re!"

He hesitated to receive her, fearing a painful and disagreeable scene.
She could only have, as he knew, a very slight affection for him, who
had for so long repulsed her with such obstinacy. What could she want
with him? To inquire about Albert, of course. And what could he reply?

She would probably have some nervous attack or other; and he would
be thoroughly upset. However, he thought of how much she must have
suffered; and he pitied her.

He felt that it would be cruel, as well as unworthy of him, to keep away
from her who was to have been his daughter-in-law, the Viscountess de
Commarin.

He sent a message, asking her to wait a few minutes in one of the little
drawing-rooms on the ground floor.

He did not keep her waiting long, his appetite having been destroyed by
the mere announcement of her visit. He was fully prepared for anything
disagreeable.

As soon as he appeared, Claire saluted him with one of those graceful,
yet highly dignified bows, which distinguished the Marchioness
d'Arlange.

"Sir--," she began.

"You come, do you not, my poor child, to obtain news of the unhappy
boy?" asked M. de Commarin.

He interrupted Claire, and went straight to the point, in order to get
the disagreeable business more quickly over.

"No sir," replied the young girl, "I come, on the contrary, to bring you
news. Albert is innocent."

The count looked at her most attentively, persuaded that grief had
affected her reason; but in that case her madness was very quiet.

"I never doubted it," continued Claire; "but now I have the most
positive proof."

"Are you quite sure of what you are saying?" inquired the count, whose
eyes betrayed his doubt.

Mademoiselle d'Arlange understood his thoughts; her interview with M.
Daburon had given her experience.

"I state nothing which is not of the utmost accuracy," she replied,
"and easily proved. I have just come from M. Daburon, the investigating
magistrate, who is one of my grandmother's friends; and, after what I
told him, he is convinced that Albert is innocent."

"He told you that, Claire!" exclaimed the count. "My child, are you
sure, are you not mistaken?"

"No, sir. I told him something, of which every one was ignorant, and
of which Albert, who is a gentleman, could not speak. I told him that
Albert passed with me, in my grandmother's garden, all that evening on
which the crime was committed. He had asked to see me--"

"But your word will not be suffici