e soft hazel eyes up again toward her
mother's face and said: "Yet now you know! You have found out!"

"Yes, I have found out. That son is the man who sleeps beneath our
roof to-night--Lieutenant St. Georges."

"But how? How? How?"

"Again, listen. For years I sought to find him, made inquiries in
every quarter I could think of, asked--quietly and cautiously--of all
who might by chance possess any information. Then, at last, it
came--from the quarter least to be imagined. From your half-brother."

"Raoul?"

"Ay, Raoul, your father's heir--also heir to the fortune of the Duc de
Vannes, as all the world thought and still thinks. He came to me one
day--three months ago--when he had been privately to Paris; for what
reason I know not, although I know that his visit was a secret one,
since he had not been presented to the king. He came in, I say, and
standing before me, he said, 'Madame, who is Monsieur St. Georges?' I
answered that I had never heard of the gentleman before, to which he
replied: ''Tis strange, madame. He is an officer of the Regiment de
Nivernois. And his commission was given him by the king at the request
of your late--friend, shall I say?--the Duc de Vannes!'

"Aurelie, I fell to trembling then, for I thought to myself, 'I have
found his son.' De Vannes had told me that son was being educated for
his own profession of arms--nay, more, that he sought for him a
commission from the king. Meanwhile, Raoul was watching me carefully,
so that I disguised as best I could my agitation, while I replied: 'It
seems to me you need not to demand information of me. You know of
Monsieur St. Georges's existence--of the calling he follows. On my
part, I have never heard of him before!' 'Nor perhaps,' he replied,
'ever will again!' and with that he left me."

"It must be the man," Mademoiselle de Roquemaure murmured. "It must be
he."

"It is he," the marquise replied emphatically. "It is he. As he stood
before me to-night I saw his father in his eyes, in his glance--nay,
in his bearing. That man is the son of De Vannes--is the De Vannes
himself. And if more proof was wanted, is it not forthcoming when we
have learned that not only his life, but the life of his child, is
thrust against? His father died without a will, without naming him;
_your_ father was therefore the heir, and--after him--your brother
Raoul. In another year, when he is thirty, De Vannes's wealth is his,
if--if," and her eyes glistened as she spoke