ct, he was compelled to pause by the piercing glance
which M. de Valorsay turned upon him. He was furious with himself. "I am
losing my wits," he thought.

"Still more wise counsel," remarked the ruined nobleman ironically.
"While you are about it, why don't you advise me to sell my horses and
carriages, and establish myself in a garret in the Rue Amelot? Such a
course would seem very natural, wouldn't it? and, of course, it would
inspire M. de Chalusse with boundless confidence!"

"But without going to such extremes----"

"Hold your tongue!" interrupted the marquis, violently. "Better than any
one else you know that I cannot retrench, although the reality no longer
exists. I am condemned, cost what it may, to keep up appearances. That
is my only hope of salvation. I have gambled, given expensive suppers,
indulged in dissipation of every kind, and I must continue to do so.
I have come to hate Ninette Simplon, for whom I have committed so many
acts of folly, and yet I still keep her--to show that I am rolling in
wealth. I have thrown thousand-franc notes out of the window, and I
mustn't stop throwing them. Indeed, what would people say if I stopped!
Why, 'Valorsay is a ruined man!' Then, farewell to my hopes of marrying
an heiress. And so I am always gay and smiling; that is part of my role.
What would my servants--the twenty spies that I pay--what would they
think if they saw me thoughtful or disturbed? You would scarcely believe
it, M. Fortunat, but I have positively been reduced to dining on credit
at my club, because I had paid, that morning, for a month's provender
for my horses! It is true I have many valuable articles in my house, but
I cannot dispose of them. People would recognize them at once; besides,
they form a part of my stock-in-trade. An actor doesn't sell his
costumes because he's hungry--he goes without food--and when it's time
for the curtain to rise, he dons his satin and velvet garments, and,
despite his empty stomach, he chants the praises of a bountiful table
and rare old wine. That is what I am doing--I, Robert Dalbou, Marquis
de Valorsay! At the races at Vincennes, about a fortnight ago, I was
bowling along the boulevard behind my four-in-hand, when I heard a
laborer say, 'How happy those rich people must be!' Happy, indeed! Why,
I envied him his lot. He was sure that the morrow would be like the
day that preceded it. On that occasion my entire fortune consisted of
a single louis, which I had w