er parents feared some fresh, terrible adventure, with her eyes
cast down under the load of that mysterious disgrace, which she felt was
always weighing upon her, the other girls, who were not nearly so
innocent as people thought, whispered and giggled as they looked at her
knowingly, and immediately turned their heads absently, if she happened
to look at them. People scarcely greeted her; only a few men bowed to
her, and the mothers pretended not to see her, whilst some young
blackguards called her _Madame Baptiste_, after the name of the footman
who had outraged and ruined her.

"Nobody knew the secret torture of her mind, for she hardly ever spoke,
and never laughed, and her parents themselves appeared uncomfortable in
her presence, as if they bore her a constant grudge for some irreparable
fault.

"An honest man would not willingly give his hand to a liberated convict,
would he, even if that convict were his own son? And Monsieur and Madame
Fontanelle looked on their daughter as they would have done on a son who
had just been released from the hulks. She was pretty and pale, tall,
slender, distinguished-looking, and she would have pleased me very much,
Monsieur, but for that unfortunate affair.

"Well, when a new sub-prefect was appointed here eighteen months ago, he
brought his private secretary with him. He was a queer sort of fellow,
who had lived in the _Latin Quarter_[21], it appears. He saw
Mademoiselle Fontanelle, and fell in love with her, and when told of
what occurred, he merely said: 'Bah! That is just a guarantee for the
future, and I would rather it should have happened before I married her,
than afterwards. I shall sleep tranquilly with that woman.'

[Footnote 21: The students' quarter in France, where so many of them
lead rackety, fast lives.--TRANSLATOR.]

"He paid his addresses to her, asked for her hand, and married her, and
then, not being deficient in boldness, he paid wedding-calls,[22] as if
nothing had happened. Some people returned them, others did not, but, at
last, the affair began to be forgotten, and she took her proper place in
society.

[Footnote 22: In France and Germany, the newly-married couple pay the
wedding-calls, which is the direct opposite to our custom.--TRANSLATOR.]

"She adored her husband as if he had been a god, for, you must remember,
he had restored her to honor and to social life, that he had braved
public opinion, faced insults, and, in a word, performed such a