leave you, and find a wife worthy
to be your sister."

"So you really love me less than I thought you did?" said Laurence
looking at him with a sort of jealousy.

"No; I love you better than either of you love me," replied the marquis.

"And therefore you would sacrifice yourself?" asked Laurence with a
glance full of momentary preference.

The marquis was silent.

"Well, then, I shall think only of you, and that will be intolerable to
my husband," exclaimed Laurence, impatient at his silence.

"How could I live without you?" said the younger twin to his brother.

"But, after all, you can't marry us both," said the marquis, replying to
Laurence; "and the time has come," he continued, in the brusque tone of
a man who is struck to the heart, "to make your decision."

He urged his horse in advance so that the d'Hauteserres might not
overhear them. His brother's horse and Laurence's followed him. When
they had put some distance between themselves and the rest of the party
Laurence attempted to speak, but tears were at first her only language.

"I will enter a cloister," she said at last.

"And let the race of Cinq-Cygne end?" said the younger brother. "Instead
of one unhappy man, would you make two? No, whichever of us must be your
brother only, will resign himself to that fate. It is the knowledge
that we are no longer poor that has brought us to explain ourselves,"
he added, glancing at the marquis. "If I am the one preferred, all this
money is my brother's. If I am rejected, he will give it to me with
the title of de Simeuse, for he must then take the name and title of
Cinq-Cygne. Whichever way it ends, the loser will have a chance of
recovery--but if he feels he must die of grief, he can enter the army
and die in battle, not to sadden the happy household."

"We are true knights of the olden time, worthy of our fathers," cried
the elder. "Speak, Laurence; decide between us."

"We cannot continue as we are," said the younger.

"Do not think, Laurence, that self-denial is without its joys," said the
elder.

"My dear loved ones," said the girl, "I am unable to decide. I love you
both as though you were one being--as your mother loved you. God will
help us. I cannot choose. Let us put it to chance--but I make one
condition."

"What is it?"

"Whichever one of you becomes my brother must stay with me until I
suffer him to leave me. I wish to be sole judge of when to part."

"Yes, yes," said the brothers, w