ations have been restricted. I have
three hundred thousand francs in the bank over and above my invested
fortune--they are yours----"

"Go," said Madame Hulot. "Go, monsieur, and never let me see you again.
But for the necessity in which you placed me to learn the secret of
your cowardly conduct with regard to the match I had planned for
Hortense--yes, cowardly!" she repeated, in answer to a gesture from
Crevel. "How can you load a poor girl, a pretty, innocent creature,
with such a weight of enmity? But for the necessity that goaded me as a
mother, you would never have spoken to me again, never again have come
within my doors. Thirty-two years of an honorable and loyal life shall
not be swept away by a blow from Monsieur Crevel----"

"The retired perfumer, successor to Cesar Birotteau at the _Queen of
the Roses_, Rue Saint-Honore," added Crevel, in mocking tones.
"Deputy-mayor, captain in the National Guard, Chevalier of the Legion of
Honor--exactly what my predecessor was!"

"Monsieur," said the Baroness, "if, after twenty years of constancy,
Monsieur Hulot is tired of his wife, that is nobody's concern but mine.
As you see, he has kept his infidelity a mystery, for I did not know
that he had succeeded you in the affections of Mademoiselle Josepha----"

"Oh, it has cost him a pretty penny, madame. His singing-bird has cost
him more than a hundred thousand francs in these two years. Ah, ha! you
have not seen the end of it!"

"Have done with all this, Monsieur Crevel. I will not, for your sake,
forego the happiness a mother knows who can embrace her children without
a single pang of remorse in her heart, who sees herself respected and
loved by her family; and I will give up my soul to God unspotted----"

"Amen!" exclaimed Crevel, with the diabolical rage that embitters the
face of these pretenders when they fail for the second time in such
an attempt. "You do not yet know the latter end of poverty--shame,
disgrace.--I have tried to warn you; I would have saved you, you and
your daughter. Well, you must study the modern parable of the _Prodigal
Father_ from A to Z. Your tears and your pride move me deeply," said
Crevel, seating himself, "for it is frightful to see the woman one loves
weeping. All I can promise you, dear Adeline, is to do nothing against
your interests or your husband's. Only never send to me for information.
That is all."

"What is to be done?" cried Madame Hulot.

Up to now the Baroness had bra