-Meran
despised all who were not noble. Her secret had each time been repressed
when she was about to reveal it, by the sad conviction that it would be
useless to do so; for, were it once discovered by her father and mother,
all would be lost. Two hours passed thus; Madame de Saint-Meran was in
a feverish sleep, and the notary had arrived. Though his coming was
announced in a very low tone, Madame de Saint-Meran arose from her
pillow. "The notary!" she exclaimed, "let him come in."

The notary, who was at the door, immediately entered. "Go, Valentine,"
said Madame de Saint-Meran, "and leave me with this gentleman."

"But, grandmamma"--

"Leave me--go!" The young girl kissed her grandmother, and left with her
handkerchief to her eyes; at the door she found the valet de chambre,
who told her that the doctor was waiting in the dining-room. Valentine
instantly ran down. The doctor was a friend of the family, and at
the same time one of the cleverest men of the day, and very fond of
Valentine, whose birth he had witnessed. He had himself a daughter about
her age, but whose life was one continued source of anxiety and fear to
him from her mother having been consumptive.

"Oh," said Valentine, "we have been waiting for you with such
impatience, dear M. d'Avrigny. But, first of all, how are Madeleine and
Antoinette?" Madeleine was the daughter of M. d'Avrigny, and Antoinette
his niece. M. d'Avrigny smiled sadly. "Antoinette is very well," he
said, "and Madeleine tolerably so. But you sent for me, my dear child.
It is not your father or Madame de Villefort who is ill. As for you,
although we doctors cannot divest our patients of nerves, I fancy you
have no further need of me than to recommend you not to allow your
imagination to take too wide a field." Valentine colored. M. d'Avrigny
carried the science of divination almost to a miraculous extent, for
he was one of the physicians who always work upon the body through the
mind. "No," she replied, "it is for my poor grandmother. You know the
calamity that has happened to us, do you not?"

"I know nothing." said M. d'Avrigny.

"Alas," said Valentine, restraining her tears, "my grandfather is dead."

"M. de Saint-Meran?"

"Yes."

"Suddenly?"

"From an apoplectic stroke."

"An apoplectic stroke?" repeated the doctor.

"Yes, and my poor grandmother fancies that her husband, whom she
never left, has called her, and that she must go and join him. Oh, M.
d'Avrigny, I bese