is to be done to save her from this
fearful man? to save me--"

"It is of that I am thinking, and have been for the last hour. Be of
good cheer, Monsieur! all hope is not lost. There is still one chance
of saving Aurore. There is one hope left. Alas! I have known the
time,--I, too, have been unfortunate--sadly--sadly--unfortunate. No
matter now. We shall not talk of my sorrows till yours have been
relieved. Perhaps, at some future time you may know me, and my griefs--
no more of that now. There is still one chance for Aurore, and she and
you--both--may yet be happy. It must be so; I am resolved upon it.
'Twill be a wild act; but it is a wild story. Enough--I have no time to
spare--I must be gone. Now to your hotel!--go and rest. To-morrow at
twelve I shall be with you--at twelve in the Rotundo. Good night!
Adieu."

Without allowing me time to ask for an explanation, or make any reply,
the Creole parted from me; and, plunging into a narrow street, soon
passed out of sight!

Pondering over his incoherent words--over his unintelligible promise--
upon his strange looks and manner,--I walked slowly to my hotel.

Without undressing I flung myself on my bed, without a thought of going
to sleep.

CHAPTER FIFTY NINE.

THE ROTUNDO.

The thousand and one reflections of a sleepless night--the thousand and
one alternations of hope, and doubt, and fear--the theoretic tentation
of a hundred projects--all passed before my waking spirit. Yet when
morning came, and the yellow sunlight fell painfully on my eyes, I had
advanced no farther in any plan of proceeding. All my hopes centred
upon D'Hauteville--for I no longer dwelt upon the chances of the mail.

To be assured upon this head, however, as soon as it had arrived, I once
more sought the banking-house of Brown and Co. The negative answer to
my inquiry was no longer a disappointment. I had anticipated it. When
did money ever arrive in time for a crisis? Slowly roll the golden
circles--slowly are they passed from hand to hand, and reluctantly
parted with. This supply was due by the ordinary course of the mail;
yet those friends at home, into whose executive hands I had intrusted my
affairs, had made some cause of delay.

Never trust your business affairs to a _friend_. Never trust to a day
for receiving a letter of credit, if to a friend belongs the duty of
sending it. So swore I, as I parted from the banking-house of Brown and
Co.

It was twelv