wishes. Do you understand?"

The poor woman understood only too well, but was racking her brain to
discover what could be the purpose of this fatal visit. Perhaps it was
only to claim Gaston's jewels.

"It is unnecessary to recall," continued Louis, "the painful
circumstances which blasted my brother's life. However happy your own
lot has been, you must sometimes have thought of this friend of your
youth, who unhesitatingly sacrificed himself in defence of your honor."

Not a muscle of Mme. Fauvel's face moved; she appeared to be trying to
recall the circumstances to which Louis alluded.

"Have you forgotten, madame?" he asked with bitterness: "then I must
explain more clearly. A long, long time ago you loved my unfortunate
brother."

"Monsieur!"

"Ah, it is useless to deny it, madame: I told you that Gaston confided
everything to me--everything," he added significantly.

But Mme. Fauvel was not frightened by this information. This
"everything" could not be of any importance, for Gaston had gone abroad
in total ignorance of her secret.

She rose, and said with an apparent assurance she was far from feeling:

"You forget, monsieur, that you are speaking to a woman who is now
advanced in life, who is married, and who has grown sons. If your
brother loved me, it was his affair, and not yours. If, young and
ignorant, I was led into imprudence, it is not your place to remind me
of it. This past which you evoke I buried in oblivion twenty years ago."

"Thus you have forgotten all that happened?"

"Absolutely all; everything."

"Even your child, madame?"

This question, uttered in a sneer of triumph, fell upon Mme. Fauvel like
a thunder-clap. She dropped tremblingly into her seat, murmuring:

"My God! How did he discover it?"

Had her own happiness alone been at stake, she would have instantly
thrown herself upon a Clameran's mercy. But she had her family to
defend, and the consciousness of this gave her strength to resist him.

"Do you wish to insult me, monsieur?" she asked.

"Do you pretend to say you have forgotten Valentin-Raoul?"

She saw that this man did indeed know all. How? It little mattered. He
certainly knew; but she determined to deny everything, even the most
positive proofs, if he should produce them.

For an instant she had an idea of ordering the Marquis of Clameran
to leave the house; but prudence stayed her. She thought it best to
discover how much he really knew.

"Well," she said