ersation between the duke and the marquis having naturally
turned on the events of Parisian society which had taken place during
Monsieur de Ronquerolles' absence, the latter made the following remark
which was of a nature to rouse the attention of Monsieur Dorlange.

"Your poor sister Madame de Macumer! what a sad end, after her singular
marriage!"

"Ah! you know," replied Monsieur de Rhetore, in that high-pitched tone
of his, "my sister had too much imagination not to be romantic
and visionary. She loved her first husband, Monsieur de Macumer,
passionately, but after a time one gets tired of everything, even
widowhood. This Marie-Gaston crossed her path. He is agreeable in
person; my sister was rich; he was deeply in debt and behaved with
corresponding eagerness and devotion. The result was that the scoundrel
not only succeeded Monsieur de Macumer and killed his wife with
jealousy, but he got out of her every penny the law allowed the poor
foolish woman to dispose of. My sister's property amounted to at
least twelve hundred thousand francs, not counting a delightful villa
splendidly furnished which she built at Ville d'Avray. Half of this that
man obtained, the other half went to the Duc and Duchesse de Chaulieu,
my father and mother, who were entitled to it by law as heirs ascendant.
As for my brother Lenoncourt and myself, we were simply disinherited."

As soon as your name, my dear Monsieur Gaston, was uttered, Monsieur
Dorlange laid aside his newspaper, and then, as Monsieur de Rhetore
ended his remarks, he rose and said:--

"Pardon me, Monsieur le duc, if I venture to correct your statement;
but, as a matter of conscience, I ought to inform you that you are
totally misinformed."

"What is that you say?" returned the duke, blinking his eyes and
speaking in that contemptuous tone we can all imagine.

"I say, Monsieur le duc, that Marie-Gaston is my friend from childhood;
he has never been thought a _scoundrel_; on the contrary, the world
knows him as a man of honor and talent. So far from killing his wife
with jealousy, he made her perfectly happy during the three years their
marriage lasted. As for the property--"

"Have you considered, monsieur," said the Duc de Rhetore, interrupting
him, "the result of such language?"

"Thoroughly, monsieur; and I repeat that the property left to
Marie-Gaston by the will of his wife is so little desired by him that,
to my knowledge, he is about to spend a sum of two or