e, but I could shatter the tottering edifice of your
fortune by a single blow. Besides, you forget that I possess a copy of
our agreement, signed by your own hand, and that I have only to show
it to Mademoiselle Marguerite to give her a just opinion of your
disinterestedness. Let us sever our connection now, monsieur, and each
go his own way without reference to the other. If you should succeed you
will repay me."

Victory perched upon the agent's banner, and it was with a feeling of
pride that he saw his noble client depart, white and speechless with
rage. "What a rascal that marquis is," he muttered. "I would certainly
warn Mademoiselle Marguerite, poor girl, if I were not so much afraid of
him."

XIV.

M. Casimir, the deceased Count de Chalusse's valet, was neither better
nor worse than most of his fellows. Old men tell us that there formerly
existed a race of faithful servants, who considered themselves a part
of the family that employed them, and who unhesitatingly embraced its
interests and its ideas. At the same time their masters requited their
devotion by efficacious protection and provision for the future. But
such masters and such servants are nowadays only found in the old
melodramas performed at the Ambigu, in "The Emigre," for instance, or
in "The Last of the Chateauvieux." At present servants wander from one
house to another, looking on their abode as a mere inn where they may
find shelter till they are disposed for another journey. And families
receive them as transient, and not unfrequently as dangerous,
guests, whom it is always wise to treat with distrust. The key of
the wine-cellar is not confided to these unreliable inmates; they are
intrusted with the charge of little else than the children--a practice
which is often productive of terrible results.

M. Casimir was no doubt honest, in the strict sense of the word. He
would have scorned to rob his master of a ten-sous piece; and yet
he would not have hesitated in the least to defraud him of a hundred
francs, if an opportunity had presented itself. Vain and rapacious in
disposition, he consoled himself by refusing to obey any one save his
employer, by envying him with his whole heart, and by cursing fate
for not having made him the Count de Chalusse instead of the Count de
Chalusse's servant. As he received high wages, he served passably well;
but he employed the best part of his energy in watching the count. He
scented some great family