s, sobbed in silence, almost hysterically.

Blassemare waited patiently while she wept on. Suddenly she looked full
and fiercely on him, and cried--

"Perhaps you have told me falsehoods, and dared thus to trifle with me."

"I swear, madame, on the honor of a nobleman of France, I have told you
the simple truth. De Secqville did not venture to deny the fact; on the
contrary, he confessed it frankly."

"Yes--I see you tell me the truth; it was base of De Secqville!"

"Well, to say truth, I did think he might have kept a lady's secret
better."

Blassemare was ready and unscrupulous; but all is fair in love.

"I am innocent!" she cried, with abrupt vehemence, and fixing her fiery
gaze upon him.

"Of course, madame."

"I say I am innocent, sir. Why do you say _of course_!"

"Because _I_ never knew a lady yet, who was otherwise than innocent."

She looked at him with a lowering contempt--he thought it _guilt_--for a
few moments, then dropping her gaze gloomily, she murmured, in bitter
abstraction--

"Yes, it was base of De Secqville; he ought to have perished rather."

"Egad," thought Blassemare, "my project prospers--she is at my
mercy--and disgusted with the Marquis. I'm no general or she surrenders
at discretion."

"De Secqville, madame, is a handsome fellow; but he admires nobody but
himself. He has been all his life--and trust me, he is not quite so
young as he pretends--a man of intrigue. He is not content with his
_bonnes fortunes_, but he boasts of his conquests, and sacrifices
reputations to his vanity. Such men are not to be trusted with impunity,
or loved without disgrace. It is best never to have favored them, and
next best to discard them promptly."

He fancied his speech had hit the fierce temper of his auditor. He
paused for a time, to let it work, and then, in a tone of profound
humility, said--

"As for me, madame, if one so unworthy dare invite a passing thought of
yours, I have but to ask your forgiveness; if I have said one word that
gave you pain, I implore your forgiveness."

Here he sank upon his knee. Lucille was by no means as experienced in
the ways of the wicked gender as many younger women. Blassemare looked
very humble, and she took his humility in good faith. She looked on him
then with a softened aspect, and the heart of the profligate beat thick
with anticipated triumph.

"You have had, madame, in these recent transactions, signal proofs of my
fidelity. The secret so lig