ing I did not
inform her, that her health would soon be sufficiently restored to allow
her to leave this house. I conjure her, in the name of her well-known
love of truth to state if such was not my language, when I was alone
with her--"

"Come, sir!" said Rodin, interrupting Baleinier with an insolent air;
"suppose that, from pure generosity, this dear young lady were to admit
as much--what will it prove in your favor?--why, nothing at all."

"What, sir," cried the doctor, "do you presume--"

"I presume to unmask you, without asking your leave. What have you just
told us? Why, that being alone with Mdlle. de Cardoville, you talked to
her as if she were really mad. How very conclusive!"

"But, sir--" cried the doctor.

"But, sir," resumed Rodin, without allowing him to continue, "it is
evident that, foreseeing the possibility of what has occurred to-day,
and, to provide yourself with a hole to creep out at, you have pretended
to believe your own execrable falsehood, in presence of this poor young
lady, that you might afterwards call in aid the evidence of your own
assumed conviction. Come, sir! such stories will not go down with people
of common sense or common humanity."

"Come now, sir!" exclaimed Baleinier, angrily.

"Well, sir," resumed Rodin, in a still louder voice, which completely
drowned that of the doctor; "is it true, or is it not, that you have
recourse to the mean evasion of ascribing this odious imprisonment to a
scientific error? I affirm that you do so, and that you think yourself
safe, because you can now say: 'Thanks to my care, the young lady has
recovered her reason. What more would you have?'"

"Yes, I do say that, sir, and I maintain it."

"You maintain a falsehood; for it is proven that the lady never lost her
reason for a moment."

"But I, sir, maintain that she did lose it."

"And I, sir, will prove the contrary," said Rodin.

"You? How will you do that?" cried the doctor.

"That I shall take care not to tell you at present, as you may
well suppose," answered Rodin, with an ironical smile, adding with
indignation: "But, really, sir, you ought to die for shame, to dare to
raise such a question in presence of the lady. You should at least have
spared her this discussion."

"Sir!"

"Oh, fie, sir! I say, fie! It is odious to maintain this argument before
her--odious if you speak truth, doubly odious if you lie," said Rodin,
with disgust.

"This violence is inconceivable!" cried