g him that at a recent meeting of the managers of the ---- ----
Railway Association a committee of nine had been chosen to decide upon
the most suitable direction of the new road. The committee was to give
in its decision at the end of a fortnight. Mr. Hilson regretted to add
that he feared the majority were in favor of the road to the _right_. He
concluded by suggesting that it might be well for the count to visit
Washington, and exert over members of the committee any influence, that
he could command, to secure a majority of votes in favor of the road
which would prove so advantageous to his son's property.

The count resolved to act at once upon Mr. Hilson's suggestion. When he
proposed to his mother and Bertha that they should start the very next
day for Washington, the countess, for the first time since her arrival,
expressed herself gratified. At the seat of government she would meet
the French ambassador and his wife (the Marquis and Marchioness de
Fleury), and possibly, in the circle in which they moved, she might
encounter foreigners with whom it would not be repugnant to associate.

Bertha heard Count Tristan's announcement with such bright gleamings of
the eyes, such happy flushings of the cheeks, that the sudden radiance
which overspread her countenance set Maurice wondering over the emotions
that caused her to so warmly welcome this unanticipated change of
locality.

The revery into which he had fallen was broken by his father. The count
launched into a discussion upon the management of property in America,
then glided into the subject of the Maryland estate, and finally
suggested that it would be advisable for his son to grant him a power of
attorney which would place him in a situation to act as his
representative in any case of emergency. Maurice unhesitatingly
expressed his willingness to comply with this request, and the legal
instrument was drawn up without delay. Upon receiving the document, the
count assured his son that there was no probability that the power would
be required, and voluntarily pledged himself not to make use of it
without apprising Maurice.

Count Tristan's words and intentions were wholly at variance. His
affairs in Brittany had become so frightfully entangled, that it was
absolutely necessary for him to be able to command a considerable sum to
redeem his credit; and he saw no means by which this desirable end could
be obtained, except by a mortgage upon his son's estate. One o