nd pulled him away so
abruptly, that the key was dragged from the lock, and, slipping along
the glossy varnish of the safe-door, made a deep scratch some inches
long.

But at a glance Raoul discovered, on the upper shelf of the safe, three
bundles of bank-notes. He snatched them up with his left hand, and
slipped them inside his vest.

Exhausted by the effort she had just made, Mme. Fauvel dropped Raoul's
arm, and, almost fainting with emotion, clung to the back of a chair.

"Have mercy, Raoul!" she moaned. "I implore you to put back that money
and I solemnly swear that I will give you twice as much to-morrow. Oh,
my son, have pity upon your unhappy mother!"

He paid no attention to these words of entreaty, but carefully examined
the scratch on the safe. He was alarmed at this trace of the robbery,
which it was impossible for him to cover up.

"At least you will not take all," said Mme. Fauvel; "just keep enough to
save yourself, and put back the rest."

"What good would that do? The discovery will be made that the safe has
been opened; so I might as well take all as a part."

"Oh, no! not at all. I can account to Andre; I will tell him I had a
pressing need for a certain sum, and opened the safe to get it."

In the meantime Raoul had carefully closed the safe.

"Come, mother, let us go back to the sitting-room. A servant might go
there to look for you, and be astonished at our absence."

Raoul's cruel indifference and cold calculations at such a moment filled
Mme. Fauvel with indignation. She saw that she had no influence over her
son, that her prayers and tears had no effect upon his hard heart.

"Let them be astonished," she cried: "let them come here and find us! I
will be relieved to put an end to this tissue of crime. Then Andre will
know all, and drive me from his house. Let come what will, I shall
not sacrifice another victim. Prosper will be accused of this theft
to-morrow. Clameran defrauded him of the woman he loved, and now you
would deprive him of his honor! I will have nothing to do with so base a
crime."

She spoke so loud and angrily that Raoul was alarmed. He knew that the
errand-boy slept in a room close by, and might be in bed listening to
her, although it was early in the evening.

"Come upstairs!" he said, seizing Mme. Fauvel's arm.

But she clung to a table and refused to move a step.

"I have been cowardly enough to sacrifice Madeleine," she said, "but I
will not ruin Prosper."