ide him.

Maurice was too much alarmed by his father's appearance to go on. The
death-like pallor of his face had given place to a purple hue; his veins
seemed swollen; his blood-shot eyes appeared to be starting from their
sockets; his stalwart frame shivered from head to foot; he clutched the
table as though for support, and his head dropped heavily upon it.

"My dear father," exclaimed Maurice, "do not let the mistake move you
thus. I will go to Mr. Emerson at once"--

The count's face was lifted for an instant, as he cried in a tone of
intense agony, "No, no! Not for the world!"

His head fell again; he could not bear the unsuspicious gaze of the son
whom he had wronged, and in whose presence he sat, a self-condemned
criminal.

"Surely it is the fitting course," replied Maurice. "I will make him
retract his words."

"Impossible!" was all the count could ejaculate, still with bowed head.

"But I will prove it very possible!" returned Maurice, in a tone of
determination. "Mr. Emerson cannot use such language with impunity.
Though he threatens that the affair shall be made public, he cannot act
so rashly as to carry out that menace, and upon a mere surmise of some
kind. If there is any _publicity_, he shall publicly retract."

"Impossible! Impossible!" the count groaned forth again.

"That will soon be decided," answered Maurice, moving toward the door.

The count started up.

"Stay! do not go yet! You do not know what you are doing! Stay! I forbid
you to go!"

Maurice had such thorough confidence in his father's probity, that his
suspicions were not aroused even by this vehement language. He only
imagined that the very suggestion of a dishonorable action associated
with his son's name affected Count Tristan thus powerfully.

"But it is absolutely necessary that immediate notice should be taken of
this letter," argued Maurice. "If I had been guilty of the act of which
I have been accused, I could never have lifted my head again, and I feel
degraded by the very suspicion. Do not detain me, I entreat you."

"There is something you must hear before you go!" the count whispered
hoarsely.

For the first time an indefinable dread stole into the mind of Maurice.
He put down his hat, and, approaching his father, could only echo the
words,--

"Something I must hear?"

"You should have consulted me," the count continued, speaking with great
effort.

"True, and I meant to do so, had I not been prevented. Bu