ehavior. Thank Heaven! I have in my heart
some religious sentiment at least; the Gospel is not to me a mere
dead-letter, and--understand me well, mademoiselle--_I forgive you_.
It is not to Thuillier, who would refuse them, but to you that I shall,
before long, pay the ten thousand francs which you insinuate I have
applied to my own purposes. If, by the time they are returned to you,
you feel regret for your unjust suspicions, and are unwilling to
accept the money, I request that you will turn it over to the bureau of
Benevolence to the poor--"

"To the bureau of Benevolence!" cried Brigitte, interrupting him. "No, I
thank you! the idea of all that money being distributed among a crowd
of do-nothings and devotes, who'll spend it in junketing! I've been poor
too, my lad; I made bags for the money of others long before I had any
money of my own; I have some now, and I take care of it. So, whenever
you will, I am ready to receive that ten thousand francs and keep it. If
you didn't know how to do what you undertook to do, and spent that money
in trying to put salt on a sparrow's tail, so much the worse for you."

Seeing that he had missed his effect, and had made not the slightest
impression on Brigitte's granite, la Peyrade cast a disdainful look upon
her and left the room majestically. As he did so he noticed a movement
made by Thuillier to follow him, and also the imperious gesture of
Brigitte, always queen and mistress, which nailed her brother to his
chair.

CHAPTER VIII

At the moment when la Peyrade was preparing to lay at the feet of the
countess the liberty he had recovered in so brutal a manner, he received
a perfumed note, which made his heart beat, for on the seal was that
momentous "All or Nothing" which she had given him as the rule of the
relation now to be inaugurated between them. The contents of the note
were as follows:--

Dear Monsieur,--I have heard of the step you have taken; thank
you! But I must now prepare to take my own. I cannot, as you may
well think, continue to live in this house, and among these people
who are so little of our own class and with whom we have nothing
in common. To arrange this transaction, and to avoid explanations
of the fact that the entresol welcomes the voluntary exile from
the first-floor, I need to-day and to-morrow to myself. Do not
therefore come to see me until the day after. By that time I shall
have executed Brigitte, as they say at the