g; she slipped off the bed, threw herself
at the man's feet, kissed his gown with deep humility, and looked up at
him with eyes full of tears.

"I thought I had done so much!" she said.

"Listen, my child. Your terrible reputation has cast Lucien's family
into grief. They are afraid, and not without reason, that you may lead
him into dissipation, into endless folly----"

"That is true; it was I who got him to the ball to mystify him."

"You are handsome enough to make him wish to triumph in you in the
eyes of the world, to show you with pride, and make you an object for
display. And if he wasted money only!--but he will waste his time, his
powers; he will lose his inclination for the fine future his friends can
secure to him. Instead of being some day an ambassador, rich, admired
and triumphant, he, like so many debauchees who choke their talents in
the mud of Paris, will have been the lover of a degraded woman.

"As for you, after rising for a time to the level of a sphere of
elegance, you will presently sink back to your former life, for you have
not in you the strength bestowed by a good education to enable you to
resist vice and think of the future. You would no more be able to break
with the women of your own class than you have broken with the men who
shamed you at the opera this morning. Lucien's true friends, alarmed
by his passion for you, have dogged his steps and know all. Filled with
horror, they have sent me to you to sound your views and decide your
fate; but though they are powerful enough to clear a stumbling-stone
out of the young man's way, they are merciful. Understand this, child:
a girl whom Lucien loves has claims on their regard, as a true Christian
worships the slough on which, by chance, the divine light falls. I came
to be the instrument of a beneficent purpose;--still, if I had found you
utterly reprobate, armed with effrontery and astuteness, corrupt to the
marrow, deaf to the voice of repentance, I should have abandoned you to
their wrath.

"The release, civil and political, which it is so hard to win, which the
police is so right to withhold for a time in the interests of society,
and which I heard you long for with all the ardor of true repentance--is
here," said the priest, taking an official-looking paper out of his
belt. "You were seen yesterday, this letter of release is dated to-day.
You see how powerful the people are who take an interest in Lucien."

At the sight of this docu