ing
salutation to be mistaken. Maurice returned it, and, without another
word, went forth. He hurried to Brown's hotel in the hope of unravelling
the mystery.

Meantime, the Countess de Gramont had been thrown, by the reception of
Mr. Emerson's letter, into a state of excitement almost equal to that of
Maurice. Over and over again she read the few lines acknowledging the
sum of ten thousand dollars sent by her, and the information that the
legal proceedings about to be instituted against the Viscount de Gramont
would be arrested.

The letter was in English; thus her difficulty in comprehending its
contents was increased, and, though she was tolerably conversant with
the language, she imagined that she must have misunderstood the words
before her.

The countess requested Bertha to read and translate the letter.

"Aunt," cried Bertha, "what is this about ten thousand dollars? You
cannot have sent this gentleman ten thousand dollars, and yet he makes
you a formal acknowledgment that the money has been received. There must
be some error."

"The error itself is an impertinence," returned the lady. "Does this low
person imagine that the Countess de Gramont meddles with business
matters?--with the sending of money and the receiving of receipts?"

At that moment Maurice entered, and his grandmother, taking the letter
from Bertha, and placing it in his hand, accosted him with no little
asperity of tone.

"What is the meaning of this?"

He glanced over the letter hurriedly and replied, "It is of you that I
should ask that question, my grandmother, and I must also ask how I am
to thank you for making me so deeply your debtor, and at a moment when,
for the first time in my life, my honor was implicated!"

"Your _honor_ implicated? _Your honor? The honor of a de Gramont?_ What
do you mean?"

"Had you not, in some inexplicable manner, become aware of my position,
and paid those ten thousand dollars with such liberality and
promptitude, I should have been--I cannot bear the thought! The very
remembrance of the position from which I have been extricated cuts me to
the soul."

"Are you mad, Maurice?" demanded the countess. "_I_ pay ten thousand
dollars for you? What do I know about money?"

"Then the money was not sent to Mr. Emerson by you?" inquired Maurice,
more bewildered than ever.

"Mr. Emerson? Who is Mr. Emerson? I never heard of the person."

Maurice turned to Bertha. The idea at once suggested itself that sh