ee him, sir?"

"At your old Chateau de Cardoville, my dear young lady, near which he
had been shipwrecked in a storm, and whither I had gone to--" Rodin
hesitated for a moment, and then, as if yielding to the frankness of
his disposition, added: "Whither I had gone to commit a bad action--a
shameful, miserable action, I must confess!"

"You, sir?--at Cardoville House--to commit a bad action?" cried
Adrienne, much surprised.

"Alas! yes, my dear young lady," answered Rodin with simplicity. "In one
word, I had orders from Abbe d'Aigrigny, to place your former bailiff in
the alternative either of losing his situation or lending himself to a
mean action--something, in fact, that resembled spying and calumny; but
the honest, worthy man refused."

"Why, who are you, sir?" said Mdlle. de Cardoville, more and more
astonished.

"I am Rodin, lately secretary of the Abbe d'Aigrigny--a person of very
little importance, as you see."

It is impossible to describe the accent, at once humble and ingenuous,
of the Jesuit, as he pronounced these words, which he accompanied with
a respectful bow. On this revelation, Mdlle. de Cardoville drew back
abruptly. We have said that Adrienne had sometimes heard talk of Rodin,
the humble secretary of the Abbe d'Aigrigny, as a sort of obedient and
passive machine. That was not all; the bailiff of Cardoville Manor,
writing to Adrienne on the subject of Prince Djalma, had complained of
the perfidious and dishonest propositions of Rodin. She felt, therefore,
a vague suspicion, when she heard that her liberator was the man who had
played so odious a part. Yet this unfavorable feeling was balanced by
the sense of what she owed to Rodin, and by his frank denunciation of
Abbe d'Aigrigny before the magistrate. And then the Jesuit, by his own
confession, had anticipated, as it were, the reproaches that might have
been addressed to him. Still, it was with a kind of cold reserve that
Mdlle. de Cardoville resumed this dialogue, which she had commenced with
as much frankness as warmth and sympathy.

Rodin perceived the impression he had made. He expected it. He was not
the least disconcerted when Mdlle. de Cardoville said to him, as she
fixed upon him a piercing glance, "Ah! you are M. Rodin--secretary to
the Abbe d'Aigrigny?"

"Say ex-secretary, if you please, my dear young lady," answered the
Jesuit; "for you see clearly that I can never again enter the house of
the Abbe d'Aigrigny. I have made of hi