neck and his collar, but although this gave full play to his
cravat, his words did not leave his throat any more readily. For he had
imagined that Madame d'Argeles would be like other women he had known,
but not at all. He found her to be an extremely proud and awe-inspiring
creature, who, to use his own vocabulary, SQUELCHED him completely. "I
wished to say to you," he repeated, "I wished to say to you----" But
the words he was seeking would not come; and, so at last, angry with
himself, he exclaimed: "Ah! you know as well as I, why I have come. Do
you dare to pretend that you don't know?"

She looked at him with admirably feigned astonishment, glanced
despairingly at the ceiling, shrugged her shoulders, and replied: "Most
certainly I don't know--unless indeed it be a wager."

"A wager!" M. Wilkie wondered if he were not the victim of some
practical joke, and if there were not a crowd of listeners hidden
somewhere, who, after enjoying his discomfiture, would suddenly make
their appearance, holding their sides. This fear restored his presence
of mind. "Well, then," he replied, huskily, "this is my reason. I know
nothing respecting my parents. This morning, a man with whom you are
well acquainted, assured me that I was--your son. I was completely
stunned at first, but after a while I recovered sufficiently to call
here, and found that you had gone out."

He was interrupted by a nervous laugh from Madame d'Argeles. For she was
heroic enough to laugh, although death was in her heart, and although
the nails of her clinched hands were embedded deep in her quivering
flesh. "And you believed him, monsieur?" she exclaimed. "Really, this is
too absurd! I--your mother! Why, look at me----"

He was doing nothing else, he was watching her with all the powers of
penetration he possessed. Madame d'Argeles's laugh had an unnatural
ring that awakened his suspicions. All Coralth's recommendations buzzed
confusedly in his ears, and he judged that the moment had come "to do
the sentimental," as he would have expressed it. So he lowered his head,
and in an aggrieved tone, exclaimed: "Ah! you think it very amusing, I
don't. Do you realize how wretched it makes one to live as utterly alone
as a leper, without a soul to love or care for you? Other young men have
a mother, sisters, relatives. I have no one! Ah! if---- But I only have
friends while my money lasts." He wiped his eyes, dry as they were, with
his handkerchief, and in a still mo