ve's house so as to have the bliss of carrying her out in his
arms?"

"Yes: what of it?"

"At the proper time, I will charge you to set fire, morally, to Mme.
Fauvel's house; and I will rush in, and save her and her niece. Now,
in the eyes of those women my conduct will appear more magnanimous and
noble in proportion to the contempt and abuse they have heaped upon me.
I gain nothing by patient devotion: I have everything to hope from a
sudden change of tactics. A well-managed stroke will transform a demon
into an angel."

"Very well, a good idea!" said Raoul approvingly, when his uncle had
finished.

"Then you understand what is to be done?"

"Yes, but will you write to me?"

"Of course; and if anything should happen at Paris----"

"I will telegraph to you."

"And never lose sight of my rival, the cashier."

"Prosper? not much danger of our being troubled by him, poor boy! He is
just now my most devoted friend. Trouble has driven him into a path of
life which will soon prove his destruction. Every now and then I pity
him from the bottom of my soul."

"Pity him as much as you like; but don't interfere with his
dissipation."

The two men shook hands, and separated apparently the best friends in
the world; in reality the bitterest enemies.

Raoul would not forgive Louis for having attempted to appropriate all
the booty, and leave him in the lurch, when it was he who had risked the
greatest dangers.

Louis, on his part, was alarmed at the attitude taken by Raoul. Thus far
he had found his nephew tractable, and even blindly obedient; and now
he had suddenly become rebellious and threatening. Instead of ordering
Raoul, he was forced to consult and bargain with him.

What could be more wounding to his vanity and self-conceit than the
reproaches, well founded though they were, to which he had been obliged
to listen, from a mere youth?

As he walked back to his brother's house, thinking over what had just
occurred, Louis swore that sooner or later he would be revenged, and
that, as soon as he could get rid of Raoul he would do so, and would do
him some great injury.

But, for the present, he was so afraid lest the young villain should
betray him, or thwart his plans in some way, that he wrote to him the
next day, and every succeeding day, full particulars of everything that
happened. Seeing how important it was to restore his shaken confidence,
Louis entered into the most minute details of his plans, and as