ell have been the death
of Bettina Mignon, again separated from her husband and ignorant of his
fate,--to her as adventurous and perilous as the exile to Siberia. But
the grief which was dragging her to the grave was far other than these
visible sorrows. The caustic that was slowly eating into her heart lay
beneath a stone in the little graveyard of Ingouville, on which was
inscribed:--

BETTINA CAROLINE MIGNON

Died aged twenty-two.

Pray for her.

This inscription is to the young girl whom it covered what many another
epitaph has been for the dead lying beneath them,--a table of contents
to a hidden book. Here is the book, in its dreadful brevity; and it will
explain the oath exacted and taken when the colonel and the lieutenant
bade each other farewell.

A young man of charming appearance, named Charles d'Estourny, came to
Havre for the commonplace purpose of being near the sea, and there he
saw Bettina Mignon. A "soi-disant" fashionable Parisian is never without
introductions, and he was invited at the instance of a friend of the
Mignons to a fete given at Ingouville. He fell in love with Bettina and
with her fortune, and in three months he had done the work of seduction
and enticed her away. The father of a family of daughters should no more
allow a young man whom he does not know to enter his home than he should
leave books and papers lying about which he has not read. A young girl's
innocence is like milk, which a small matter turns sour,--a clap of
thunder, an evil odor, a hot day, a mere breath.

When Charles Mignon read his daughter's letter of farewell he instantly
despatched Madame Dumay to Paris. The family gave out that a journey
to another climate had suddenly been advised for Caroline by their
physician; and the physician himself sustained the excuse, though unable
to prevent some gossip in the society of Havre. "Such a vigorous young
girl! with the complexion of a Spaniard, and that black hair!--she
consumptive!" "Yes, they say she committed some imprudence." "Ah, ah!"
cried a Vilquin. "I am told she came back bathed in perspiration after
riding on horseback, and drank iced water; at least, that is what Dr.
Troussenard says."

By the time Madame Dumay returned to Havre the catastrophe of the
failure had taken place, and society paid no further attention to the
absence of Bettina or the return of the cashier's wife. At the be