e words and your present remark that I have ruined you. I
must know now if you have had the courage to break with du Guenic."

"Ah! you have your revenge upon him in advance," she cried, throwing
her arms around his neck. "Henceforth, you and I are forever bound
together."

"Madame," said the prince of Bohemia, coldly, "if you wish me for your
friend, I consent; but on one condition only."

"Condition!" she exclaimed.

"Yes; the following condition. You must be reconciled to Monsieur de
Rochefide; you must recover the honor of your position; you must return
to your handsome house in the due d'Anjou and be once more one of the
queens of Paris. You can do this by making Rochefide play a part in
politics, and putting into your own conduct the persistency which Madame
d'Espard has displayed. That is the situation necessary for the woman to
whom I do the honor to give myself."

"But you forget that Monsieur de Rochefide's consent is necessary."

"Oh, my dear child," said La Palferine, "we have arranged all that; I
have given my word of honor as a gentleman that you are worth all the
Schontzes of the quartier Saint-Georges, and you must fulfil my pledge."

For the next week Calyste went every day to Madame de Rochefide's door,
only to be refused by Antoine, who said with a studied face, "Madame is
ill."

From there Calyste hurried to La Palferine's lodging, where the valet
answered, "Monsieur le comte is away, hunting." Each time this happened
the Breton baron left a letter for La Palferine.

On the ninth day Calyste received a line from La Palferine, making an
appointment to receive him. He hurried to his lodgings and found the
count, but in company with Maxime de Trailles, to whom the young _roue_
no doubt wished to give proof of his _savoir-faire_ by making him a
witness of this scene.

"Monsieur le baron," began Charles-Edouard, tranquilly, "here are the
six letters you have done me the honor to write to me. They are, as you
see, safe and sound; they have not been unsealed. I knew in advance what
they were likely to contain, having learned that you have been seeking
me since the day when I looked at you from the window of a house from
which you had looked at me on the previous day. I thought I had better
ignore all mistaken provocations. Between ourselves, I am sure you have
too much good taste to be angry with a woman for no longer loving you.
It is always a bad means of recovering her to seek a quarrel with t