ur estate as he
pleases. If he returns to making gold, he will probably sell the timber
of the forest of Waignies and leave his children as naked as the little
Saint Johns. The forest is now worth about fourteen hundred thousand
francs; but from one day to another you are not sure your father won't
cut it down, and then your thirteen hundred acres are not worth three
hundred thousand francs. Isn't it better to avoid this almost certain
danger by at once compelling the division of property on your marriage?
If the forest is sold now, while Chemistry has gone to sleep, your
father will put the proceeds into the Grand-Livre. The Funds are at
59; those dear children will get nearly five thousand francs a year for
every fifty thousand francs: and, inasmuch as the property of minors
cannot be sold out, your brothers and sister will find their fortunes
doubled in value by the time they come of age. Whereas, in the other
case,--faith, no one knows what may happen: your father has already
impaired your mother's property; we shall find out the deficit when we
come to make the inventory. If he is in debt to her estate, you will
take a mortgage on his, and in that way something may be recovered--"

"For shame!" said Marguerite. "It would be an outrage on my father.
It is not so long since my mother uttered her last words that I have
forgotten them. My father is incapable of robbing his children," she
continued, giving way to tears of distress. "You misunderstand him,
Monsieur Pierquin."

"But, my dear cousin, if your father gets back to chemistry--"

"We are ruined; is that what you mean?"

"Yes, utterly ruined. Believe me, Marguerite," he said, taking her hand
which he placed upon his heart, "I should fail of my duty if I did not
persist in this matter. Your interests alone--"

"Monsieur," said Marguerite, coldly withdrawing her hand, "the true
interests of my family require me not to marry. My mother thought so."

"Cousin," he cried, with the earnestness of a man who sees a fortune
escaping him, "you commit suicide; you fling your mother's property into
a gulf. Well, I will prove the devotion I feel for you: you know not
how I love you. I have admired you from the day of that last ball, three
years ago; you were enchanting. Trust the voice of love when it speaks
to you of your own interests, Marguerite." He paused. "Yes, we must call
a family council and emancipate you--without consulting you," he added.

"But what is it t