about to marry her, with an enormous dowry, to a nobleman
bearing one of the proudest names in France, the Marquis de Valorsay."

The name shook Madame d'Argeles as if she had experienced the shock of
an electric battery, and springing to her feet, with flashing eyes: "You
say that my brother's daughter was to marry M. de Valorsay?" she asked.

"It was decided--the marquis adored her."

"But she--she did not love him--confess that she did not love him."

M. Fortunat did not know what to reply. The question took him completely
by surprise; and feeling that his answer would have a very considerable
influence upon what might follow, he hesitated.

"Will you answer me?" insisted Madame d'Argeles, imperiously. "She loved
another, did she not?"

"To tell the truth, I believe she did," the agent stammered. "But I have
no proof of it, madame."

"Ah! the wretch!" she exclaimed with a threatening gesture; "the
traitor! the infamous scoundrel! Now I understand it all. And to think
that it occurred in my house. But no; it was best so, I can still repair
everything." And darting to the bell-rope, she pulled it violently.

A servant at once appeared. "Job," she said, "hasten after Baron
Trigault--he left the house a moment ago and bring him back. I must
speak with him. If you do not overtake him, go to his club, to his
house, to the houses of his friends, go to every place where there is
any chance of finding him. Make haste, and do not return without him."

And as the man turned to obey, she added: "My carriage must be in the
courtyard. Take it."

Meanwhile M. Fortunat's expression of countenance had undergone a marked
change. "Well!" thought he, "I have just made a mess of it! M. Valorsay
is unmasked; and now, may I be hung, if he ever marries Mademoiselle
Marguerite. Certainly, I do not owe much to the scoundrel, for he has
defrauded me of forty thousand francs, but what will he say when he
discovers what I've done? He will never believe me if I tell him that it
was an involuntary blunder, and Heaven only knows what revenge he will
plan! A man of his disposition, knowing that he is ruined, is capable
of anything! So much the worse for me. Before night I shall warn the
commissary of police in my district, and I shall not go out unarmed!"

The servant went off, and Madame d'Argeles then turned to her visitor
again. But she seemed literally transfigured by the storm of passion
which was raging in her heart and mind; her ch