eading it some misfortune might be averted?"

"Yes, yes; that is just what keeps me in doubt."

Here Madame de l'Estorade cut the matter short by entering the room.
Lucas had told her of the unexpected arrival of Philippe.

"Is anything the matter?" she asked with anxious curiosity.

The apprehensions Sallenauve had expressed the night before as to
Marie-Gaston's condition returned to her mind. As soon as Philippe had
repeated the explanations he had already given to her husband, she broke
the seals of the letter.

Whatever may have been the contents of that disquieting epistle, nothing
was reflected on Madame de l'Estorade's face.

"You say that your master left Ville d'Avray in company with an English
gentleman," she said to Philippe. "Did he seem to go unwillingly, as if
yielding to violence?"

"No, far from that, madame; he seemed to be rather cheerful."

"Well, there is nothing that need make us uneasy. This letter was
written some days ago, and, in spite of its three black seals, it has no
reference to anything that has happened since."

Philippe bowed and went away. As soon as husband and wife were alone
together, Monsieur de l'Estorade said, stretching out his hand for the
letter,--

"What did he write about?"

"No, don't read it," said the countess, not giving him the letter.

"Why not?"

"It would pain you. It is enough for me to have had the shock; I could
scarcely control myself before that old servant."

"Does it refer to suicide?"

Madame de l'Estorade nodded her head in affirmation.

"A real, immediate intention?"

"The letter is dated yesterday morning; and apparently, if it had not
been for the providential arrival of that Englishman, the poor fellow
would have taken advantage of Monsieur de Sallenauve's absence last
night to kill himself."

"The Englishman must have suspected his intention, and carried him
off to divert him from it. If that is so, he won't let him out of his
sight."

"And we may also count on Monsieur Sallenauve, who has probably joined
them by this time."

"Then I don't see that there is anything so terrible in the letter"; and
again he offered to take it.

"No," said Madame de l'Estorade, drawing back, "if I ask you not to read
it. Why give yourself painful emotions? The letter not only expresses
the intention of suicide, but it shows that our poor friend is
completely out of his mind."

At this instant piercing screams from Rene, her youngest child, put