r of importance,
replied: "I have so many responsibilities----"

"Responsibilities!--you?"

"Yes, indeed, m'sieur. And why not? My poor, good mother hasn't been
able to work for a year, and who would care for her if I didn't?
Certainly not my father, the good-for-nothing scamp, who squandered all
the Duke de Sairmeuse's money without giving us a sou of it. Besides,
I'm like other men, I'm anxious to be rich, and enjoy myself. I should
like to ride in my carriage like other people do. And whenever a gamin,
such as I was once, opened the door for ME, I should put a five-franc
piece in his hand----"

He was interrupted by Madame Dodelin, the worthy housekeeper, who rushed
into the room without knocking, in a terrible state of excitement.
"Monsieur!" she exclaimed, in the same tone as if she would have called
"Fire!" "here is Monsieur de Valorsay."

M. Fortunat sprang up and turned extremely pale. "What to the devil
brings him here?" he anxiously stammered. "Tell him that I've gone
out--tell him--"

But it was useless, for the marquis at that very moment entered the
room, and the agent could only dismiss his housekeeper and Chupin.

M. de Valorsay seemed to be very angry, and it looked as if he meant
to give vent to his passion. Indeed, as soon as he was alone with M.
Fortunat, he began: "So this is the way you betray your friends,
Master Twenty-per-Cent! Why did you deceive me last night about the ten
thousand francs you had promised me? Why didn't you tell me the truth?
You knew of the misfortune that had befallen M. de Chalusse. I heard of
it first scarcely an hour ago through a letter from Madame Leon."

M. Fortunat hesitated somewhat. He was a quiet man, opposed to violence
of any kind; and it seemed to him that M. de Valorsay was twisting and
turning his cane in a most ominous manner. "I must confess, Monsieur le
Marquis," he at last replied, "that I had not the courage to tell you of
the dreadful misfortune which had befallen us."

"How--US?"

"Certainly. If you lose the hope of several millions, I also lose the
amount I advanced to you, forty thousand francs--my entire fortune. And
yet, you see that I don't complain. Do as I do--confess that the game is
lost."

The marquis was listening with an air of suppressed wrath; his face
was crimson, there was a dark frown on his brow, and his hands were
clinched. He was apparently furious with passion, but in reality he
was perfectly self-possessed. The best pro