assed slowly and uninterruptedly away in M. de Veron's place
of business, till about half-past four, when that gentleman directed a
porter, who was leaving the private office, to inform M. le Blanc,
that he, M. de Veron, wished to speak with him immediately. On hearing
this order, Eugene looked quickly up from the desk at which he was
engaged, to his father's face; but he discerned nothing on that
impassive tablet either to dissipate or confirm his fear.

'Edouard le Blanc,' said M. de Veron with mild suavity of voice the
instant the summoned clerk presented himself, 'it so chances that I
have no further occasion for your services'----

Sir!--sir!' gasped the terrified young man.

'You are,' continued M. de Veron, 'entitled to a month's salary, in
lieu of that period of notice--one hundred francs, with which you may
credit yourself in the cash account you will please to balance and
bring me as quickly as possible.'

'Sir!--sir!' again bewilderedly iterated the panic-stricken clerk, as
he turned distractedly from father to son--'Sir!'

'My words are plain enough, I think,' observed M. de Veron, coolly
tapping and opening his snuff-box from which he helped himself to a
hearty pinch. 'You are discharged with one hundred francs, a month's
salary in lieu of warning, in your pocket. You have now only to bring
your accounts; they are correct, of course; I, finding them so, sign
your _livret_, and there is an end of the matter.'

Edouard le Blanc made a step or two towards the door, and then, as if
overwhelmed with a sense of the hopelessness of further concealment,
turned round, threw himself with a cry of terror and despair at M. de
Veron's feet, and poured forth a wild, sobbing, scarcely intelligible
confession of the fault or crime of which he had been guilty, through
the solicitations of M. Eugene, who had, he averred, received every
farthing of the amount in which he, Edouard le Blanc, acknowledged
himself to be a defaulter.

'Yes!--yes!' exclaimed the son; 'Edouard gave the money into my hands,
and if there is any blame, it is mine alone.'

M. de Veron listened with a stolid, stony apathy to all this, save for
a slight glimmer of triumph that, spite of himself, shone out at the
corners of his half-closed eyes. When the young man had ceased sobbing
and exclaiming, he said: 'You admit, Edouard le Blanc, that you have
robbed me of nearly two thousand francs, at, you say, the solicitation
of my son--an excuse, you m