on at baccarat the evening before. As I
entered the enclosure, Isabelle, the flower-girl, handed me a rose for
my button-hole. I gave her my louis--but I longed to strangle her!"

He paused for a moment, and then, in a frenzy of passion, he advanced
toward M. Fortunat, who instinctively retreated into the protecting
embrasure of a window. "And for eight months I have lived this horrible
life!" he resumed. "For eight months each moment has been so much
torture. Ah! better poverty, prison, and shame! And now, when the prize
is almost won, actuated either by treason or caprice, you try to make
all my toil and all my suffering unavailing. You try to thwart me on the
very threshold of success! No! I swear, by God's sacred name, it shall
not be! I will rather crush you, you miserable scoundrel--crush you like
a venomous reptile!"

There was such a ring of fury in his voice that the crystals of the
candelabra vibrated; and Madame Dodelin, in her kitchen, heard it, and
shuddered. "Some one will certainly do M. Fortunat an injury one of
these days," she thought.

It was not by any means the first time that M. Fortunat had found
himself at variance with clients of a sanguine temperament; but he
had always escaped safe and sound, so that, after all, he was not
particularly alarmed in the present instance, as was proved by the fact
that he was still calm enough to reflect and plan. "In forty-eight hours
I shall be certain of the count's fate," he thought; "he will be dead,
or he will be in a fair way to recovery--so by promising to give this
frenzied man what he desires on the day after to-morrow, I shall incur
no risk."

Taking advantage of an opportunity which M. de Valorsay furnished,
on pausing to draw breath, he hastily exclaimed, "Really, Monsieur le
Marquis, I cannot understand your anger."

"What! scoundrel!"

"Excuse me. Before insulting me, permit me to explain----"

"No explanation--five hundred louis!"

"Have the kindness to allow me to finish. Yes, I know that you are in
urgent need of money--not by-and-by, but now. To-day I was unable
to procure it, nor can I promise it to-morrow; but on the day after
to-morrow, Saturday, I shall certainly have it ready for you."

The marquis seemed to be trying to read his agent's very soul. "Are you
in earnest?" he asked. "Show your hand. If you don't intend to help me
out of my embarrassment, say so."

"Ah, Monsieur le Marquis, am I not as much interested in your succes