rtment at
Paris, and invited Louise to share it. She had consented. I was
not pleased at this; for the widow was too young, and too much of a
coquette, to be a safe companion to Louise. But though professing much
gratitude and great regard for me, I had no power of controlling the
poor girl's actions. Her nominal husband, meanwhile, had left France,
and nothing more was heard or known of him. I saw that the best thing
that could possibly befall Louise was marriage with some one rich enough
to gratify her taste for luxury and pomp; and that if such a marriage
offered itself, she might be induced to free it from all possible
embarrassment by procuring the annulment of the former, from which she
had hitherto shrunk in such revolt. This opportunity presented itself.
A man already rich, and in a career that promised to make him
infinitely richer, an associate of mine in those days when I was rapidly
squandering the remnant of my inheritance--this man saw her at the opera
in company with Madame Marigny, fell violently in love with her, and
ascertaining her relationship to me, besought an introduction. I was
delighted to give it; and, to say the truth, I was then so reduced to
the bottom of my casket, I felt that it was becoming impossible for me
to continue the aid I had hitherto given to Louise, and--what then would
become of her? I thought it fair to tell Louvier--"

"Louvier--the financier?"

"Ah, that was a slip of the tongue, but no matter; there is no reason
for concealing his name. I thought it right, I say, to tell Louvier
confidentially the history of the unfortunate illegal marriage. It did
not damp his ardour. He wooed her to the best of his power, but she
evidently took him into great dislike. One day she sent for me in much
excitement, showed me some advertisements in the French journals which,
though not naming her, evidently pointed at her, and must have been
dictated by her soi-disant husband. The advertisements might certainly
lead to her discovery if she remained in Paris. She entreated my consent
to remove elsewhere. Madame Marigny had her own reason for leaving
Paris, and would accompany her. I supplied her with the necessary
means, and a day or two afterwards she and her friend departed, as I
understood, for Brussels. I received no letter from her; and my own
affairs so seriously pre-occupied me, that poor Louise might have passed
altogether out of my thoughts, had it not been for the suitor she had
lef