own, Sarah, coquetted just enough with this young man,
+M. de Font-Avar, to tempt him to pay her some attentions. But that
+very night she complained to M. Planix of his persecution, and knew so
+skilfully how to excite his jealousy, and to wound his vanity, that,
+three days later, he allowed himself to be carried away by passion,
+and struck M. de Font-Avar in the presence of a dozen friends.
+
+"A duel became inevitable; and M. de Brevan, pretending to try and
+reconcile the two young men, secretly fanned the flame. The duel came
+off one Saturday morning, in the woods near Vincennes. They fought
+with small-swords; and, after little more than a minute, M. Planix
+received a stab in his breast, fell, and was dead in an instant. He
+was not yet twenty-seven years old.
+
+"Sarah's joy was almost delirious. Accomplished actress as she was,
+she could hardly manage to shed a few tears for the benefit of the
+public, when the body, still warm, was brought to the house. And still
+she had once loved the man, whom she had now assassinated.
+
+"Even as she knelt by the bedside, hiding her face in her
+handkerchief, she was thinking only of the testament, lying safe and
+snug, as she knew, in one of the drawers of that bureau, enclosed in a
+large official envelope with a huge red wax seal.
+
+"It was opened and read the same day by the justice of the peace, who
+had been sent for to put the seals on the deceased man's property. And
+then Sarah began to cry in good earnest. Her tears were tears of rage.
+For seized by a kind of remorse, and at a moment when Sarah's absence
+had rendered him very angry, M. Planix had added two lines as a
+codicil.
+
+"He still said, 'I appoint Miss Ernestine Bergot my residuary
+legatee'; but he had written underneath, 'on condition that she shall
+pay to each of my sisters the sum of a hundred and fifty thousand
+francs.' This was more than three-fourths of his whole fortune.
+
+"When she arrived, therefore, that night, at Brevan's rooms, her first
+words were,--
+
+"'We have been robbed! Planix was a wretch! We won't have a hundred
+thousand francs left.'
+
+"Maxime, however, recovered his equanimity pretty soon; for the sum
+appeared to him quite large enough to pay for a crime in which they
+had run no risk, and he was quite as willing as before to marry Sarah;
+but she refused to listen to him, saying that a hundred thousand
+francs were barely enough for a year's income, and that they must
+wait. It was then that M. de Brevan became a gambler. The wretch
+actually believed in the cards; he believed that fortunes could be
+made by playing. He had systems of his own which could not fail, and
+which he was bent upon trying.
+
+"He proposed to Sarah to risk the hundred thousand francs, promising
+to make a million out of them; and she yielded, tempted by the very
+boldness of his proposition.
+
+"They resolved they would not stop playing till they had won a
+million, or lost everything. And so they went to Homburg. There they
+led a mad life for a whole month, spending ten hours every day at the
+gaming-table, feverish, breathless, fighting the bank with marvellous
+skill and almost incredible coolness. I have met an old croupier who
+recollects them even now. Twice they were on the point of staking
+their last thousand-franc-note; and one lucky day they won as much as
+four hundred thousand francs. That day, Maxime proposed they should
+leave Homburg. Sarah, who kept the money, refused, repeating her
+favorite motto, 'All, or nothing.'
+
+"It was nothing. Victory remained, as usual, with, the 'big
+battalions;' and one evening the two partners returned to their
+lodgings, ruined, penniless, having not even a watch left, and owing
+the hotel-keeper a considerable sum of money.
+
+"That evening Maxime spoke of blowing his brains out. Never, on the
+contrary, had Sarah been merrier.
+
+"The next morning she dressed very early and went out, saying she had
+a plan in her head, and would soon be back.
+
+"But she did not come back; and all that day M. de Brevan, devoured by
+anxiety, waited in vain for her return. At five o'clock, however, a
+messenger brought him a letter. He opened it; there were three
+thousand francs in it, and these words:--
+
+
+ "'When you receive these lines, I shall be far from Homburg. Do not
+  wait for me. Enclosed is enough to enable you to return to Paris.
+  You shall see me again when our fortune is made.
+
+ "'Sarah.'"
+
+
+"Maxime was at first overcome with amazement. To be abandoned in this
+way! To be thus unceremoniously dismissed, and by Sarah! He could not
+recover from it. But anger soon roused him to fury; and at the same
+time he was filled with an intense desire to avenge himself. But, in
+order to avenge himself, he must first know how to find his faithless
+ally. What had become of her? Where had she gone?
+
+"By dint of meditating, and recollecting all he could gather in his
+memory, M. de Brevan remembered having seen Sarah two or three times,
+since fortune had forsaken them, in close conversation with a tall,
+thin gentleman of about forty years, who was in the habit of wandering
+through the rooms, and attracted much attention by his huge whiskers,
+his stiff carriage, and his wearied expression. No doubt Sarah, being
+ruined, had fallen an easy prey to this gentleman, who looked as if he
+might be a millionaire.
+
+"Where did he stay? At the Hotel of the Three Kings. Maxime went there
+at once. Unfortunately, he was too late. The gentleman had left that
+morning for Frankfort, by the 10.45 train, with an elderly lady, and a
+remarkably pretty girl.
+
+"Sure of his game now, M. de Brevan left immediately for Frankfort,
+convinced that Sarah's brilliant beauty would guide him like a star.
+But he hunted in vain all over town, inquiring at the hotels, and
+bothering everybody with his questions. He found no trace of the
+fugitives.
+
+"When he returned to his lodgings that night, he wept.
+
+"Never in his life had he fancied himself half so unhappy. In losing
+Sarah, he thought he had lost everything. During the five months of
+their intimacy, she had gained such complete ascendency over him, that
+now, when he was left to his own strength, he felt like a lost child,
+having no thought and no resolution.
+
+"What was to become of him, now that this woman was no longer there to
+sustain and inspire him,--that woman with the marvellous talent for
+intrigue, the matchless courage that shrank from nothing, and the
+energy which sufficed for everything? Sarah had, besides, filled his
+imagination with such magnificent hopes, and opened before his
+covetous eyes such a vast horizon of enjoyment, that he had come to
+look upon things as pitiful, which would formerly have satisfied his
+highest wishes. Should he, after having dreamed of those glorious
+achievements by which millions are won in a day, sink back again into
+the meanness of petty thefts? His heart turned from that prospect with
+unspeakable loathing; and yet what was he to do?
+
+"He knew, that, if he returned to Paris, matters would not be very
+pleasant for him there. His creditors, made restless by his prolonged
+absence, would fall upon him instantly. How could he induce them to
+wait? Where could he get the money to pay them, at least, a percentage
+of his dues? How would he support himself? Were all of his dark works
+to be useless? Was he to be shipwrecked before ever seeing even the
+distant port?
+
+"Nevertheless, he returned to Paris, faced the storm, passed through
+the crisis, and resumed his miserable life, associating with another
+adventurer like himself, and succeeding thus, by immensely hard work,
+in maintaining his existence and his assumed name. Ah! if our honest
+friends could but know what misery, what humiliations and anxieties
+are hid beneath that false splendor of high life, which they often
+envy, they would think themselves fully avenged.
+
+"It is certain that Maxime de Brevan found times hard in those days,
+and actually more than once regretted that he had not remained a
+stupid, honest man. He thought that was so simple, and so clever.
+
+"Thus it came about, that, two years later, he had not yet been
+reconciled to Sarah's absence. Often and often, in his hours of
+distress, he recalled her parting promise, 'You shall see me again
+when our fortune is made.' He knew she was quite capable of amassing
+millions; but, when she had them, would she still think of him? Where
+was she? What could have become of her?
+
+"Sarah was at that time in America.
+
+"That tall, light-haired gentleman, that eminently respectable lady,
+who had carried her off, were M. Thomas Elgin and Mrs. Brian. Who were
+these people? I have had no time to trace out their antecedents. All I
+know is, that they belonged to that class of adventurers whom one sees
+at all the watering-places and gambling-resorts,--at Nice, at Monaco,
+and during the winter in Italy; swindlers of the highest class, who
+unite consummate skill with excessive caution; who are occasionally
+suspected, but never found out; and who are frequently indebted to
+their art of making themselves agreeable, and even useful to others,
+to the carelessness of travellers, and their thorough knowledge of
+life, for the acquaintance, or even friendship, of people whom one is
+astonished to find in such company.
+
+"Sir Thorn and Mrs. Brian were both English, and, so far, they had
+managed to live very pleasantly. But old age was approaching; and they
+began to be fearful about the future, when they fell in with Sarah.
+They divined her, as she had divined Maxime; and they saw in her an
+admirable means to secure a fortune. They did not hesitate, therefore,
+to offer her a compact by which she was to be a full partner, although
+they themselves had to risk all they possessed,--a capital of some
+twenty thousand dollars. You have seen what these respectable people
+proposed to make of her,--a snare and a pitfall. They knew very well
+that her matchless beauty would catch fools innumerable, and bring in
+a rich harvest of thousand-franc-notes.
+
+"The idea was by no means new, M. Champcey, as you seem to think; nor
+is the case a rare one.
+
+"In almost all the capitals of Europe, you will find even now some of
+these almost sublimely beautiful creatures, who are exhibited in the
+great world by cosmopolitan adventurers. They have six or seven years,
+--from eighteen to twenty-five,--during which, their beauty and their
+tact may secure an immense fortune to themselves and their comrades;
+and according to chance, to their skill, or the whims or the folly of
+men, they end by marrying some great personage in high life, or by
+keeping a wretched gambling hell in the suburbs. They may fall upon
+the velvet cushions of a princely carriage, or sink, step by step, to
+the lowest depths of society.
+
+"M. Elgin and Mrs. Brian had agreed that they would exhibit Sarah in
+Paris; that she was to marry a duke with any number of millions; and
+that they should be paid for their trouble by receiving an annual
+allowance of some ten thousand dollars. But, in order to undertake the
+adventure with a good chance of success, it was indispensable that
+Sarah should lose her nationality as a Parisian; that she should rise
+anew, as an unknown star; and, above all, that she should be trained
+and schooled for the profession she was to practise.
+
+"Hence the trip to America, and her long residence there.
+
+"Chance had helped the wretches. They had hardly landed, when they
+found that they could easily introduce the girl as the daughter of
+Gen. Brandon, just as Justin Chevassat had managed to become Maxime de
+Brevan. In this way, Ernestine Bergot appeared at once in the best
+society of Philadelphia as Sarah Brandon. Not less prudent than
+Maxime, M. Elgin also purchased, in spite of his limited means, for a
+thousand dollars, vast tracts of land in the western part of the
+State, where there was no trace of oil-wells, but where there might
+very well be a good many, and had them entered upon the name of his
+ward.
+
+"Of all these measures, I have the evidence in hand, and can produce
+it at any moment."
+
+For some time already, Daniel and Henrietta had looked at each other
+with utter amazement. They were almost dumfounded by the prodigious
+sagacity, the cunning, patience, and labor which the old dealer must
+have employed to collect this vast mass of information. But he
+continued, after a short pause,--
+
+"Sir Thorn and Mrs. Brian found out in a few days how well they had
+been served by their instincts in taking hold of Sarah. In less than
+six months, this wonderful girl, whose education they had undertaken,
+spoke English as well as they did, and had become their master,
+controlling them by the very superiority of her wickedness. From the
+day on which Mrs. Brian explained to her the part she was expected to
+play, she had assumed it so naturally and so perfectly, that all
+traces of art disappeared at once. She had instinctively appreciated
+the immense advantage she would derive from personifying a young
+American girl, and the irresistible effect she might easily produce by
+her freedom of movement and her bold ingenuousness. Finally, at the
+end of eighteen months' residence in America, M. Elgin declared that
+the moment had come when Sarah might appear on the stage.
+
+"It was, therefore, twenty-eight months after their parting in
+Homburg, that M. de Brevan received, one morning, the following
+note:--
+
+"'Come to-night, at nine o'clock, to M. Thomas Elgin's house in Circus
+Street, and be prepared for a surprise.'
+
+"He went there. A tall man opened the door of the sitting-room; and,
+at the sight of a young lady who sat before the fire, he could not
+help exclaiming, 'Ernestine, is that you?'
+
+"But she interrupted him at once, saying, 'You are mistaken: Ernestine
+Bergot is dead, and buried by the side of Justin Chevassat, my dear M.
+de Brevan. Come, lay aside that amazed air, and kiss Miss Sarah
+Brandon's hand.'
+
+"It was heaven opening for Maxime. She had at last come back to him,--
+this woman, who had come across his life like a tempest, and whose
+memory he had retained in his heart, as a dagger remains in the wound
+it has made. She had come back, more beautiful than ever, irresistible
+in her matchless charms; and he fancied it was love which had brought
+her back.
+
+"His vanity led him astray. Sarah Brandon had long since ceased to
+admire him. Familiar as she was with the life of adventurers in high
+life, she had soon learned to appreciate M. de Brevan at his just
+value. She saw him now as he really was,--timid, overcautious, petty,
+incapable of conceiving bold combinations, scarcely good enough for
+the smallest of plots, ridiculous, in fine, as all needy scamps are.
+
+"Nevertheless, Sarah wanted him, although she despised him. On the
+point of entering upon a most dangerous game, she felt the necessity
+of having one accomplice, at least, in whom she could trust blindly.
+She had, to be sure, Mrs. Brian and Sir Thorn, as he began to be
+called now; but she mistrusted them. They held her, and she had no
+hold on them. On the other hand, Maxime de Brevan was entirely hers,
+dependent on her pleasure, as the lump of clay in the hands of the
+sculptor.
+
+"It is true that Maxime appeared almost distressed when he heard that
+that immense fortune which he coveted with all his might was still to
+be made, and that Sarah was no farther advanced now than she was on
+the day of their separation. She might even have said that she was
+less so; for the two years and more which had just elapsed had made a
+large inroad upon the savings of M. Elgin and Mrs. Brian. When they
+had paid for their establishment in Circus Street, when they had
+advanced the hire of a /coupe/, a landau, and two saddle-horses, they
+had hardly four thousand dollars left in all.
+
+"They knew, therefore, that they must succeed or sink in the coming
+year. And, thus driven to bay, they were doubly to be feared. They
+were determined to fall furiously upon the first victim that should
+pass within reach, when chance brought to them the unlucky cashier of
+the Mutual Discount Society, Malgat."
+
+
+
+                                XXXI.
+
+For a few moments the fatigue of the old dealer seemed to have
+disappeared. He was sitting up straight, with tremulous lips, with
+flashing eyes, and continued in a strangely strident voice,--
+
+"Fools alone attach no weight to trifling occurrences. And still it is
+those that appear most insignificant which we ought to fear most,
+because they alone determine our fate, precisely as an atom of sand
+dismembers the most powerful engine.
+
+"It was on a fine afternoon in the month of October when Sarah Brandon
+appeared for the first time before the eyes of Malgat. He was at that
+time a man of forty, sprung from an old and respectable though modest
+family, content with his lot in life, and rather simple, as most men
+are who have always lived far from the intrigues of society. He had
+one passion, however,--he filled the five rooms of his lodgings with
+curiosities of every kind, happy for a week to come, if he had
+discovered a piece of old china, or a curious piece of furniture,
+which he could purchase cheap. He was not rich, his whole patrimony
+having been long since spent on his collections; but he had a place
+that brought him some three thousand dollars; and he was sure of an
+ample pension in his old age.
+
+"He was honest in the highest sense of the word; his honesty being
+instinctive, so to say, never reasoning, never hesitating. For fifteen
+years now, he had been cashier; and hundreds of millions had passed
+through his hands without arousing in him a shadow of covetousness. He
+handled the gold in the bags, and the notes in the portfolios, with as
+much indifference as if they had been pebbles and dry leaves. His
+employers, besides, felt for him more than ordinary esteem: it was
+true and devoted friendship. Their confidence in him was so great,
+that they would have laughed in the face of any one who should have
+come and told them, 'Malgat is a thief!'
+
+"Such he was, when, that morning, he was standing near his safe, and
+saw a gentleman come to his window who had just cashed a check drawn
+by the Central Bank of Philadelphia upon the Mutual Discount Bank.
+This gentleman, who was M. Elgin, spoke such imperfect French, that
+Malgat asked him, for convenience sake, to step inside the railing. He
+came in, and behind him Sarah Brandon.
+
+"How can I describe to you the sensations of the poor cashier as he
+beheld this amazing beauty! He could hardly stammer out a few
+incoherent words; and the gentleman and the young lady had long since
+left, when he was still lost in a kind of idiotic delight. He had been
+overtaken by one of those overwhelming passions which sometimes felled
+to the ground the strongest and simplest of men at the age of forty.
+
+"Alas! Sarah had but too keenly noticed the impression she had
+produced. To be sure, Malgat was very far from that ideal of a
+millionaire husband of whom these adventurers dreamed; but, after all,
+he held the keys of a safe in which lay millions. One might always get
+something out of him wherewith to wait for better things to come.
+Their plan was soon formed.
+
+"The very next day M. Elgin presented himself alone at the office to
+ask for some information. He returned three days after with another
+draft. By the end of the week, he had furnished Malgat with an
+opportunity to render him some trifling service. Thus relations began
+to exist between them; and, at the end of a fortnight, Sir Thorn
+could, with all propriety, ask the cashier to dine with him in Circus
+Street. A voice from within--one of those presentiments to which we
+ought always to listen--warned Malgat not to accept the invitation;
+but he was already no longer his own master.
+
+"He went to dinner in Circus Street, and he left it madly in love.
+
+"He had felt as if Sarah Brandon's eyes had been all the time upon
+him,--those strange, sublimely beautiful eyes, which upset our very
+being within us, weakening the most powerful energy, troubling the
+senses, and leading reason astray--eyes which dazzle, enchant, and
+bewitch.
+
+"The commonest politeness required that Malgat should call upon Mrs.
+Brian and M. Elgin. This call was followed by many others. A man less
+blinded by passion might have become suspicious at the eagerness with
+which these wretches, driven by necessity, carried on their intrigue.
+Six weeks after their first meeting, Malgat fancied that Sarah was
+wildly in love with him. It was absurd, most assuredly; it was
+foolish, insane. Nevertheless, he believed it. He thought those
+rapturous glances were genuine; he believed in the truthfulness of
+that intoxicating sweetness of her voice, and those enchanting
+blushes, which his coming never failed to call forth.
+
+"Now began the second act of the hideous comedy. Mrs. Brian appeared
+one day, all of a sudden, to notice something, and promptly requested
+Malgat never to put foot again within that house. She accused him of
+an attempt to seduce Sarah Brandon. I dare say, you can imagine, the
+fool! how he protested, affirming the purity of his intentions, and
+swearing that he would be the happiest of mortals if they would
+condescend to grant him the hand of her niece. But Sir Thorn, in the
+haughtiest tone possible, asked him how he could dare think of such a
+thing, and presume that he could ever be a fit match for a young lady
+who had a dower of two hundred thousand dollars.
+
+"Malgat left with tottering steps, despair in his heart, and resolved
+to kill himself. When he returned home, he actually went to look among
+his curiosities for an old flint-lock pistol, and began to load it.
+
+"Ah! why did he not kill himself then? He would have carried his
+deceptive illusions and his unstained honor with him to the grave.
+
+"He was just about to make his will when they brought him a letter
+from Sarah. She wrote thus:--
+
+"'When a girl like myself loves, she loves for life, and she is his
+whom she loves, or she is nobody's. If your love is true, if dangers
+and difficulties terrify you no more than they terrify me, knock
+to-morrow night, at ten o'clock, at the gate of the court. I will
+open.'
+
+"Mad with joy and hope, Malgat went to the fatal meeting. Do you know
+what happened? Sarah fell around his neck, and said,--
+
+"'I love you. Let us run away.'
+
+"Ah! if he had taken her at her word, and answered her, offering her
+his arm,--
+
+"'Yes, let us flee,' the plot might have been defeated, and he might
+have been saved; for she would certainly not have gone with him.
+
+"But with that clear perception which was a perfect marvel in her, and
+looked like the gift of second sight, she had taken the measure of the
+cashier, and exposed herself to the danger, well-knowing that he would
+shrink from doing what she asked.
+
+"He did shrink, the idiot! he was afraid. He said to himself that it
+would be a mean thing to abuse the attachment of this pure and
+trustful girl, to separate her from her family, and to ruin her
+forever.
+
+"He did have this wonderful power of self-denial to dissuade her from
+taking such a step, and to induce her to be patient, giving time an
+opportunity of coming to their assistance, while he would do all he
+could to overcome the obstacles in the way.
+
+"For hours after he had left Sarah Brandon, Malgat had not recovered
+from the excitement; and he would have thought the whole a dream, but
+for the penetrating perfume which his clothes still retained where she
+had rested her beautiful head. But, when he at last began to examine
+his position, he came to the conclusion that he had indulged in
+childish illusions, and that he could never hope to satisfy the
+demands made by M. Elgin and Mrs. Brian. There /was/ but one way, a
+single way, by which he could ever hope to obtain possession of this
+woman whom he worshipped; and that was the one she had herself
+proposed,--an abduction. To determine upon such a step, however, was
+for Malgat to end his peaceful life forever, to lose his place, to
+abandon the past, and to venture upon an unknown future. But how could
+he reason at a moment when his whole mind was filled with thoughts of
+the most amazing happiness that ever was enjoyed by mortal being?
+
+"Whenever he thought of flight, there arose before him one obstacle
+which he could not overcome. He had no money. How could he expose this
+rich heiress, who left all for his sake, this beautiful girl, who was
+accustomed to every imaginable luxury, to want and humiliation? No;
+that he could never dare. And yet his whole available capital did not
+amount to three thousand dollars. His fortune was invested in those
+curiosities that were piled up all over his rooms,--beautiful objects
+to his eyes in former days, but now hateful, and annoying to behold.
+He knew they represented a large sum, quite a respectable fortune; but
+such collections cannot be sold overnight; and time was pressing.
+
+"He had seen Sarah several times secretly; and each time she had
+appeared to him more mournful and dejected. She could bring him
+nothing but most distressing news. Mrs. Brian spoke of giving her in
+marriage to a friend of hers. M. Elgin proposed to take her abroad.
+And, with such troubles filling his head, the poor cashier had to
+attend to his daily duties, and from morning till night receive tens
+and hundreds of thousands; and never yet, I swear it, the thought
+occurred to him of taking a small fraction of these treasures.
+
+"He had determined to sell all his collections as a whole, at any
+price he could get, when one day, a few moments before the office
+closed, a lady appeared, whose ample dress concealed her figure, while
+a thick veil completely shrouded her features.
+
+"This lady raised her veil. It was she. It was Sarah Brandon.
+
+"Malgat begged her to enter. He was overcome. What new misfortune had
+happened to induce her to take such a step? She told him in a few
+words.
+
+"Sir Thorn had found out their secret meetings: he had told her to be
+ready to start for Philadelphia the next morning.
+
+"The crisis had come. They must choose now between two things,--either
+to flee that very day, or be separated forever.
+
+"Ah! never had Sarah been so beautiful as at this moment, when she
+seemed to be maddened by grief; never had her whole personal beauty
+exhaled such powerful, such irresistible charms. Her breath went and
+came, causing her almost to sob at every respiration; and big tears,
+like scattered beads from a chaplet of pearls, rolled down her pale
+cheeks.
+
+"Malgat stood a moment before her, stunned by the blow; and the
+imminence of the danger extorted from him a confession of the reasons
+that had made him hesitate so long. He told her, cruelly humiliated by
+the avowal, that he had no money.
+
+"But she rose when she heard it, as if she had been stung by an
+insult, and repeated with crushing irony,--
+
+"'No money? No money?'
+
+"And when Malgat, more heartily ashamed of his poverty than he could
+have been of a crime, blushed to the roots of his hair, she pointed at
+the immense safe, which overflowed with gold and bank-notes, and
+said,--
+
+'"And what is all that?'
+
+"Malgat jumped up, and stood before the safe, his arms far
+outstretched, as if to defend it, and said in an accent of ineffable
+terror,--
+
+"'What are you thinking of? And my honor?'
+
+"This was to be his last effort to preserve his honor. Sarah looked
+him straight in the face, and said slowly,--
+
+"'And my honor! My honor is nothing to you? Do I not give myself? Do
+you mean to drive a bargain?'
+
+"Great God! She said this with an accent and with a look which would
+have tempted an angel. Malgat fell helpless into a chair.
+
+"Then she came close up to him, and, casting upon him those burning
+glances which blazed with superhuman audacity, she sighed,--
+
+"'If you loved me really! Ah, if you really loved me!'
+
+"And she bent over him, tremulous with passion, watching his features
+so closely, that their lips nearly touched.
+
+"'If you loved me as I love you,' she whispered again.
+
+"It was all over; Malgat was lost. He drew Sarah towards him, and
+said, kissing her,--
+
+"'Very well then. Yes!'
+
+"She immediately disengaged herself, and with eager hands seized one
+parcel of bank-notes after another, pushing them into a little morocco
+bag which she held in her hand. And, when the bag was full, she
+said,--
+
+"'Now we are safe. To-night at ten o'clock, at the gate of the court-
+yard, with a carriage. To-morrow, at daybreak, we shall be out of
+France, and free. Now we are bound to each other forever,--and I love
+you!'
+
+"And she went away. And he let her go away."
+
+The old gentleman had become ghastly white, his few hairs seemed to
+stand on end, and large drops of perspiration inundated his face as he
+swallowed at a gulp a cup of tea, and then went on, laughing
+bitterly,--
+
+"You suppose, no doubt, that, /when/ Sarah had left him, Malgat came
+to himself? By no means. It seemed as if, with that kiss, with which
+she had paid him for his crime, the infamous creature had inspired him
+with the same genius for evil that was in her.
+
+"Far from repenting, he rejoiced at what had been done; and when he
+learned, that, on the following day, the board of directors were to
+meet to examine the books, he laughed at the faces they would make;
+for I told you he was mad. With all the coolness of a hardened thief,
+he calculated the total amount of what had been abstracted: it was
+four hundred thousand francs. Immediately, in order to conceal the
+true state of things, he took his books, and, with almost diabolic
+skill, altered the figures, and changed the entries, so as to make it
+appear that the defalcation was of long date, and that various sums
+had been abstracted for several months. When he had finished his
+fearful task, he wrote to the board a hypocritical letter, in which he
+stated that he had robbed the safe in order to pay his differences on
+'Change, and that now, when he could no longer conceal his crime, he
+was going to commit suicide. When this was done, he left his office,
+as if nothing had happened.
+
+"The proof that he acted under the incomprehensible influence of a
+kind of hallucination is this, that he felt neither remorse nor fear.
+As he was resolved not to return to his house, nor to encumber himself
+with luggage, he dined at a restaurant, spent a few minutes at a
+theatre, and then posted his letter to the board of directors, so that
+it might reach them early in the morning.
+
+"At ten o'clock he knocked at the gate of the house in Circus Street.
+A servant came and opened, saying in a mysterious manner,--
+
+"'Please go up. The young lady is waiting.'
+
+"A terrible presentiment seized him at that moment, and chilled him to
+the marrow in his bones. In the parlor Sarah was sitting on a sofa,
+and Maxime de Brevan by her side. They were laughing so loud, that he
+heard them in the anteroom. When Malgat entered, she raised her head
+with a dissatisfied air, and said rudely,--
+
+"'Ah! It is you. What do you want now?'
+
+"Surely, such a reception ought to have disabused the unfortunate man.
+But no! When he began to stammer some explanations, she interrupted
+him, saying,--
+
+"'Let us speak frankly. You come to run away with me, don't you? Well,
+that is simply nonsense. Look at yourself, my good friend, and tell me
+if a girl such as I am can be in love with a man like you. As to that
+small loan, it does not pay me, I assure you, by half, for the sublime
+little comedy which I have had to play. Believe me, at all events,
+when I tell you that I have taken all my precautions so as not to be
+troubled by anything you may say or do. And now, sir, I wish you good-
+evening; or must I go?'
+
+"Ah! she might have spoken a long time yet, and Malgat would not have
+thought of interrupting her. The fearful truth broke all of a sudden
+upon him; and he felt as if the whole world were going to pieces. He
+understood the enormity of the crime; he discerned the fatal
+consequences, and knew he was ruined. A thousand voices arose from his
+conscience, telling him, 'You are a thief! You are a forger! You are
+dishonored!'
+
+"But, when he saw Sarah Brandon get up to leave the room, he was
+seized with an attack of furious rage, and threw himself upon her,
+crying,--
+
+"'Yes, I am lost; but you shall die, Sarah Brandon!'
+
+"Poor fool! who did not know that these wretches had, of course,
+foreseen his wrath, and prepared for the emergency. Supple, like one
+of those lost children of the gutter among whom she had lived once
+upon a time, Sarah Brandon escaped from Malgat's grasp, and by a
+clever trick threw him upon an arm-chair. Before he could rise again,
+he was held fast by Maxime de Brevan, and by M. Elgin, who had heard
+the noise, and rushed in from the adjoining room.
+
+"The poor man did not attempt to resist. Why should he? Within him,
+moreover, a faint hope began to rise. It seemed to him impossible that
+such a monstrous wrong could be carried out, and that he would have
+only to proclaim the wickedness of these wretches to have them in his
+power.
+
+"'Let me go!' he said. 'I must go!'
+
+"But they did not allow him to go as yet. They guessed what was going
+on in his mind. Sir Thorn asked him coolly,--
+
+"'Where do you think of going? Do you mean to denounce us? Have a
+care! You would only sacrifice yourself, without doing us any harm. If
+you think you can use Sarah's letter, in which she appoints a meeting,
+as a weapon against us, you are mistaken. She did not write that
+letter; and, moreover, she can prove an alibi. You see we have
+prepared everything for this business during the last three months;
+and nothing has been left to chance. Do not forget that I have
+commissioned you twenty times to buy or sell for me on 'Change, and
+that it was always done in your name, at my request. How can you say
+you did not speculate on 'Change?'
+
+"The poor cashier's heart sank within him. Had he not himself, for
+fear lest a suspicion should fall upon Sarah Brandon, told the board
+of directors in his letter that he had been tempted by unlucky
+speculations? Had he not altered the entries in the books in order to
+prove this assertion? Would they believe him if he were to tell the
+truth? Whom could he ever hope to persuade that what was probable was
+false, and that the improbable was true? Sir Thorn continued with his
+horrid sneers,--
+
+"'Have you forgotten the letters which you wrote me for the purpose of
+borrowing money from me, and in which you confess your defalcations?
+Here they are. You can read them.'
+
+"These letters, M. Champcey, are those which Sarah showed you; and
+Malgat was frightened out of his senses. He had never written such
+letters; and yet there was his handwriting, imitated with such amazing
+perfection, that he began to doubt his own senses and his own reason.
+He only saw clearly that no one would look upon them as forgeries.
+
+"Ah! Maxime de Brevan is an artist. His letter to the navy department
+has, no doubt, proved it to you.
+
+"Seeing Malgat thus stupefied, Sarah took the word, and said,--
+
+"'Look here, my dear; I'll give you some advice. Here are ten thousand
+francs: take them, and run for your life. It is time yet to take the
+train for Brussels.'
+
+"But he rose, and said,--
+
+"'No! There is nothing left for me but to die. May my blood come upon
+you!'
+
+"And he rushed out, pursued by the insulting laugh of the wretches."
+
+Amazed at the inconceivable boldness of this atrocious plot, Daniel
+and Henrietta were shuddering with horror. As to Mrs. Bertolle, she
+had sunk into a chair, trembling in all her limbs. The old gentleman,
+however, continued with evident haste,--
+
+"Whether Malgat did, or did not, commit suicide, he was never heard of
+again. The trial came on, and he was condemned /in contumaciam/ to ten
+years' penal servitude. Sarah, also, was examined by a magistrate; but
+she made it a success.
+
+"And that was all. And this crime, one of the most atrocious ever
+conceived by human wickedness, went to swell the long list of
+unpunished outrages. The robbers triumphed impudently in broad
+daylight. They had four hundred thousand francs. They could retire
+from business.
+
+"No, indeed! Twenty thousand francs a year was far too little for
+their immoderate desires! They accepted this fortune as an installment
+on account on the future, and used it to wait patiently for new
+victims to be stripped.
+
+"Unfortunately, such victims would not show themselves. The house was
+mounted upon a most expensive footing. M. de Brevan had, of course,
+claimed his share; Sir Thorn was a gambler; Sarah loved diamonds; and
+grim Mrs. Brian had her own vices. In short, the hour came when danger
+was approaching; but, just at that moment, Sarah, looking around, met
+with the unlucky victim she needed.
+
+"This one was a handsome young man, almost a child yet, kind,
+generous, and chivalrous. He was an orphan, and came up from his
+province, his heart full of illusions, and in his pockets his entire
+fortune,--a sum of five hundred thousand francs. His name was Charles
+de Kergrist.
+
+"Maxime managed to bring him to the house in Circus Street. He saw
+Sarah, and was dazzled. He loved her, and was lost.
+
+"Ah! The poor fellow did not last long. At the end of five months, his
+half million was in the hands of Sarah. And, when he had not a cent
+left, she well-nigh forced him to write her three forged drafts,
+swearing, that, on the day on which they became due, she would take
+them up herself. But when the day came, and he called in Circus
+Street, he was received as Malgat had been received. They told him
+that the forgery had been discovered: that suit had been brought; that
+he was ruined. They offered him, also, money to flee.
+
+"Poor Kergrist! They had not miscalculated. Descended from a family in
+which a keen sense of honor had been hereditary for many generations,
+he did not hesitate. As soon as he left the house, he hanged himself
+on Sarah's window, thinking that he would thus hold up to public
+censure the infamous creature who had led him to commit a crime.
+
+"Poor child! They had deceived him. He was not ruined. The forgery had
+never been discovered; the drafts had never been used at all. A
+careful investigation revealed nothing against Sarah Brandon; but the
+scandals of the suicide diminished her prestige. She felt it; and,
+giving up her dreams of greatness, she thought of marrying a fool who
+was immensely wealthy, M. Wilkie Gordon, when Sir Thorn spoke to her
+of Count Ville-Handry.
+
+"In fortune, name, and age, the count was exactly what Sarah had
+dreamed of so often. She threw herself upon him.
+
+"How the old gentleman was drawn to Circus Street; how he was
+surrounded, insnared, intoxicated, and finally made a husband--all
+that you know but too well, M. Champcey. But what you do not know is
+the fact that this marriage brought discord into the camp. M. de
+Brevan would not hear of it; and it was the hope he had of breaking it
+up, which made him speak to you so frankly of Sarah Brandon. When you
+went to ask his advice, he was on bad terms with her: she had turned
+him off, and refused to pay him any money. And he was so mortally
+offended, that he would have betrayed her to the courts even, if he
+had known how to do it without inculpating himself.
+
+"You were the very person to reconcile them again, inasmuch as you
+gave Maxime an opportunity of rendering Sarah Brandon a great service.
+
+"He did not then anticipate that she would ever fall in love with you,
+and that she, in her turn, would have to succumb to one of those
+desperate passions which she had so often kindled in others, and used
+for her own advantage. This discovery made him furious; and Sarah's
+love, and Maxime's rage, will explain to you the double plot by which
+you were victimized. Sarah, who loved you, wanted to get rid of
+Henrietta, who was your betrothed: Maxime, stung by jealousy, wanted
+you to die."
+
+Visibly overcome by fatigue, Papa Ravinet fell back in his chair, and
+remained silent for more than five minutes. Then he seemed to make one
+more effort, and went on,--
+
+"Now, let us sum up the whole. I know how Sarah, Sir Thorn, and Mrs.
+Brian have gone to work to rob Count Ville-Handry, and to ruin him. I
+know what they have done with the millions which they report were lost
+in speculations; and I have the evidence in my hand. Therefore, I can
+ruin them, without reference to their other crimes. Crochard's
+affidavit alone suffices to ruin M. de Brevan. The two Chevassats,
+husband and wife, have caught themselves by keeping the four thousand
+francs you sent to Miss Henrietta. We have them safe, the wretches!
+The hour of vengeance has come at last."
+
+Henrietta did not let him conclude: she interrupted him, saying,--
+
+"And my father, sir, my father?"
+
+"M. Champcey will save him, madam."
+
+Daniel had risen, deeply moved, and now asked,--
+
+"What am I to do?"
+
+"You must call on the Countess Sarah, and look as if you had forgotten
+all that has happened,--as far as she is concerned, Miss Henrietta."
+
+The young officer blushed all over, and stammered painfully,--
+
+"Ah, I cannot play that part! I would not be able."
+
+But Henrietta stopped him. Laying her hand on his shoulder, and
+looking deep into the eyes of her betrothed, as if to search the very
+depths of his conscience, she said,--
+
+"Have you reasons for hesitating?"
+
+He hung his head, and said,--
+
+"I shall go."
+
+
+
+                                XXXII.
+
+It struck two when Daniel jumped out of a carriage before No. 79 in
+Peletier Street, where the offices of the Pennsylvania Petroleum
+Company were now, and where Count Ville-Handry lived at present.
+
+Never in his life had he felt so embarrassed, or so dissatisfied with
+himself. In vain had Papa Ravinet and Mrs. Bertolle brought up all
+possible arguments to convince him, that, with a woman like Sarah
+Brandon, all reprisals were fair; he would not be convinced.
+
+Unfortunately, he could not refuse to go without risking the peace of
+his Henrietta, her confidence, and her whole happiness; so he went as
+bravely as he could.
+
+A clerk whom he asked told him that the president was in his rooms,--
+in the third story on the left. He went up. The maid who came to open
+the door recognized him. It was the same Clarissa who had betrayed
+him. When he asked for the count she invited him in. She took him
+through an anteroom, dark, and fragrant with odors from the kitchen;
+and then, opening a door, she said;--
+
+"Please walk in!"
+
+Before an immense table, covered with papers, sat Count Ville-Handry.
+He had grown sadly old. His lower lip hung down, giving him a painful
+expression of weakness of mind; and his watery eyes looked almost
+senile. Still his efforts to look young had not been abandoned. He was
+rouged and dyed as carefully as ever. When he recognized Daniel, he
+pushed back his papers; and offering him his hand, as if they had
+parted the day before, he said,--
+
+"Ah, here you are back again among us! Upon my word, I am very glad to
+see you! We know what you have been doing out there; for my wife sent
+me again and again to the navy department to see if there were any
+news of you. And you have become an officer of the Legion of Honor!
+You ought to be pleased."
+
+"Fortune has favored, me, count."
+
+"Alas! I am sorry I cannot say as much for myself," replied the latter
+with a sigh.
+
+"You must be surprised," he continued, "to find me living in such a
+dog's kennel, I who formerly-- But so it goes. 'The ups and downs of
+speculations,' says Sir Thorn. Look here, my dear Daniel, let me give
+you a piece of advice: never speculate in industrial enterprises!
+Nowadays it is mere gambling, furious gambling; and everybody cheats.
+If you stake a dollar, you are in for everything. That is my story,
+and I thought I would enrich my country by a new source of revenue.
+From the first day on which I emitted shares, speculators have gotten
+hold of them, and have crushed me, till my whole fortune has been
+spent in useless efforts to keep them up. And yet Sir Thorn says I
+have fought as bravely on this slippery ground as my ancestors did in
+the lists."
+
+Every now and then the poor old man passed his hand over his face as
+if trying to drive away painful thoughts; and then he went on in a
+different tone of voice,--
+
+"And yet I am far from complaining. My misfortunes have been the
+source of the purest and highest happiness for me. It is to them I owe
+the knowledge of the boundless devotion of a beloved wife; they have
+taught me how dearly Sarah loves me. I alone can tell what treasures
+are hid in that angelic heart, which they dared to calumniate. Ah! I
+think I can hear her now, when I told her one evening how embarrassed
+I had become in my finances.
+
+"'To have concealed that from me!' she exclaimed,--'from me, your
+wife: that was wrong!' And the very next day she showed her sublime
+courage. She sold her diamonds to bring me the proceeds, and gave up
+to me her whole fortune. And, since we are living here, she goes out
+on foot, like a simple citizen's wife; and more than once I have
+caught her preparing our modest meals with her own hands."
+
+Tears were flowing down the furrowed cheeks, leaving ghastly lines on
+the rouged and whitened surface.
+
+"And I," he resumed in an accent of deepest despair,--"I could not
+reward her for such love and so many sacrifices. How did I compensate
+her for being my only consolation, my joy, my sole happiness in life!
+I ruined her; I impoverished her! If I were to die to-morrow, she
+would be penniless."
+
+Daniel trembled.
+
+"Ah, count," he exclaimed, "don't speak of dying! People like you live
+a hundred years."
+
+But the old man lowered his voice, and said,--
+
+"You see, I have not told you all yet. But you are my friend; and I
+know I can open my heart to you. /I/ did not have the--the--
+cleverness to overcome all the restrictions which hamper this kind of
+business. I was imprudent, in spite of all Sir Thorn's warnings.
+To-morrow there will be a meeting of the stockholders; and, if they do
+not grant me what I shall have to ask of them, I may be in trouble.
+And, when a man calls himself Count Ville-Handry, rather than appear
+in a police-court--you know what I mean!"
+
+He was interrupted by one of the clerks, who brought him a letter. He
+read it, and said,--
+
+"Tell them I am coming."
+
+Then, turning again to Daniel, he added,--
+
+"I must leave you; but the countess is at home, and she would never
+forgive me if I did not take you in to present your respects to her.
+Come! But be careful and don't say a word of my troubles. It would
+kill her."
+
+And, before Daniel could recover from his bewilderment, the count had
+opened a door, and pushed him into the room, saying,--
+
+"Sarah, M. Champcey."
+
+Sarah started up as if she had received an electric shock. Her husband
+had left them; but, even if he had been still in the room, she would
+probably not have been any more able to control herself.
+
+"You!" she cried, "Daniel, my Daniel!"
+
+And turning to Mrs. Brian, who was sitting by the window, she said,--
+
+"Leave us."
+
+"Your conduct is perfectly shocking, Sarah!" began the grim lady. But
+Sarah, as harshly as if she had been speaking to a servant, cut her
+short, saying,--
+
+"You are in the way, and I beg you will leave the room."
+
+Mrs. Brian did so without saying a word; and the countess sank into an
+arm-chair, as if overcome by a sudden good fortune which she was not
+able to endure, looking intensely at Daniel, who stood in the centre
+of the room like a statue.
+
+She had on a simple black merino dress; she wore no jewelry; but her
+marvellous, fatal beauty seemed to be all the more dazzling. The years
+had passed over her without leaving any more traces on her than the
+spring breeze leaves on a half-opened rose. Her hair still shone with
+its golden flashes; her rosy lips smiled sweetly; and her velvet eyes
+caressed you still, till hot fire seemed to run in your veins.
+
+Once before Daniel had been thus alone with her; and, as the
+sensations he then felt rose in his mind, he began to tremble
+violently. Then, thinking of his purpose in coming here, and the
+treacherous part he was about to act, he felt a desire to escape.
+
+It was she who broke the charm. She began, saying,--
+
+"You know, I presume, the misfortunes that have befallen us. Your
+betrothed, Henrietta? Has the count told you?"
+
+Daniel had taken a chair. He replied,--
+
+"The count has said nothing about his daughter."
+
+"Well, then, my saddest presentiments have been fulfilled. Unhappy
+girl! I did what I could to keep her in the right way. But she fell,
+step by step, and finally so low, that one day, when a ray of sense
+fell upon her mind, she went and killed herself."
+
+It was done. Sarah had overcome the last hesitation which Daniel still
+felt. Now he was in the right temper to meet cunning with cunning. He
+answered in an admirably-feigned tone of indifference,--
+
+"Ah!"
+
+Then, encouraged by the joyous surprise he read in Sarah's face, he
+went on,--
+
+"This expedition has cost me dear. Count Ville-Handry has just
+informed me that he has lost his whole fortune. I am in the same
+category."
+
+"What! You are"--
+
+"Ruined. Yes; that is to say, I have been robbed,--robbed of every
+cent I ever had. On the eve of my departure, I intrusted a hundred
+thousand dollars, all I ever possessed, to M. de Brevan, with orders
+to hold it at Miss Henrietta's disposal. He found it easier to
+appropriate the whole to himself. So, you see, I am reduced to my
+pittance of pay as a lieutenant. That is not much."
+
+Sarah looked at Daniel with perfect amazement. In any other man, this
+prodigious confidence in a friend would have appeared to her the
+extreme of human folly; in Daniel, she thought it was sublime.
+
+"Is that the reason why they have arrested M. de Brevan?" she asked.
+
+Daniel had not heard of his arrest.
+
+"What!" he said. "Maxime"--
+
+"Was arrested last night, and is kept in close confinement."
+
+However well prepared Daniel was by Papa Ravinet's account, he could
+never have hoped to manage the conversation as well as chance did. He
+replied,--
+
+"It cannot be for having robbed me. M. de Brevan must have been
+arrested for having attempted to murder me."
+
+The lioness who has just been robbed of her whelps does not rise with
+greater fury in her eyes than Sarah did when she heard these words.
+
+"What!" she cried aloud. "He has dared touch you!"
+
+"Not personally; oh, no! But he hired for the base purpose a wretched
+felon, who was caught, and has confessed everything. I see that the
+order to apprehend my friend Maxime must have reached here before me,
+although it left Saigon some time later than I did."
+
+Might not M. de Brevan be as cowardly as Crochard when he saw that all
+was lost? This idea, one would think, would have made Sarah tremble.
+But it never occurred to her.
+
+"Ah, the wretch!" she repeated. "The scoundrel, the rascal!"
+
+And, sitting down by Daniel, she asked him to tell her all the details
+of these attempted assassinations, from which he had escaped only by a
+miracle.
+
+The Countess Sarah, in fact, never doubted for a moment but that
+Daniel was as madly in love with her as Planix, as Malgat, and
+Kergrist, and all the others, had been, she had become so accustomed
+to find her beauty irresistible and all powerful. How could it ever
+have occurred to her, that this man, the very first whom she loved
+sincerely, should also be the first and the only one to escape from
+her snares? She was taken in, besides, by the double mirage of love
+and of absence.
+
+During the last two years she had so often evoked the image of Daniel,
+she had so constantly lived with him in her thoughts, that she mistook
+the illusion of her desires for the reality, and was no longer able to
+distinguish between the phantom of her dreams and the real person.
+
+In the meantime he entertained her by describing to her his actual
+position, lamenting over the treachery by which he had been ruined,
+and adding how hard he would find it at thirty to begin the world
+anew.
+
+And she, generally, so clearsighted, was not surprised to find that
+this man, who had been disinterestedness itself, should all of a
+sudden deplore his losses so bitterly, and value money so highly.
+
+"Why do you not marry a rich woman?" she suddenly asked him.
+
+He replied with a perfection of affected candor which he would not
+have suspected to be in his power the day before,--
+
+"What? Do you--you, Sarah--give me such advice?"
+
+He said it so naturally, and with such an air of aggrieved surprise,
+that she was delighted and carried away by it, as if he had made her
+the most passionate avowal.
+
+"You love me? Do you really, really love me?"
+
+The sound of a key turning in the door interrupted them.
+
+And in an undertone, speaking passionately, she said,--
+
+"Go now! You shall know by to-morrow who she is whom I have chosen for
+you. Come and breakfast with us at eleven o'clock. Go now."
+
+And, kissing him on his lips till they burnt with unholy fire, she
+pushed him out of the room.
+
+The poor man staggered like a drunken man, as he went down the stairs.
+
+"I am playing an abominable game," he said to himself. "She does love
+me! What a woman!"
+
+It required nothing less to rouse him from his stupor than the sight
+of Papa Ravinet, who was waiting for him below, hid in a corner of his
+carriage.
+
+"Is it you?" he said.
+
+"Yes, myself. And it seems it was well I came. But for me, the count
+would have kept you; but I came to your rescue by sending him up a
+letter. Now, tell me all."
+
+Daniel reported to him briefly, while they were driving along, his
+conversation with the count and with Sarah. When he had concluded, the
+old dealer exclaimed,--
+
+"We have the whole matter in our hands now. But there is not a minute
+to lose. Do you go back to the hotel, and wait for me there. I must go
+to the court."
+
+At the hotel Daniel found Henrietta dying with anxiety. Still she only
+asked after her father. Was it pride, or was it prudence? She did not
+mention Sarah's name. They had, however, not much time for
+conversation. Papa Ravinet came back sooner than they expected, all
+busy and excited. He drew Daniel aside to give him his last
+directions, and did not leave him till midnight, when he went away,
+saying,--
+
+"The ground is burning under our feet; be punctual to-morrow."
+
+At the precise hour Daniel presented himself in Peletier Street, where
+the count received him with a delighted air.
+
+"Ah!" he exclaimed, "you come just in time. Brian is away; Sir Thorn
+is out on business; and I shall have to leave you directly after
+breakfast. You must keep the countess company. Come, Sarah, let us
+have breakfast."
+
+It was an ill-omened breakfast.
+
+Under the thick layers of rouge, the count showed his livid pallor;
+and every moment nervous tremblings shook him from head to foot. The
+countess affected childish happiness; but her sharp and sudden
+movements betrayed the storm that was raging in her heart. Daniel
+noticed that she incessantly filled the count's glass,--a strong wine
+it was too,--and that, in order to make him take more, she drank
+herself an unusual quantity.
+
+It struck twelve, and Count Ville-Handry got up.
+
+"Well," he said with the air and the voice of a man who braces himself
+to mount the scaffold, "it must be done; they are waiting for me."
+
+And, after having kissed his wife with passionate tenderness, he shook
+hands with Daniel, and went out hurriedly.
+
+Crimson and breathless, Sarah also had risen, and was listening
+attentively. And, when she was quite sure that the count had gone
+downstairs, she said,--
+
+"Now, Daniel, look at me! Need I tell you who the woman is whom I have
+chosen for you? It is--the Countess Ville-Handry."
+
+He shook and trembled; but he controlled himself by a supreme effort,
+and calmly smiling, in a half tender, half ironical tone, he
+replied,--
+
+"Why, oh, why! do you speak to me of unattainable happiness? Are you
+not married?"
+
+"I may be a widow."
+
+These words from her lips had a fearful meaning. But Daniel was
+prepared for them, and said,--
+
+"To be sure you may. But, unfortunately, you, also, are ruined. You
+are as poor as I am; and we are too clever to think of joining poverty
+to poverty."
+
+She looked at him with a strange, sinister smile. She was evidently
+hesitating. A last ray of reason lighted up the abyss at her feet. But
+she was drunk with pride and passion; she had taken a good deal of
+wine; and her usually cool head was in a state of delirium.
+
+"And if I were not ruined?" she said at last in a hoarse voice; "what
+would you say then?"
+
+"I should say that you are the very woman of whom an ambitious man of
+thirty might dream in his most glorious visions."
+
+She believed him. Yes, she was capable of believing that what he said
+was true; and, throwing aside all restraint, she went on,--
+
+"Well, then, I will tell you. I am rich,--immensely rich. That entire
+fortune which once belonged to Count Ville-Handry, and which he thinks
+has been lost in unlucky speculations,--the whole of it is in my
+hands. Ah! I have suffered horribly, to have to play for two long
+years the loving wife to this decrepit old man. But I thought of you,
+my much beloved, my Daniel; and that thought sustained me. I knew you
+would come back; and I wanted to have royal treasures to give you. And
+I have them. These much coveted millions are mine, and you are here;
+and now I can say to you, 'Take them, they are yours; I give them to
+you as I give myself to you.'"
+
+She had drawn herself up to her full height as she said this; and she
+looked splendid and fearful at the same time, in her matchless beauty,
+diffusing energy and immodesty around her, and shaking her head
+defiantly, till the waves of golden hair flowed over her shoulders.
+
+The untamed vagabond of the gutter reappeared all of a sudden,
+breathless and trembling, hoarse, lusting.
+
+Daniel felt as if his reason was giving way. Still he had the strength
+to say,--
+
+"But unfortunately you are not a widow."
+
+She drew close up to him, and said in a strident voice,--
+
+"Not a widow? Do you know what Count Ville-Handry is doing at this
+moment? He is beseeching his stockholders to relieve him from the
+effects of his mismanagement. If they refuse him, he will be brought
+up in court, and tried as a defaulter. Well, I tell you! they will
+refuse him; for among the largest stockholders there are three who
+belong to me: I have bribed them to refuse. What do you think the
+count will do when he finds himself dishonored and disgraced? I will
+tell you again; for I have seen him write his will, and load his
+revolver."
+
+But the door of the outer room was opened. She turned as pale as death
+itself, and, seizing Daniel's arm violently, she whispered,--
+
+"Listen!"
+
+Heavy steps were heard in the adjoining room, then--nothing more!
+
+"It is he!" she whispered again. "Our fate is hanging in the scales"--
+
+A shot was heard, which made the window-panes rattle, and cut her
+short. She was seized with spasms from head to foot, but, making a
+great effort, she cried out,--
+
+"Free at last, Daniel; we are free!"
+
+And, rushing to the door, she opened it.
+
+She opened it, but instantly shut it again violently, and uttered a
+terrible cry.
+
+On the threshold stood Count Ville-Handry, his features terribly
+distorted, a smoking revolver in his hand.
+
+"No," he said, "Sarah, no, you are not free!"
+
+Livid, and with eyeballs starting from their sockets, the wretched
+woman had shrunk back to a door which opened from the dining-room
+directly into her chamber.
+
+She was not despairing yet.
+
+It was evident she was looking for one of those almost incredible
+excuses which are sometimes accepted by credulous old men when violent
+passions seize them in their dotage.
+
+She abandoned the thought, however, when the count stepped forward,
+and thus allowed Papa Ravinet to be seen behind him.
+
+"Malgat!" she cried,--"Malgat!"
+
+She held out her hands before her as if to push aside a spectre that
+had suddenly risen from the grave, and was now opening its arms to
+seize her, and carry her off.
+
+In the meantime Malgat came forward, with Henrietta leaning on Mrs.
+Bertolle's arm.
+
+"She also," muttered Sarah,--"she too!"
+
+The terrible truth broke at last upon her mind: she saw the snare in
+which she had been caught, and felt that she was lost. Then turning to
+Daniel, she said to him,--
+
+"Poor man! Who has made you do this? It was not in your loyal heart to
+plan such treachery against a woman. Are you mad? And do you not see,
+that for the privilege of being loved by me as I love you, and were it
+but for a day, Malgat would again rob his employers, and the count
+would again give all his millions, and his honor itself?"
+
+She said this; but at the same time she had slipped one of her hands
+behind her back, and was feeling for the knob of the door. She got
+hold of it, and instantly disappeared, before any one could have
+prevented her escape.
+
+"Never mind!" said Malgat. "All the outer doors are guarded."
+
+But she had not meant to escape. There she was again, pale and cold
+like marble. She looked defiantly all around her, and said in a
+mocking tone of voice,--
+
+"I have loved; and now I can die. That is just. I have loved. Ah!
+Planix, Malgat, and Kergrist ought to have taught me what becomes of
+people who really love."
+
+Then looking at Daniel, she went on,--
+
+"And you--you will know what you have lost when I am no more. I may
+die; but the memory of my love will never die: it will rankle ever in
+you like a wound which opens daily afresh, and becomes constantly
+sorer. You triumph now, Henrietta; but remember, that between your
+lips and Daniel's there will forever rise the shadow of Sarah
+Brandon."
+
+As she said the last words, she raised a small phial, which she held
+in her hand, with an indescribably swift movement to her lips: she
+drank the contents, and, sinking into a chair, said,--
+
+"Now I defy you all!"
+
+"Ah, she escapes after all!" exclaimed Malgat, "she escapes from
+justice!" He rushed forward to assist her; but Daniel stepped between,
+and said,--
+
+"Let her die."
+
+Already horrible convulsions began to seize her; and the penetrating
+smell of bitter almonds, which slowly filled the whole room, told but
+too plainly that the poison which she had taken was one of those from
+which there is no rescue.
+
+She was carried to her bed; and in less than ten minutes she was dead:
+she had never uttered another word.
+
+Henrietta and Mrs. Bertolle were kneeling by the side of the bed, and
+the count was sobbing in a corner of the room, when a police-sergeant
+entered.
+
+"The woman Brian is not to be found," he said; "but M. Elgin has been
+arrested. Where is the Countess Ville-Handry?"
+
+Daniel pointed at the body.
+
+"Dead?" said the officer. "Then I have nothing more to do here."
+
+He was going out, when Malgat stopped him.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," he said. "I wish to state that I am not
+Ravinet, dealer in curiosities; but that my true name is Malgat,
+formerly cashier of the Mutual Discount Society, sentenced /in
+contumaciam/ to ten years' penal servitude. I am ready to be tried,
+and place myself in your hands."
+
+
+
+                               XXXIII.
+
+The magistrate from Saigon saw his hopes fulfilled, and, thanks to his
+promotion, was commissioned to continue the trial which he had so ably
+commenced. After the jury had brought in their verdict of guilty, he
+sentenced Justin Chevassat, alias Maxime de Brevan, to penal servitude
+for life.
+
+Crochard, surnamed Bagnolet, got off with twenty years; and the two
+Chevassats escaped with ten years' solitary confinement.
+
+The trial of Thomas Elgin, which came on during the same term,
+revealed a system of swindling which was so strikingly bold and
+daring, that it appeared at first sight almost incredible. It excited
+especial surprise when it was found out that he had issued false
+shares, which he made Count Ville-Handry buy in, so as to ruin, by the
+same process, the count as an individual, and the company over which
+he presided. He was sent for twenty years to the penitentiary.
+
+These scandalous proceedings had one good result. They saved the poor
+count; but they revealed, at the same time, such prodigious unfitness
+for business, that people began to suspect how dependent he must have
+been on his first wife, Henrietta's mother. He remained, however,
+relatively poor. They had made Thomas Elgin refund, and had even
+obtained possession of Sarah Brandon's fortune; but the count was
+called upon to make amends for his want of business capacity. When he
+had satisfied all his creditors, and handed over to his daughter a
+part of her maternal inheritance, he had hardly more than six thousand
+dollars a year left.
+
+Of the whole "band," Mrs. Brian alone escaped.
+
+Malgat, having surrendered to justice with the prescribed limits of
+time to purge himself, was tried, and the whole process begun anew.
+But the trial was naturally a mere form. His own lawyer had very
+little to say. The state attorney himself made his defense. After
+having fully explained the circumstances which had led the poor
+cashier to permit a crime, rather than to commit it himself, the
+attorney said to the jury,--
+
+"Now, gentlemen, that you have learned what was the wrong of which he
+is guilty, you ought also to know how he has expiated his crime.
+
+"When he left the miserable woman who had ruined him, maddened by
+grief, and determined to end his life, Malgat went home. There he
+found his sister.
+
+"She was one of those women who have religiously preserved the
+domestic virtues of our forefathers, and who know of no compromise in
+questions of honor.
+
+"She had soon forced her brother to confess his fatal secret, and,
+overcoming the horror she naturally felt, she found words, inspired by
+her excellent heart, which moved him, and led him to reconsider his
+resolve. She told him that suicide was but an additional crime, and
+that he was in honor bound to live, so that he might make amends, and
+restore the money he had stolen."
+
+"Hope began to rise once more in his heart, and filled him with
+unexpected energy. And yet what obstacles he had to encounter! How
+could he ever hope to return four hundred thousand francs. How should
+he go about to earn so much money? and where? How could he do
+anything, now that he was compelled to live in concealment?
+
+"Do you know, gentlemen, what this sister did in her almost sublime
+devotion? She had a moderate income from state bonds; she sold them
+all, and carried the proceeds to the president of the Mutual Discount
+Society, begging him to be patient as to the remainder, and promising
+that he should be repaid, capital and interest alike. She asked for
+nothing but secrecy; and he pledged himself to secrecy.
+
+"And from that day, gentlemen of the jury, the brother and the sister
+have lived like the poorest laborers, working incessantly, and denying
+themselves everything but what was indispensable for life itself.
+
+"And this day, gentlemen, Malgat owes nothing to the society; he has
+paid everything. He fell once; but he has risen again. And this place
+in court, where he now sits as a prisoner, will become to him a place
+of honor, in which he will recover his position in society, and his
+honor."
+
+Malgat was acquitted.
+
+The marriage of Henrietta, Countess Ville-Handry, and Lieut. Daniel
+Champcey, was celebrated at the Church of St. Clothilda. Daniel's
+groomsmen were Malgat and the old chief surgeon of the frigate
+"Conquest." Several persons noticed that the bride wore, contrary to
+usage, a dress of embroidered muslin. It was the robe which Henrietta
+had so often covered with her tears, at the time when, having no bread
+for the morrow, she had tried to live by the work of her hands. Malgat
+had hunted it up, and bought it: the precious dress was his wedding-
+gift.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of The Clique of Gold, by Emile Gaboriau
+
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