to you? Think of the past you have just invoked! Who
helped you then to bear your intolerable sufferings? Don't you remember
the day when you, yourself, had determined to die by your own hand?
There was a woman who persuaded you to abandon the thought of suicide.
It was I!"

He looked at her for a moment with a softer expression, tears came to
his eyes, and rolled down his cheeks. Then suddenly he raised her, and
placed her in an arm-chair, exclaiming: "Ah! you know very well that I
shall not do what I said. Don't you know me better than that? Are you
not sure of my affection, are you not aware that you are sacred in my
eyes?" He was evidently striving hard to master his emotion. "Besides,"
he added, "I had already pardoned before coming here. It was foolish on
my part, perhaps, and for nothing in the world would I confess it to my
acquaintances, but it is none the less true. I shall have my revenge in
a certain fashion, however. I need only hold my peace, and the daughter
of M. de Chalusse and Madame Trigault would become a lost woman. Is this
not so? Very well, I shall offer her my assistance. It may, or may not,
be another absurd and ridiculous fancy added to the many I have been
guilty of. But no matter. I have promised. And why, indeed, should this
poor girl be held responsible for the sins of her parents? I--I declare
myself on her side against the world!"

Madame d'Argeles rose, her face radiant with joy and hope. "Then perhaps
we are saved!" she exclaimed. "Ah! I knew when I sent for you that I
should not appeal to your heart in vain!"

She took hold of his hand as if to raise it to her lips; but he gently
withdrew it, and inquired, with an air of astonishment: "What do you
mean?"

"That I have been cruelly punished for not wishing you to assist that
unfortunate man who was dishonored here the other evening."

"Pascal Ferailleur?"

"Yes, he is innocent. The Viscount de Coralth is a scoundrel. It was he
who slipped the cards which made M. Ferailleur win, into the pack, and
he did it at the Marquis de Valorsay's instigation."

The baron looked at Madame d'Argeles with pro-found amazement. "What!"
said he; "you knew this and you allowed it? You were cruel enough to
remain silent when that innocent man entreated you to testify on his
behalf! You allowed this atrocious crime to be executed under your own
roof, and under your very eyes?"

"I was then ignorant of Mademoiselle Marguerite's existence. I did not