f," replied Antonia, with dignity.

"Don't you? Do you mean you are not going to present that note again?"

"Not now," replied the admirer and probably the echo of Mother
Marie-des-Anges, but using her own language; "I don't blackmail a family
in affliction. I should remember it on my death-bed, and doubt God's
mercy."

"Why don't you make yourself an Ursuline, now that we are here?"

"Ha, if I only had the courage! I might be happier if I did. But, in
any case, I am not going to Gondreville; Mother Marie-des-Anges has
undertaken to arrange that matter for me."

"Foolish girl! Have you given her that note?"

"I wanted to tear it up, but she prevented me, and told me to give it to
her and she would arrange it honestly for my interests."

"Very fine! You were a creditor, and now you are a beggar."

"No, for I have given the money in alms. I told madame to keep it for
her poor."

"Oh! if you add the vice of patronizing convents to your other vice of
fishing in rivers, you will be a pleasant girl to frequent."

"You won't frequent me much longer, for I go to-night, and leave you to
your dirty work."

"Bless me! so you retire to the Carmelites?"

"The Carmelites!" replied Antonia, wittily; "no, my old fellow, we don't
retire to the Carmelites unless we leave a king."

Such women, even the most ignorant, all know the story of La Valliere,
whom they would assuredly have made their patroness if Sister
Louise-of-the-Sacred-Mercy had been canonized.

I don't know how Mother Marie-des-Anges managed it, but early this
morning the carriage of the old Comte de Gondreville stopped before the
gate of the convent; and when the count again entered it he was driven
to the office of his friend Grevin; and later in the day the latter said
to several friends that certainly his son-in-law was too much of a
fool, he had compromised himself with that Parisian woman, and would
undoubtedly lose his election.

I am told that the rectors of the two parishes in Arcis have each
received a thousand crowns for their poor from Mother Marie-des-Anges,
who informed them that it came from a benefactor who did not wish his
name known. Sallenauve is furious because our partisans are going about
saying that the money came from him. But when you are running before the
wind you can't mathematically measure each sail, and you sometimes get
more of a breeze than you really want.

Monsieur Maxime de Trailles makes no sign, but there is every rea