a question of money, the
count's fortune?"

"Miss Brandon!"

"No, it is not that, I see. I was quite sure of it. What, then, can it
be? Tell me, sir, I beseech you! tell me something."

What could he tell her? Daniel remained silent.

"Very well," said Sarah, clinching her teeth convulsively. "I
understand."

She made a supreme effort not to break out in sobs; and big tears,
resembling diamonds of matchless beauty, rolled slowly down from between
her long, trembling eyelashes.

"Yes," she said, "I understand. The atrocious calumnies which my enemies
have invented have reached you; and you have believed them. They have,
no doubt, told you that I am an adventuress, come from nowhere; that my
father, the brave defender of the Union, exists only in the painting
in my parlor; that no one knows where my income comes from; that
Thorn, that noble soul, and Mrs. Brian, a saint upon earth, are vile
accomplices of mine. Confess, you have been told all that, and you have
believed it."

Grand in her wrath, her cheeks burning, her lips trembling, she rose,
and added in a tone of bitter sarcasm,--

"Ah! When people are called upon to admire a noble deed, they refuse
to believe, they insist upon inquiring before they admire, they examine
carefully. But, if they are told something bad, they dispense with that
ceremony; however monstrous the thing may appear, however improbable it
may sound, they believe it instantly. They would not touch a child; but
they do not hesitate to repeat a slander which dishonors a woman, and
kills her as surely as a dagger. If I were a man, and had been told
that Miss Brandon was an adventuress, I would have been bent upon
ascertaining the matter. America is not so far off. I should have soon
found the ten thousand men who had served under Gen. Brandon, and they
would have told me what sort of a man their chief had been. I should
have examined the oil-regions of Pennsylvania; and I would have learned
there that the petroleum-wells belonging to M. Elgin, Mrs. Brian, and
Miss Brandon produce more than many a principality."

Daniel was amazed at the candor and the boldness with which this young
girl approached the terrible subject. To enable her to speak with such
energy and in such a tone, she must either be possessed of unsurpassed
impudence, or--he had to confess it--be innocent.

Overcome by the effort she had made, she had sunk back upon the sofa,
and continued in a lower tone of voice, as if s