lain.

"Is a marquis, if you please,--the Marquis de Tregars."

Well, yes, it was this very name that Mlle. Gilberte was expecting,
and well that she did; for she was thus able to command enough
control over herself to check the cry that rose to her throat.

"But this marriage is not made yet," pursued M. Favoral. "This
marquis is not yet so completely ruined, that he can be made to do
any thing they please. Sure, the baroness has set her heart upon
it, oh! but with all her might!"

A discussion which now arose prevented Gilberte from learning any
more; and as soon as the dinner, which seemed eternal to her, was
over, she complained of a violent headache, and withdrew to her room.

She shook with fever; her teeth chattered. And yet she could not
believe that Marius was betraying her, nor that he could have the
thought of marrying such a girl as M. Favoral had described, and
for money too! Poor, ah! No, that was not admissible. Although
she remembered well that Marius had made her swear to believe
nothing that might be said of him, she spent a horrible Sunday,
and she felt like throwing herself in the Signor Gismondo's arms,
when, in giving her his lesson the following Monday,

"My poor pupil," he said, "feels miserable. A marriage has been
spoken of for him, for which he has a perfect horror; and he trembles
lest the rumor may reach his intended, whom he loves exclusively."

Mlle. Gilberte felt re-assured after that. And yet there remained
in her heart an invincible sadness. She could hardly doubt that
this matrimonial scheme was a part of the plan planned by Marius
to recover his fortune. But why, then, had he applied to M. de
Thaller? Who could be the man who had despoiled the Marquis de
Tregars?

Such were the thoughts which occupied her mind on that Saturday
evening when the commissary of police presented himself in the Rue
St. Gilles to arrest M. Favoral, charged with embezzling ten or
twelve millions.

XXII

The hour had now come for the denouement of that home tragedy which
was being enacted in the Rue St. Gilles.

The reader will remember the incidents narrated at the beginning of
this story,--M. de Thaller's visit and angry words with M. Favoral,
his departure after leaving a package of bank-notes in Mlle.
Gilberte's hands, the advent of the commissary of police, M.
Favoral's escape, and finally the departure of the Saturday evening
guests.

The disaster which struck Mme. Favoral