o!
I dare not remove it from the door over which I have hung it, lest those
men so brutally intoxicated should endeavour, as they did yesterday, to
look into the room through the disjointed panels or openings in the
framework.

"What a horrible place we have got into! Oh, if I had but known by what
description of persons it was inhabited before I paid the fortnight in
advance! Certainly, we would not have remained here. But, alas, I knew
it not; and when we have no vouchers for our respectability, it is so
difficult to obtain furnished lodgings. Who could ever have thought I
should have been at a loss,--I who quitted Angers in my own carriage,
deeming it unfit my daughter should travel by any public conveyance? How
could I have imagined that I should experience any difficulty in
obtaining every requisite testimonial of my honour and honesty?"

Then bursting into a fit of anger, she exclaimed, "'Tis too, too hard,
that because this unprincipled, hard-hearted notary chooses to strip us
of all our possessions, I have no means of punishing him! Yes; had I
money I might sue him legally for his misconduct. But would not that be
to bring obloquy and contempt on the memory of my good, my noble-minded
brother; to have it publicly proclaimed that he consummated his ruin by
taking away his own life, after having squandered my fortune and that of
my child; to hear him accused of reducing us to want and wretchedness?
Oh, never,--never! Still, however dear and sacred is the memory of a
brother, should not the welfare of my child be equally so?

"And wherefore, too, should I give rise to useless tales of family
misery, unprovided as I am with any proofs against the notary? Oh, it
is, indeed, a cruel,--a most cruel case. Sometimes, too, when irritated,
goaded by my reflections almost to madness, I find myself indulging in
bitter plaints against my brother, and think his conduct more culpable
than even the notary's, as though it were any alleviation of my woes to
have two names to execrate instead of one. But quickly do I blush at my
own base and unworthy suspicions of one so good, so honourable, so
noble-minded as my poor brother! This infamous notary knows not all the
fearful consequences of his dishonesty. He fancies he has but taken from
us our worldly goods, while he has plunged a dagger in the hearts of two
innocent, unoffending victims, condemned by his villainy to die by
inches. Alas, I dare not breathe into the ear of my poor