e not to go."

"I beg you not to go," said Oscar, vehemently.

"Bad news?" repeated Giselle, "you did not say a word to me about it!"

"I did not have a chance. My old Modeste is very ill and asks me to come
to her. I should never forgive myself if I did not go."

"What, Modeste? So very ill? Is it really so serious? What a pity! But
you will come back again?"

"If I can. But I must leave Fresne to-morrow morning."

"Oh, I defy you to leave Fresne!" said M. de Talbrun.

Jacqueline leaned toward him, and said firmly, but in a low voice: "If
you attempt to hinder me, I swear I will tell everything."

All that evening she did not leave Giselle's side for a moment, and at
night she locked herself into her chamber and barricaded the door, as if
a mad dog or a murderer were at large in the chateau.

Giselle came into her room at an early hour.

"Is what you said yesterday the truth, Jacqueline? Is Modeste really
ill? Are you sure you have had no reason to complain of anybody in this
place?--of any one?"

Then, after a pause, she added:

"Oh, my darling, how hard it is to do good even to those whom we most
dearly love."

"I don't understand you," said Jacqueline, with an effort. "Everybody
has been kind to me."

They kissed each other with effusion, but M. de Talbrun's leave-taking
was icy in the extreme. Jacqueline had made a mortal enemy.

The grand outline of the chateau, built of brick and stone with its
wings flanked by towers, the green turf of the great park in which it
stood, passed from her sight as she drove away, like some vision in a
dream.

"I shall never come back--never come back!" thought Jacqueline. She felt
as if she had been thrust out everywhere. For one moment she thought
of seeking refuge at Lizerolles, which was not very many miles from
the railroad station, and when there of telling Madame d'Argy of her
difficulties, and asking her advice; but false pride kept her from doing
so--the same false pride which had made her write coldly, in answer
to the letters full of feeling and sympathy Fred had written to her on
receiving news of her father's death.

CHAPTER XV. TREACHEROUS KINDNESS

The experience through which Jacqueline had just passed was not
calculated to fortify her or to elevate her soul. She felt for the
first time that her unprotected situation and her poverty exposed her to
insult, for what other name could she give to the outrageous behavior of
M. de Talbrun, which