eyes with an embroidered
handkerchief.

"Oh, why did I come here?" sobbed she. "Good Heavens, why
indeed?--Etienne, I am not so provincial as you think me.--You are
making a fool of me."

"Darling angel," replied Lousteau, taking Dinah in his arms, lifting her
from her chair, and dragging her half dead into the drawing-room, "we
have both pledged our future, it is sacrifice for sacrifice. While I was
loving you at Sancerre, they were engaging me to be married here, but I
refused.--Oh! I was extremely distressed----"

"I am going," cried Dinah, starting wildly to her feet and turning to
the door.

"You will stay here, my Didine. All is at an end. And is this fortune so
lightly earned after all? Must I not marry a gawky, tow-haired creature,
with a red nose, the daughter of a notary, and saddle myself with a
stepmother who could give Madame de Piedefer points on the score of
bigotry--"

Pamela flew in, and whispered in Lousteau's ear:

"Madame Schontz!"

Lousteau rose, leaving Dinah on the sofa, and went out.

"It is all over with you, my dear," said the woman. "Cardot does not
mean to quarrel with his wife for the sake of a son-in-law. The lady
made a scene--something like a scene, I can tell you! So, to conclude,
the head-clerk, who was the late head-clerk's deputy for two years,
agrees to take the girl with the business."

"Mean wretch!" exclaimed Lousteau. "What! in two hours he has made up
his mind?"

"Bless me, that is simple enough. The rascal, who knew all the dead
man's little secrets, guessed what a fix his master was in from
overhearing a few words of the squabble with Madame Cardot. The notary
relies on your honor and good feeling, for the affair is settled. The
clerk, whose conduct has been admirable, went so far as to attend mass!
A finished hypocrite, I say--just suits the mamma. You and Cardot
will still be friends. He is to be a director in an immense financial
concern, and he may be of use to you.--So you have been waked from a
sweet dream."

"I have lost a fortune, a wife, and--"

"And a mistress," said Madame Schontz, smiling. "Here you are, more than
married; you will be insufferable, you will be always wanting to get
home, there will be nothing loose about you, neither your clothes nor
your habits. And, after all, my Arthur does things in style. I will be
faithful to him and cut Malaga's acquaintance.

"Let me peep at her through the door--your Sancerre Muse," she went
on. "Is ther