her name?" I said.

"Ah, you love her!" she cried fiercely; "or, rather, you love her
fortune. But you shall never have it, Monsieur de Champcey. I know why
you came here under a false name, and so shall she."

With a movement of anger she departed. I cannot continue here under
suspicion of being a fortune-hunter, so I have written to Laubepin to
obtain another situation for me.

_III.--Two on a Tower_

It is all over. Was it because she still only half believed the slanders
spread against me that Marguerite again asked me to go for a walk with
her? Oh, what an unfortunate wretch I am! We rode through the forest
together to one of the most magnificent monuments in Brittany, the
Castle of Elven. Finding the door unlocked, we tethered our horses in
the deserted courtyard, and climbed up the narrow, winding staircase to
the battlements. The sea of autumnal foliage below was bathed in the
light of the setting sun, and for a long time we sat side by side in
silence, gazing at the infinite distances.

"Come!" she said at last, in a low whisper, as the light died out of the
sky. "It is finished!"

But on descending the dark staircase we found that the door of the keep
was locked. No doubt the shepherd boy who looked after the castle had
come and shut up the place while we were sitting, watching the sunset.

"Monsieur de Champcey," she said, in a cold, hard voice, "were there any
scoundrels in your family before you?"

"Marguerite!" I cried.

"You paid that boy to lock us in," she exclaimed. "You think you will
force me to marry you by compromising me in this manner. Do you think
you will win my hand--and, what is more important to you still, my
wretched wealth--by this trick? Rather than marry a scoundrel like you,
I will shut myself up in a convent!"

Carried away by my feelings, I seized her two hands, and said, "Now
listen, Marguerite. I love you, it is true. Never did man love more
devotedly, yes, and more disinterestedly, than I do. But I swear that if
I get out of this place alive I will never marry you until you are as
poor as I am, or I as rich as you are. If you love me, as I think you
do, fall on your knees and pray, for unless a miracle happens you will
never see me again alive."

But a miracle did happen. I threw myself out of the window, and fell
upon a branch of an oak-tree. It bent beneath my weight, and then broke;
but it came so near the earth before breaking that if my left arm had
not struc