Culver availed himself of the invitation. "I am not disturbing you? I
have long known of you, although this is our first meeting."

"You have then the advantage of me," returned Saint-Prosper, "for
I--"

"You never heard of me?" laughed the lawyer. "Exactly! We attorneys
are always getting our fingers in every one's affairs! I am acquainted
with you, as it were, from the cradle to the--present!"

"I am unexpectedly honored!" remarked the listener, satirically.

"First, I knew you through the Marquis de Ligne."

Saint-Prosper started and regarded his visitor more closely.

"I was the humble instrument of making a fortune for you; it was also
my lot to draw up the papers depriving you of the same!" Culver
laughed amiably. "'Oft expectation fails, where most it promises.'
Pardon my levity! There were two wills; the first, in your favor; the
last, in his daughter's. I presume"--with a sudden, sharp look--"you
have no intention of contesting the final disposition? The paternity
of the child is established beyond doubt."

Artful Culver was not by any means so sure in his own mind that, if
the other were disposed to make trouble, the legal proofs of
Constance's identity would be so easily forthcoming. Barnes was dead;
her mother had passed away many years before; the child had been born
in London--where?--the marquis' rationality, just before his demise,
was a debatable question. In fact, since he had learned Saint-Prosper
was in the city, the attorney's mind had been soaring among a cloud of
vague possibilities, and now, regarding his companion with a most
kindly, ingratiating smile, he added:

"Besides, when the marquis took you as a child into his household,
there were, I understood, no legal papers drawn!"

"I don't see what your visit portends," said Saint-Prosper, "unless
there is some other matter?"

"Just so," returned Culver, his doubts vanishing. "There was a small
matter--a slight commission. Miss Carew requested me to hand you this
message." The visitor now detected a marked change in the soldier's
imperturbable bearing, as the latter took the envelope which the
attorney offered him. "The young lady saw you at the Mistick Krewe
ball last night, and, recognizing an old friend,"--with a slight
accent--"pressed me into her service. And now, having completed my
errand, I will wish you good-morning!" And the lawyer briskly
departed.

The young man's hand trembled as he tore open the envelope, but he
survey