e me nearly frantic.
It was not strange that people's suspicions were aroused. True, he had
changed all his servants before my arrival here; but he had requested
Madame Leon to remain with me, and who can tell what reports she may
have circulated? It has often happened that when returning from mass
on Sundays, I have overheard persons say, 'Look! there is the Count
de Chalusse's mistress!' Oh! not a single humiliation has been spared
me--not a single one! However, on one point I did not feel the shadow
of a doubt. The count had known my mother. He frequently alluded to her,
sometimes with an outburst of passion which made me think that he had
once adored, and still loved her; sometimes, with insults and curses
which impressed me with the idea that she had cruelly injured him. But
most frequently he reproached her for having unhesitatingly sacrificed
me to insure her own safety. He said she could have had no heart; and
that it was an unheard of, incomprehensible, and monstrous thing that
a woman could enjoy luxury and wealth, undisturbed by remorse, knowing
that her innocent and defenceless child was exposed all the while to the
hardships and temptations of abject poverty. I was also certain that my
mother was a married woman, for M. de Chalusse alluded to her husband
more than once. He hated him with a terrible hatred. One evening, when
he was more communicative than usual, he gave me to understand that
the great danger he dreaded for me came either from my mother or her
husband. He afterward did his best to counteract this impression; but
he did not succeed in convincing me that his previous assertion was
untrue."

The magistrate looked searchingly at Mademoiselle Marguerite. "Then
those letters which we found just now in the escritoire are from your
mother, mademoiselle?" he remarked.

The girl blushed. She had previously been questioned respecting these
letters, and she had then made no reply. Now, she hesitated for a
moment, and then quietly said: "Your opinion coincides with mine,
monsieur."

Thereupon, as if she wished to avoid any further questioning on the
subject, she hurriedly continued: "At last a new and even greater
trouble came--a positive calamity, which made me forget the disgrace
attached to my birth. One morning at breakfast, about a month ago, the
count informed me that he expected two guests to dinner that evening.
This was such an unusual occurrence that I was struck speechless with
astonishment