y the ten thousand
francs your harpy of a sister demanded with an insolence which you
yourself witnessed--"

"But," said Thuillier, "if the origin of this money is honest, as I
sincerely desire it may be, what hinders you from telling me how you got
it?"

"I cannot," said la Peyrade; "the history of that money is a secret
entrusted to me professionally."

"Come, come, you told me yourself that the statutes of your order forbid
all barristers from doing business of any kind."

"Let us suppose," said la Peyrade, "that I have done something not
absolutely regular; it would be strange indeed after what I risked, as
you know, for you, if you should have the face to reproach me with it."

"My poor friend, you are trying to shake off the hounds; but you can't
make me lose the scent. You wish to keep your secret; then keep it. I am
master of my own confidence and my own esteem; by paying you the forfeit
stipulated in our deed I take the newspaper into my own hands."

"Do you mean that you dismiss me?" cried la Peyrade. "The money that you
have put into the affair, all your chances of election, sacrificed to
the calumnies of such a being as Cerizet!"

"In the first place," said Thuillier, "another editor-in-chief can be
found; it is a true saying that no man is indispensable. As for election
to the Chamber I would rather never receive it than owe it to the help
of one who--"

"Go on," said la Peyrade, seeing that Thuillier hesitated, "or rather,
no, be silent, for you will presently blush for your suspicions and ask
my pardon humbly."

By this time la Peyrade saw that without a confession to which he must
compel himself, the influence and the future he had just recovered would
be cut from under his feet. Resuming his speech he said, solemnly:--

"You will remember, my friend, that you were pitiless, and, by
subjecting me to a species of moral torture, you have forced me to
reveal to you a secret that is not mine."

"Go on," said Thuillier, "I take the whole responsibility upon myself.
Make me see the truth clearly in this darkness, and if I have done wrong
I will be the first to say so."

"Well," said la Peyrade, "those twenty-five thousand francs are the
savings of a servant-woman who came to me and asked me to take them and
to pay her interest."

"A servant with twenty-five thousand francs of savings! Nonsense; she
must serve in monstrously rich households."

"On the contrary, she is the one servant of an inf