st, and renders my proofs
null and void!"

"Explain it all to me," said old Tabaret after a pause--"all, you
understand. We old ones are sometimes able to give good advice. We will
decide what's to be done afterwards."

"Three weeks ago," commenced Noel, "searching for some old documents,
I opened Madame Gerdy's secretary. Accidentally I displaced one of the
small shelves: some papers tumbled out, and a packet of letters fell in
front of my eyes. A mechanical impulse, which I cannot explain, prompted
me to untie the string, and, impelled by an invincible curiosity, I read
the first letter which came to my hand."

"You did wrong," remarked M. Tabaret.

"Be it so; anyhow I read. At the end of ten lines, I was convinced that
these letters were from my father, whose name, Madame Gerdy, in spite of
my prayers, had always hidden from me. You can understand my emotion.
I carried off the packet, shut myself up in this room, and devoured the
correspondence from beginning to end."

"And you have been cruelly punished my poor boy!"

"It is true; but who in my position could have resisted? These letters
have given me great pain; but they afford the proof of what I just now
told you."

"You have at least preserved these letters?"

"I have them here, M. Tabaret," replied Noel, "and, that you may
understand the case in which I have requested your advice, I am going to
read them to you."

The advocate opened one of the drawers of his bureau, pressed an
invisible spring, and from a hidden receptacle constructed in the
thick upper shelf, he drew out a bundle of letters. "You understand, my
friend," he resumed, "that I will spare you all insignificant details,
which, however, add their own weight to the rest. I am only going to
deal with the more important facts, treating directly of the affair."

Old Tabaret nestled in his arm-chair, burning with curiosity; his face
and his eyes expressing the most anxious attention. After a selection,
which he was some time in making, the advocate opened a letter, and
commenced reading in a voice which trembled at times, in spite of his
efforts to render it calm.

"'My dearly loved Valerie,'--

"Valerie," said he, "is Madame Gerdy."

"I know, I know. Do not interrupt yourself."

Noel then resumed.

"'My dearly loved Valerie,

"'This is a happy day. This morning I received your darling letter, I
have covered it with kisses, I have re-read it a hundred times; and now
it has gon