terrible to
his hearers.

"You shall see whether I have reckoned and foreseen well. Perhaps,
when I was dead, the idea of flying and going abroad would strike
you. I shall not permit that. You must stay at Orcival--at
Valfeuillu. A--friend--not he with the package--is charged,
without knowing the reason for it, with the task of watching you.
Mark well what I say--if either of you should disappear for eight
days, on the ninth, the man who has the package would receive a
letter which would cause him to resort at once to the police."

Yes, he had foreseen all, and Tremorel, who had already thought of
flight, was overwhelmed.

"I have so arranged, besides, that the idea of flight shall not
tempt you too much. It is true I have left all my fortune to
Bertha, but I only give her the use of it; the property itself will
not be hers until the day after your marriage."

Bertha made a gesture of repugnance which her husband misinterpreted.

"You are thinking of the copy of my will which is in your possession.
It is a useless one, and I only added to it some valueless words
because I wanted to put your suspicions to sleep. My true will is
in the notary's hands, and bears a date two days later. I can read
you the rough draft of it."

He took a sheet of paper from a portfolio which was concealed; like
the revolver, under the bolster, and read:

"Being stricken with a fatal malady, I here set down freely, and
in the fulness of my faculties, my last wishes:

"My dearest wish is that my well-beloved widow, Bertha, should
espouse, as soon as the delay enjoined by law has expired, my
dear friend, the Count Hector de Tremorel. Having appreciated the
grandeur of soul and nobleness of sentiment which belong to my
wife and friend, I know that they are worthy of each other, and
that each will be happy in the other. I die the more peacefully,
as I leave my Bertha to a protector whose--"

It was impossible for Bertha to hear more.

"For pity's sake," cried she, "enough."

"Enough? Well, let it be so," responded Sauvresy. "I have read
this paper to you to show you that while I have arranged everything
to insure the execution of my will; I have also done all that can
preserve to you the world's respect. Yes, I wish that you should
be esteemed and honored, for it is you alone upon whom I rely for
my vengeance. I have knit around you a net-work which you can
never burst asunder. You triumph; my tombstone shall be, as you
hoped, the