eed your pity now!... My brother is
alive!... That man has seen him!"

Fandor had to undeceive her:

"Your brother is certainly dead," he declared. "If he were the
individual in question, it would not have been yesterday morning,
but the morning before that, when the keeper saw him; and I do
assure you ..."

"But this good fellow is telling the truth then?"

"I assure you that I have good reasons, the best of reasons, for
believing, for being certain, that the swimmer who crossed the Seine was
not your brother!"

"Great Heaven! Who was it then?"

Fandor hesitated a moment.... Should he divulge his secret? All he said
was:

"It was not your brother--I know that!"

So decisive was his tone, so great the sympathy vibrating through his
words, that Elizabeth Dollon, once more convinced that Fandor was not
speaking at random, bent her head and shed tears of deepest grief and
bitter disappointment.

Fandor allowed the sorrow-stricken girl to give way to her grief for a
few minutes; then he gently asked her:

"Mademoiselle Elizabeth, shall we have a little talk?... You see I
simply cannot tell you everything, yet I would gladly help you!... But
first and foremost, I beg of you to put quite out of your mind this hope
that your brother is still alive!..."

Sadly Elizabeth wiped away her tears, and in a voice which she tried to
steady, said:

"Oh, what is to become of me! I thought I had found in you a support, a
help, and now you abandon me! And I had put my faith in your goodness of
heart!... There are your articles on the one hand, and your attitude on
the other--what am I to make of it? It is driving me to despair! And if
you only knew how much I need to be supported, encouraged; I feel as if
I should go out of my senses--out of my mind ... and I am alone, so
terribly alone!"

The poor girl's voice was broken by sobs, her whole body was shaken by
them. Fandor went up to her, and spoke to her in a low tone
affectionately: he felt great sympathy and an immense pity for this
unhappy young creature, who charmed and attracted him. He tried to
console her, and to change the current of her thoughts:

"Come now, Mademoiselle, do try to control yourself a little! I have
promised to help you, and I certainly shall--you may be sure of it. But
consider now--if I am to be of real use to you, I must know a little
about you: you, yourself, your family, your brother; who your friends
are, and who are your enemies! I must e