ur
aunts, and you know, also, how uncompromising they are. They are quite
capable of exasperating M. Galpin."

"What does it matter?" asked the young girl haughtily. "Circumspection
is all very well for guilty people; but Jacques is innocent."

"Miss Chandore is right," said M. Folgat, who seemed to succumb to
Dionysia like the rest of the family. "Whatever the ladies may have
done, they cannot make matters worse. M. Galpin will be none the less
our bitter enemy."

Grandpapa Chandore started. He said,--

"But"--

"Oh! I do not blame him," broke in the young lawyer; "but I blame
the laws which make him act as he does. How can a magistrate remain
perfectly impartial in certain very important cases, like this one, when
his whole future career depends upon his success? A man may be a most
upright magistrate, incapable of unfairness, and conscientious in
fulfilling all his duties, and yet he is but a man. He has his interest
at stake. He does not like the court to find that that there is no case.
The great rewards are not always given to the lawyer who has taken most
pains to find out the truth."

"But M. Galpin was a friend of ours, sir."

"Yes; and that is what makes me fear. What will be his fate on the day
when M. Jacques's innocence is established?"

They were just coming home, quite proud of their achievement, and waving
in triumph the copy of Jacques's letter. Dionysia seized upon it; and,
while she read it aside, Miss Adelaide described the interview, stating
how haughty and disdainful she had been, and how humble and repentant M.
Galpin had seemed to be.

"He was completely undone," said the two old ladies with one voice: "he
was crushed, annihilated."

"Yes, you have done a nice thing," growled the old baron; "and you have
much reason to boast, forsooth."

"My aunts have done well," declared Dionysia. "Just see what Jacques
has written! It is clear and precise. What can we fear when he says, 'Be
reassured: when the time comes, I shall be able to set matters right'?"

M. Folgat took the letter, read it, and shook his head. Then he said,--

"There was no need of this letter to confirm my opinion. At the bottom
of this affair there is a secret which none of us have found out yet.
But M. de Boiscoran acts very rashly in playing in this way with a
criminal prosecution. Why did he not explain at once? What was easy
yesterday may be less easy to-morrow, and perhaps impossible in a week."

"Jacques, sir,