eroic at the time of the rash affair of that poor MADAME. Now, if
the young fellow who undertook to make Madame de Rochefide love him were
to quarrel with Calyste, and a duel should ensue--"

"You have thought wisely, Madame la duchesse; and it only proves that in
crooked paths you will always find rocks of stumbling."

"I have discovered a means, my dear abbe, to do a great good; to
withdraw Madame de Rochefide from the fatal path in which she now is;
to restore Calyste to his wife, and possibly to save from hell a poor
distracted creature."

"In that case, why consult me?" asked the vicar, smiling.

"Ah!" replied the duchess, "Because I must permit myself some rather
nasty actions--"

"You don't mean to rob anybody?"

"On the contrary, I shall apparently have to spend a great deal of
money."

"You will not calumniate, or--"

"Oh! oh!"

"--injure your neighbor?"

"I don't know about that."

"Come, tell me your plan," said the abbe, now becoming curious.

"Suppose, instead of driving out one nail by another,--this is what
I thought at my _prie-Dieu_ after imploring the Blessed Virgin to
enlighten me,--I were to free Calyste by persuading Monsieur de
Rochefide to take back his wife? Instead of lending a hand to evil for
the sake of doing good to my daughter, I should do one great good by
another almost as great--"

The vicar looked at the Portuguese lady, and was pensive.

"That is evidently an idea that came to you from afar," he said, "so far
that--"

"I have thanked the Virgin for it," replied the good and humble duchess;
"and I have made a vow--not counting a novena--to give twelve hundred
francs to some poor family if I succeed. But when I communicated my plan
to Monsieur de Grandlieu he began to laugh, and said: 'Upon my honor, at
your time of life I think you women have a devil of your own.'"

"Monsieur le duc made as a husband the same reply I was about to make
when you interrupted me," said the abbe, who could not restrain a smile.

"Ah! Father, if you approve of the idea, will you also approve of the
means of execution? It is necessary to do to a certain Madame Schontz (a
Beatrix of the quartier Saint-Georges) what I proposed to do to Madame
de Rochefide."

"I am certain that you will not do any real wrong," said the vicar,
cleverly, not wishing to hear any more, having found the result so
desirable. "You can consult me later if you find your conscience
muttering," he added. "But why, in