h, how fortunate!" exclaimed Madame d'Harville, with much animation.
"No doubt the duchess can tell me all about these unfortunate ladies.
But then," added she, thoughtfully, "I do not see, after all, how we
shall be able to describe them, as we do not even know their name."

"Nay, it will be easy to inquire whether she is acquainted with a widow
still in the prime of life, whose air and manner indicate her being far
superior to her present circumstances, and who has a daughter about
sixteen years of age named Claire. I am sure it was Claire the woman
told me the younger female was called."

"How very strange! That is my child's name; and furnishes an additional
reason for my interesting myself in their misfortunes."

"I forgot to tell you that the brother of this unhappy widow died by his
own hands a very few months ago."

Madame d'Harville was silent for some minutes, as though reflecting
deeply; at length she said:

"If Madame de Lucenay be in any way acquainted with this unfortunate
family, these particulars will be quite sufficient to identify them;
besides which the lamentable end of the brother must have fixed every
circumstance connected with them more strongly in her memory. How
impatient I feel to question the duchess on the subject! I will write
her a note this very evening, begging of her not to go out to-morrow
till I have seen her. Who can these interesting people be? From your
account, my lord, I should say they certainly belong to the higher class
of society, and must, therefore, feel their present distress so much the
more keenly. Alas, to such as they the falling into such utter
destitution must inflict a deeper, keener sting!"

"And all their sufferings have arisen from the knavery of an
unprincipled scoundrel,--a notary, named Jacques Ferrand. But I am in
possession of other acts of villainy on his part equally black with
this."

"That is the name of the person acting as the legal adviser both of my
husband and mother-in-law," exclaimed Clemence; "and, indeed, my lord, I
think you must be mistaken in your opinion of him, for he is universally
regarded as a person of the strictest honour and probity."

"I assure you I have the most irrefragable proofs of what I assert.
Meanwhile let me beg of you to be perfectly silent as to the character I
assign this man, who is as subtle as unprincipled; and the better to
unmask his nefarious practices, it is necessary he should be allowed to
think himself