,

Your servant, O. d'Este M.

"The little mischief! how she abuses her privileges," cried La Briere;
"but isn't she frank!"

No young man can be four years private secretary to a cabinet minister,
and live in Paris and observe the carrying on of many intrigues, with
perfect impunity; in fact, the purest soul is more or less intoxicated
by the heady atmosphere of the imperial city. Happy in the thought
that he was not Canalis, our young secretary engaged a place in the
mail-coach for Havre, after writing a letter in which he announced that
the promised answer would be sent a few days later,--excusing the delay
on the ground of the importance of the confession and the pressure of
his duties at the ministry.

He took care to get from the director-general of the post-office a note
to the postmaster at Havre, requesting secrecy and attention to his
wishes. Ernest was thus enabled to see Francoise Cochet when she came
for the letters, and to follow her without exciting observation. Guided
by her, he reached Ingouville and saw Modeste Mignon at the window of
the Chalet.

"Well, Francoise?" he heard the young girl say, to which the maid
responded,--

"Yes, mademoiselle, I have one."

Struck by the girl's great beauty, Ernest retraced his steps and asked a
man on the street the name of the owner of that magnificent estate.

"That?" said the man, nodding to the villa.

"Yes, my friend."

"Oh, that belongs to Monsieur Vilquin, the richest shipping merchant in
Havre, so rich he doesn't know what he is worth."

"There is no Cardinal Vilquin that I know of in history," thought
Ernest, as he walked back to Havre for the night mail to Paris.
Naturally he questioned the postmaster about the Vilquin family, and
learned that it possessed an enormous fortune. Monsieur Vilquin had
a son and two daughters, one of whom was married to Monsieur Althor,
junior. Prudence kept La Briere from seeming anxious about the Vilquins;
the postmaster was already looking at him slyly.

"Is there there any one staying with them at the present moment," he
asked, "besides the family?"

"The d'Herouville family is there just now. They do talk of a marriage
between the young duke and the remaining Mademoiselle Vilquin."

"Ha!" thought Ernest; "there was a celebrated Cardinal d'Herouville
under the Valois, and a terrible marshal whom they made a duke in the
time of Henri IV."

Ernest returned to Paris having seen enough of Modeste t