has a savor of crime. Look well, and you'll see
that a murder has been committed in it."

"Why, no, my dear madam," replied Lucan laughingly, "I know perfectly the
history of my family, and I can guarantee you--"

"Rest assured, my friend, that some one has been killed in it--in old
times. You know how little they troubled themselves about those things
formerly!"

Julia's letters to her mother were frequent. It was a regular journal of
travels written helter-skelter, with a striking originality of style, in
which the vivacity of the impressions was corrected by that shade of
haughty irony which was a peculiarity of the writer. Julia spoke rather
briefly of her husband, but always in pleasant terms. There was generally
a rapid and kindly postscript addressed to Monsieur de Lucan.

Monsieur de Moras was more chary of descriptions. He seemed to see no one
but his wife in Italy. He extolled her beauty, still further enhanced, he
said, by the contact of all those marvels of art with which she was
becoming impregnated; he praised her extraordinary taste, her
intelligence, and even her good disposition. In this latter respect, she
was extremely matured, and he found her almost too staid and too grave for
her age. These particulars delighted Clotilde, and finished instilling
into her heart a peace she had never yet enjoyed.

The count's letters were not less reassuring for the future than the
present. He did not think it necessary, he said, to urge Julia on the
subject of her reconciliation with her step-father; but he felt that she
was quite ready for it. He was, besides, preparing her more and more for
it by conversing habitually with her of the old friendship that united him
to Monsieur de Lucan, of their past life, of their travels, of the perils
they had braved together. Not only did Julia hear these narratives without
revolt, but she often solicited them, as if she had regretted her
prejudices, and had sought good reasons to forget them.

"Come, Pylades, speak to me of Orestes!" she would say.

After having spent the whole winter season and part of the spring in
Italy, Monsieur and Madame de Moras visited Switzerland, announcing their
intention of sojourning there until the middle of summer. The thought
occurred to Monsieur and Madame de Lucan to go and join them there, and
thus abruptly bring about a reconciliation that seemed henceforth to be
but a mere matter of form. Clotilde was preparing to submit that project