now tremblingly desirous of solving. She sought
Count Tristan. He was in the drawing-room, where Maurice had left him.
He sat beside the table,--his hands clinched, his head bowed, his face
rigid in its expression of stony despair. He looked like a man who
awaited the sentence of death.

The entrance of the countess scarcely roused him; nor did he hear, or
rather heed, her first address. But when she placed the letter, received
from Mr. Emerson, in his hand, and asked him if he knew what it meant,
he sprang from his seat with a sudden burst of half-frantic joy.

"Who has done this?" he almost shrieked out.

"Who indeed?" returned his mother. "It has been suggested that it may be
one of the evidences of Madeleine's presumption. I can scarcely credit
it. I can scarcely believe she would have the audacity to use my name,
or occupy herself with the affairs of my family. Yet there is no one
else"--

"It is like her! It is she! And may Heaven bless her for it!" cried the
count, stirred by a sudden impulse of genuine gratitude. "I must have
confirmation! I must go to her at once!"

"Yes, go to her," replied his mother; "but let it be to inform her that
we disdain her bounty; that we are astonished at her temerity in
offering it; and that we hope never to hear from her again."

Count Tristan had left the room before his mother had finished
speaking,--an act of disrespect of which he had never before been
guilty. Exasperated by his manner even more than by that of Maurice, and
dreading the result of their interview with Madeleine, the countess
resolved herself to take a step which would make her niece conscious of
her true position and of the light in which her presumption was viewed
by her aunt. She determined to follow her son to Madeleine's residence
and to give her a lesson, in the presence of the count and Maurice,
which would be the last he would ever need.

She had rung the bell to order a carriage, when Bertha entered. Learning
her destination and its object, Bertha expressed her intention of
accompanying her; and to this the countess could not object.

CHAPTER XXXII.

THE NOBLEMAN AND MANTUA-MAKER.

As we are already aware, Madeleine absolved herself from her usual
duties for one day, and made Ruth her representative in the working
department. In spite of Madeleine's habitual self-control, she
experienced some slight stirrings of irritation when Victorine, who
deemed herself a privileged person, int