y people did not always have
their worldly affairs in order, and their wishes fully written down,
in case of accident. What difference did it make whether one were
ill or well? At these words Bertha attempted to stop him. Such
ideas, she said, pained her too much. She even shed real tears,
which fell down her cheeks and made her more beautiful and
irresistible than before; real tears which moistened her handkerchief.

"You dear silly creature," said Sauvresy, "do you think that makes
one die?"

"No; but I do not wish it."

"But, dear, have we been any the less happy because, on the day
after our marriage, I made a will bequeathing you all my fortune?
And, stop; you have a copy of it, haven't you? If you were kind,
you would go and fetch it for me."

She became very red, then very pale. Why did he ask for this copy?
Did he want to tear it up? A sudden thought reassured her; people
do not tear up a document which can be cancelled by a scratch of
the pen on another sheet of paper. Still, she hesitated a moment.

"I don't know where it can be."

"But I do. It is in the left-hand drawer of the glass cupboard;
come, please me by getting it."

While she was gone, Sauvresy said to Hector:

"Poor girl! Poor dear Bertha! If I died, she never would survive
me!"

Tremorel thought of nothing to reply; his anxiety was intense and
visible.

"And this man," thought he, "suspects something! No; it is not
possible."

Bertha returned.

"I have found it," said she.

"Give it to me."

He took the copy of his will, and read it with evident satisfaction,
nodding his head at certain passages in which he referred to his
love for his wife. When he had finished reading, he said:

"Now give me a pen and some ink."

Hector and Bertha reminded him that it would fatigue him to write;
but he insisted. The two guilty ones, seated at the foot of the
bed and out of Sauvresy's sight, exchanged looks of alarm. What
was he going to write? But he speedily finished it.

"Take this," said he to Tremorel, "and read aloud what I have just
added."

Hector complied with his friend's request, with trembling voice:

"This day, being sound in mind, though much suffering, I declare
that I do not wish to change a line of this will. Never have I
loved my wife more--never have I so much desired to leave her
the heiress of all I possess, should I die before her.

"CLEMENT SAUVRESY."

Mistress of herself as Bertha was, she succeed