her efforts to comfort her aunt.

"As soon as Raoul sees we have nothing more to give," she would say, "he
will come to his senses, and stop all this extravagance."

The day came when Mme. Fauvel and Madeleine found it impossible to give
another franc.

The evening previous, Mme. Fauvel had a dinner-party, and with
difficulty scraped together enough money to defray the expenses.

Raoul appeared, and said that he was in the greatest need of money,
being forced to pay a debt of two thousand francs at once.

In vain they implored him to wait a few days, until they could with
propriety ask M. Fauvel for money. He declared that he must have it now,
and that he would not leave the house without it.

"But I have no way of getting it for you," said Mme. Fauvel desperately;
"you have taken everything from me. I have nothing left but my diamonds:
do you want them? If they can be of use, take them."

Hardened as the young villain was, he blushed at these words.

He felt pity for this unfortunate woman, who had always been so kind
and indulgent to him, who had so often lavished upon him her maternal
caresses. He felt for the noble girl who was the innocent victim of a
vile plot.

But he was bound by an oath; he knew that a powerful hand would save
these women at the brink of the precipice. More than this, he saw
an immense fortune at the end of his road of crime, and quieted his
conscience by saying that he would redeem his present cruelty by honest
kindness in the future. Once out of the clutches of Clameran, he would
be a better man, and try to return some of the kind affection shown him
by these poor women.

Stifling his better impulses, he said harshly to Mme. Fauvel, "Give me
the jewels; I will take them to the pawnbroker's." Mme. Fauvel handed
him a box containing a set of diamonds. It was a present from her
husband the day he became worth a million.

And so pressing was the want of these women who were surrounded by
princely luxury, with their ten servants, beautiful blooded horses, and
jewels which were the admiration of Paris, that they implored him to
bring them some of the money which he would procure on the diamonds, to
meet their daily wants.

He promised, and kept his word.

But they had revealed a new source, a mine to be worked; he took
advantage of it.

One by one, all Mme. Fauvel's jewels followed the way of the diamonds;
and, when hers were all gone, those of Madeleine were given up.

A recent