he countess, disdainfully, and
waving Madeleine off as the latter advanced toward her.

Bertha felt strongly inclined to quote from a former remark of Gaston de
Bois, and retort, "You have done that already, and the transaction was
not particularly profitable," but she restrained herself.

"Nor do I come," continued the imperious lady, "as one who stoops to be
your visitor! I came to rebuke impertinence, and to demand by what right
you have dared to make use of my name as a cloak to give respectability
to _charities_ forced upon your poor relations."

Madeleine was silent.

"Then the aid which came to me at such an opportune moment _was_ yours,
Madeleine?" said Maurice. "It was you who saved me from worse than
ruin?"

Still no answer from Madeleine's quivering lips.

"Do not force her to say,--do not force her to acknowledge her own
goodness and liberality," said Bertha, "we all know that it _was_ she,
and she will not deny it. Does not her silence speak for her?"

"You thought, perhaps," resumed the countess, even more angrily than
before, "that because my son has flown in the face of my wishes, and has
mingled himself up with business matters, and because Maurice has chosen
to degrade himself by entering a profession,--you thought that you might
take the liberty of coming to his assistance, in some temporary
difficulty, and might also be pardoned the insolence of using my name;
but I resent the impertinence; I will not permit it to pass uncorrected!
I will write to the person whom you have deceived and let him know that
the name of the Countess de Gramont has been used without her authority.
I shall also inquire at whose suggestion he ventured to address an
epistle to me."

"No need of that, madame," said M. de Bois, who had entered the room in
time to hear this burst of indignation. "_I_, alone, am to blame for the
liberty of using your name. Knowing how desirous Mademoiselle de Gramont
was to conceal her relationship to your family, I suggested that the
money indispensable to her cousin should be sent in such a manner that
it might be supposed to come from you. I also took the responsibility of
suggesting to Mr. Emerson that it would be well to send a line to you,
enclosing a receipt for the sum paid into his hands by me; one of my
motives was to insure that the news of its payment would at once reach
Maurice."

"You presumed unwarrantably, sir," replied the countess. "You presumed
almost as much as did M