a
singular expression on his handsome face.

Mme. Fauvel thought that she had mistaken the room.

"Excuse me, monsieur," she said, blushing deeply. "I thought that this
was the Marquis of Clameran's room."

"It is his room, madame," replied the young man; then, seeing she was
silent and about to leave, he added:

"I presume I have the honor of addressing Mme. Fauvel?"

She bowed affirmatively, shuddering at the sound of her own name,
frightened at this proof of Clameran's betrayal of her secret to a
stranger.

With visible anxiety she awaited an explanation.

"Reassure yourself, madame," said the young man: "you are as safe here
as if you were in your own house. M. de Clameran desired me to make his
excuses; he will not have the honor of seeing you to-day."

"But, monsieur, from an urgent letter sent by him yesterday, I was led
to suppose--to infer--that he----"

"When he wrote to you, madame, he had projects in view which he has
since renounced."

Mme. Fauvel was too agitated and troubled to think clearly. Beyond the
present she could see nothing.

"Do you mean," she asked with distrust, "that he has changed his
intentions?"

The young man's face was expressive of sad compassion, as if he shared
the sufferings of the unhappy woman before him.

"The marquis has renounced," he said, in a melancholy tone, "what he
wrongly considered a sacred duty. Believe me, he hesitated a long time
before he could decide to apply to you on a subject painful to you
both. When he began to explain his apparent intrusion upon your private
affairs, you refused to hear him, and dismissed him with indignant
contempt. He knew not what imperious reasons dictated your conduct.
Blinded by unjust anger, he swore to obtain by threats what you refused
to give voluntarily. Resolved to attack your domestic happiness, he had
collected overwhelming proofs against you. Pardon him: an oath given to
his dying brother bound him.

"These convincing proofs," he continued, as he tapped his finger on a
bundle of papers which he had taken from the mantel, "this evidence that
cannot be denied, I now hold in my hand. This is the certificate of the
Rev. Dr. Sedley; this is the declaration of Mrs. Dobbin, the farmer's
wife; and these others are the statements of the physician and of
several persons of high social position who were acquainted with Mme. de
la Verberie during her stay in London. Not a single link is missing. I
had great difficulty in