said he, had never deceived
him, warned him that he was at that moment dealing with a rigid and
unshakable honesty, a conscience in hard stone, untouchable by pick-axe
or powder. "My conscience!" Suddenly he changed his programme, threw to
the winds the tricks and equivocations which embarrassed his open and
courageous disposition, and, head high and heart open, held to this
honest man a language he was born to understand.

"Do not be astonished, my dear colleague,"--his voice trembled, but soon
became firm in the conviction of his defence--"do not be astonished if
I am come to find you here instead of asking simply to be heard by
the third committee. The explanation which I have to make to you is so
delicate and confidential that it would have been impossible to make it
publicly before my colleagues."

Maitre Le Merquier, above his spectacles, looked at the curtain with a
disturbed air. Evidently the conversation was taking an unexpected turn.

"I do not enter on the main question," said the Nabob. "Your report, I
am assured, is impartial and loyal, such as your conscience has dictated
to you. Only there are some heart-breaking calumnies spread about me to
which I have not answered, and which have perhaps influenced the opinion
of the committee. It is on this subject that I wish to speak to you. I
know the confidence with which you are honoured by your colleagues, M.
Le Merquier, and that, when I shall have convinced you, your word will
be enough without forcing me to lay bare my distress to them all. You
know the accusation--the most terrible, the most ignoble. There are so
many people who might be deceived by it. My enemies have given names,
dates, addresses. Well, I bring you the proofs of my innocence. I lay
them bare before you--you only--for I have grave reasons for keeping the
whole affair secret."

Then he showed the lawyer a certificate from the Consulate of Tunis,
that during twenty years he had only left the principality twice--the
first time to see his dying father at Bourg-Saint Andeol; the second,
to make, with the Bey, a visit of three days to his chateau of
Saint-Romans.

"How comes it, then, that with a document so conclusive in my hands
I have not brought my accusers before the courts to contradict and
confound them? Alas, monsieur, there are cruel responsibilities in
families. I have a brother, a poor fellow, weak and spoiled, who has for
long wallowed in the mud of Paris, who has left there hi