s. Alain's marriage with Valerie is to take place in a few
weeks. The fournisseurs are already gone to fit up the old chateau for
the bride, and Louvier is invited to the wedding.

"I have all this story from Alain, and from Duplessis himself. I tell
the tale as 'twas told to me, with all the gloss of sentiment upon its
woof. But between ourselves, I am too Parisian not to be sceptical as
to the unalloyed amiability of sudden conversions. And I suspect that
Louvier was no longer in a condition to indulge in the unprofitable whim
of turning rural seigneur. He had sunk large sums and incurred great
liabilities in the new street to be called after his name; and that
street has been twice ravaged, first by the Prussian siege, and next
by the Guerre des Communeaux; and I can detect many reasons why Louvier
should deem it prudent not only to withdraw from the Rochebriant
seizure, and make sure of peacefully recovering the capital lent on it,
but establishing joint interest and quasi partnership with a financier
so brilliant and successful as Armand Duplessis has hitherto been.

"Alain himself is not quite recovered from his wound, and is now at
Rochebriant, nursed by his aunt and Valerie. I have promised to visit
him next week. Raoul de Vandemar is still at Paris with his mother,
saying, there is no place where one Christian man can be of such
service. The old Count declines to come back, saying there is no place
where a philosopher can be in such danger.

"I reserve as my last communication, in reply to your questions, that
which is the gravest. You say that you saw in the public journals brief
notice of the assassination of Victor de Mauleon; and you ask for such
authentic particulars as I can give of that event, and of the motives of
the assassin.

"I need not, of course, tell you how bravely the poor Vicomte behaved
throughout the siege; but he made many enemies among the worst members
of the National Guard by the severity of his discipline; and had he been
caught by the mob the same day as Clement Thomas, who committed the same
offence, would have certainly shared the fate of that general. Though
elected a depute, he remained at Paris a few days after Thiers & Co.
left it, in the hope of persuading the party of Order, including then
no small portion of the National Guards, to take prompt and vigorous
measures to defend the city against the Communists. Indignant at
their pusillanimity, he then escaped to Versailles. Th