The
Comte d'Esgrignon next brought out a letter in Chesnel's handwriting, by
which the notary advised him of the deposit of a hundred thousand crowns
with M. du Croisier. With such primary facts as these to bring
forward as evidence, the young Count's innocence was bound to emerge
triumphantly from a court of law.

Du Croisier went home from the court, his face white with rage, and the
foam of repressed fury on his lips. His wife was sitting by the fireside
in the drawing-room at work upon a pair of slippers for him. She
trembled when she looked into his face, but her mind was made up.

"Madame," he stammered out, "what deposition is this that you made
before the magistrate? You have dishonored, ruined, and betrayed me!"

"I have saved you, monsieur," answered she. "If some day you will have
the honor of connecting yourself with the d'Esgrignons by marrying your
niece to the Count, it will be entirely owing to my conduct to-day."

"A miracle!" cried he. "Balaam's ass has spoken. Nothing will astonish
me after this. And where are the hundred thousand crowns which (so M.
Camusot tells me) are here in my house?"

"Here they are," said she, pulling out a bundle of banknotes from
beneath the cushions of her settee. "I have not committed mortal sin by
declaring that M. Chesnel gave them into my keeping."

"While I was away?"

"You were not here."

"Will you swear that to me on your salvation?"

"I swear it," she said composedly.

"Then why did you say nothing to me about it?" demanded he.

"I was wrong there," said his wife, "but my mistake was all for your
good. Your niece will be Marquise d'Esgrignon some of these days, and
you will perhaps be a deputy, if you behave well in this deplorable
business. You have gone too far; you must find out how to get back
again."

Du Croisier, under stress of painful agitation, strode up and down his
drawing-room; while his wife, in no less agitation, awaited the result
of this exercise. Du Croisier at length rang the bell.

"I am not at home to any one to-night," he said, when the man appeared;
"shut the gates; and if any one calls, tell them that your mistress and
I have gone into the country. We shall start directly after dinner, and
dinner must be half an hour earlier than usual."

The great news was discussed that evening in every drawing-room;
little shopkeepers, working folk, beggars, the noblesse, the merchant
class--the whole town, in short, was talking of th