But come, let us try to be a little calm and
sensible. What I have done, good folks, I can as easily undo; and that
being the case, Monsieur Eugene must sign me a bond to-morrow morning
for fifty thousand francs, payable three days after his marriage. Is
it agreed? Very well: then I keep these two parchments till the said
bond is executed; and now, my friends; good-night, for I, as you may
believe, am completely tired after all this benevolent fairy-work.'

The wedding took place on the next day but one, to the great
astonishment of every one acquainted with the two families. It was
also positively rumoured that M. de Veron had proposed marriage to
Madame Carson, and been refused! Be this true or not, it was soon
apparent that, from some cause or other, M. de Veron's health and
spirits were irretrievably broken down, and after lingering out a
mopish, secluded life of scarcely a twelvemonth's duration, that
gentleman died suddenly at Mon Sejour. A clause in his will bequeathed
20,000 francs to Madame Carson, with an intimated hope, that it would
be accepted as a pledge by that lady to respect, as she hitherto had
done, the honour of an ancient family.

This pledge to secrecy would no doubt have been kept, but that rumours
of poisoning and suicide, in connection with De Veron's death, having
got abroad, the Procureur--General ordered an investigation to take
place. The suspicion proved groundless; but the _proces-verbal_ set
forth, that on examining the body of the deceased, there were
discovered the letters 'I. de B.,' 'T. F.,' branded on the front of
the left shoulder; the two last, initials of '_Travaux Forces_'
(forced labour), being large and very distinct. There could be no
doubt, therefore, that the proud M. de Veron was an escaped _forcat_;
and subsequent investigation, which was not, however, very strongly
pressed, sufficiently proved that Jean Baptiste de Veron, the younger
son of a high family, had in very early youth been addicted to wild
courses; that he had gone to the colonies under a feigned name, to
escape difficulties at home; and whilst at the Isle de Bourbon, had
been convicted of premeditated homicide at a gaming-house, and
sentenced to perpetual imprisonment with hard labour. Contriving to
escape, he had returned to France, and by the aid of a considerable
legacy, commenced a prosperous mercantile career; how terminated, we
have just seen. It was by pure accident, or what passes for such in
the wo