Settlements
effected for insolvent parties."

"Ah! that's a different thing," said the servant. "Will monsieur take
the trouble to follow me?"

M. Fortunat did take the trouble; and he was conducted into a large
drawing-room where he was requested to sit down and await madame's
coming. Left to himself, he began an inventory of the apartment, as a
general studies the ground on which he is about to give battle. No trace
remained of the unfortunate scene of the previous night, save a broken
candelabrum on the chimney-piece. It was the one which Pascal Ferailleur
had armed himself with, when they talked of searching him, and which he
had thrown down in the courtyard, as he left the house. But this detail
did not attract M. Fortunat's attention. The only thing that puzzled
him was the large reflector placed above the chandelier, and it took
him some time to fathom with what object it was placed there. Without
precisely intimidating him, the luxurious appointments of the house
aroused his astonishment. "Everything here is in princely style," he
muttered, "and this shows that all the lunatics are not at Charenton
yet. If Madame d'Argeles lacked bread in days gone by, she does so no
longer--that's evident."

Naturally enough this reflection led him to wonder why such a rich woman
should become the Marquis de Valorsay's accomplice, and lend a hand in
so vile and cowardly a plot, which horrified even him--Fortunat. "For
she must be an accomplice," he thought.

And he marvelled at the freak of fate which had connected the
unfortunate man who had been sacrificed with the unacknowledged
daughter, and the cast-off sister, of the Count de Chalusse. A vague
presentiment, the mysterious voice of instinct, warned him, moreover,
that his profit in the affair would depend upon the antagonism, or
alliance, of Mademoiselle Marguerite and Madame d'Argeles. But his
meditations were suddenly interrupted by the sound of a discussion in
an adjoining room. He stepped eagerly forward, hoping to hear something,
and he did hear a man saying in a coarse voice: "What! I leave an
interesting game, and lose precious time in coming to offer you my
services, and you receive me like this! Zounds! madame, this will teach
me not to meddle with what doesn't concern me, in future. So, good-bye,
my dear lady. You'll learn some day, to your cost, the real nature of
this villain of a Coralth whom you now defend so warmly."

This name of Coralth was also one