arly
sorrows,--I would, although firmly determined always to live apart from
you, by a marriage which should have legitimised my daughter, have
rendered her future lot as brilliant and exalted as her past life has
been wretched."

"I had not, then, deceived myself? Oh, misery! To think it is now too
late!"

"Oh, I am well aware it is not your child you regret, but the loss of
that rank you have so eagerly and obstinately striven to obtain. May
your unfeeling and disgraceful regrets pursue you to your grave!"

"Then they will not long torment me; for I feel I shall not long survive
this final ending of all my ambitious schemes."

"But ere your existence closes, it is but fair and just you should be
made aware what sort of life your poor deserted child's has been. Do you
recollect the night on which you and your brother followed me into a den
in the Cite?"

"Perfectly! But why this question? It freezes me with horror; your looks
fill me with dread!"

"As you approached this low haunt of vice, you saw--did you
not?--standing at the corners of the low streets with which that
neighbourhood abounds, groups of poor, unfortunate, guilty creatures,
who--who--But I cannot finish the dreadful tale!" cried Rodolph,
concealing his face with his hands. "I dare not proceed; my own words
affright me!"

"As they do me! What more have I to learn?"

"You saw them, I ask,--did you not?" resumed Rodolph, making a powerful
struggle to overcome his emotion. "You observed these base and degraded
creatures, the shame and disgrace of their own sex? But did you remark
among them a young girl of about sixteen years of age, lovely as an
angel,--a poor child, who, amid the infamy in which she had lived during
the last few weeks, still retained a look so pure, so innocent, and good
that even the ruffians by whom she was surrounded called her
Fleur-de-Marie? Did you observe this,--this fair, this interesting
being? Answer,--answer,--tender, exemplary mother!"

"No!" answered Sarah, almost mechanically; "I did not observe the young
person you speak of." But the teeth rattled in Sarah's head as she
spoke, and her whole frame seemed oppressed with a vague though fearful
dread of coming evil.

"Indeed!" cried Rodolph, with a sardonic smile. "Indeed! I am surprised
at that! Well, I did remark, and upon the following occasion. Listen
attentively to what I am about to relate! During one of the exploring
excursions I before spoke of, I found mys