;
but a sign from the doctor made her exert herself to repress any
manifestation of feeling calculated to disturb the progress of her
parent's thoughts.

Meanwhile Morel, bending over his daughter, and peering, with uneasy
scrutiny, into her countenance, became very pale, pressed his hands to
his brows, and then wiped away the large damp drops that had gathered
there. Drawing closer and closer to the agitated girl, he strove to
speak to her, but the words expired on his lips. His paleness increased,
and he gazed around him with the bewildered air of a person awakening
from a troubled dream.

"Good, good!" whispered the doctor to Louise; "now, when I say 'Come,'
throw yourself into his arms and call him 'father!'"

The lapidary, pressing his two hands on his breast, again commenced
examining the individual before him from head to foot, as if determined
to satisfy his mind as to her identity. His features expressed a painful
uncertainty, and, instead of continuing to watch the features of his
daughter, he seemed as if trying to hide himself from her sight, saying,
in a low, murmuring, broken tone:

"No, no! It is a dream! Where am I? It is impossible! I dream,--it
cannot be she!" Then, observing the gold strewed on the floor, he cried,
"And this gold! I do not remember,--am I then awake? Oh, my head is
dizzy! I dare not look,--I am ashamed! She is not my Louise!"

"Come!" cried the doctor, in a loud voice.

"Father! Dearest father!" exclaimed Louise. "Do you not know your
child,--your poor Louise?" And as she said these words she threw herself
on the lapidary's neck, while the doctor motioned for the rest of the
group to advance.

"Gracious heavens!" exclaimed Morel, while Louise loaded him with
caresses. "Where am I? What has happened to me? Who are all these
persons? Oh, I cannot--dare not believe the reality of what I see!"

Then, after a short silence, he abruptly took the head of Louise between
his two hands, gazed earnestly and searchingly at her for some moments,
then cried, in a voice tremulous with emotion, "Louise?"

"He is saved!" said the doctor.

"My dear Morel,--my dear husband!" exclaimed the lapidary's wife,
mingling her caresses with those of her daughter.

"My wife! My child and wife both here!" cried Morel.

"Pray don't overlook the rest of your friends, M. Morel," said
Rigolette, advancing; "see, we have all come to visit you at once!"

"I for one am delighted to renew my acquaintance w