uy up a large amount of stocks and railroad shares, which
will require large cash payments. I have not wasted my day, you see, and
have obtained all the information I came for."

Raoul's information was too concise and exact for Louis to deny it.

"You might have sense enough," Raoul went on, "to know how to manage
your forces if you undertake to be a commander. We had a splendid game
in our hands; and you, who held the cards, have made a perfect muddle of
it."

"I think--"

"That the game is lost? That is my opinion too, and all through you. You
have no one to blame but yourself."

"I could not control events."

"Yes, you could, if you had been shrewd. Fools sit down and wait for an
opportunity; sensible men make one. What did we agree upon in London?
We were to implore my good mother to assist us a little, and, if she
complied with our wishes, we were to be flattering and affectionate in
our devotion to her. And what was the result? At the risk of killing
the golden goose, you have made me torment the poor woman until she is
almost crazy."

"It was prudent to hasten matters."

"You think so, do you? Was it also to hasten matters that you took it
into your head to marry Madeleine? That made it necessary to let her
into the secret; and, ever since, she has advised and set her aunt
against us. I would not be surprised if she makes her confess everything
to M. Fauvel, or even inform against us at the police-office."

"I love Madeleine!"

"You told me that before. And suppose you do love her. You led me into
this piece of business without having studied its various bearings,
without knowing what you were about. No one but an idiot, my beloved
uncle, would go and put his foot into a trap, and then say, 'If I had
only known about it!' You should have made it your business to know
everything. You came to me, and said, 'Your father is dead,' which was
a lie to start with; perhaps you call it a mistake. He is living; and,
after what we have done, I dare not appear before him. He would have
left me a million, and now I shall not get a sou. He will find his
Valentine, and then good-by."

"Enough!" angrily interrupted Louis. "If I have made a mistake, I know
how to redeem it. I can save everything yet."

"You can? How so?"

"That is my secret," said Louis gloomily.

Louis and Raoul were silent for a minute. And this silence between them,
in this lonely spot, at dead of night, was so horribly significant that
bot