o kind as to tell me where
I might have the honor of finding you. I had not courage to brave those
formidable discussions inside; but----"

He pointed to the letter the young girl held in her hand, and added:

"But I fear that I am _de trap_."

"Oh! not in the least, Monsieur le Marquis, although this letter which
I have just been reading has, I confess, interested me deeply. It was
written by a poor child in whom I have taken a great interest--whom I
have sent for sometimes when I was lonely--Marie-Anne Lacheneur."

Accustomed from his infancy to the hypocrisy of drawing-rooms, the young
marquis had taught his face not to betray his feelings.

He could have laughed gayly with anguish at his heart; he could have
preserved the sternest gravity when inwardly convulsed with merriment.

And yet, this name of Marie-Anne upon the lips of Mlle. de Courtornieu,
caused his glance to waver.

"They know each other!" he thought.

In an instant he was himself again; but Mlle. Blanche had perceived his
momentary agitation.

"What can it mean?" she wondered, much disturbed.

Still, it was with the perfect assumption of innocence that she
continued:

"In fact, you must have seen her, this poor Marie-Anne, Monsieur le
Marquis, since her father was the guardian of Sairmeuse?"

"Yes, I have seen her, Mademoiselle," replied Martial, quietly.

"Is she not remarkably beautiful? Her beauty is of an unusual type, it
quite takes one by surprise."

A fool would have protested. The marquis was not guilty of this folly.

"Yes, she is very beautiful," said he.

This apparent frankness disconcerted Mlle. Blanche a trifle; and it was
with an air of hypocritical compassion that she murmured:

"Poor girl! What will become of her? Here is her father, reduced to
delving in the ground."

"Oh! you exaggerate, Mademoiselle; my father will always preserve
Lacheneur from anything of that kind."

"Of course--I might have known that--but where will he find a husband
for Marie-Anne?"

"One has been found already. I understand that she is to marry a youth
in the neighborhood, who has some property--a certain Chanlouineau."

The artless school-girl was more cunning than the marquis. She had
satisfied herself that she had just grounds for her suspicions; and she
experienced a certain anger on finding him so well informed in regard to
everything that concerned Mlle. Lacheneur.

"And do you believe that this is the husband of whom she had d