as the idea that there
should exist in this world a man with a heart hard, cruel, and barbarous
enough, to resist his Dionysia's prayers and tears, especially if
they were backed by twenty thousand francs. Nevertheless, he said
mournfully,--

"Ah! I told you, my dear child, you would not succeed."

"And you were mistaken, dear grandpapa, and you are still mistaken; for
I have succeeded!"

"But--you bring back the money?"

"Because I have found an honest man, dearest grandpapa,--a most
honorable man. Poor fellow, how I must have tempted his honesty! For he
is very much embarrassed, I know it from good authority, ever since he
and his sisters bought that house. It was more than comfort, it was a
real fortune, I offered him. Ah! you ought to have seen how his eyes
brightened up, and how his hands trembled, when he took up the bonds!
Well, he refused to take them, after all; and the only reward he asks
for the very good service which he is going to render us"--

M. de Chandore expressed his assent by a gesture, and then said,--

"You are right, darling: that clerk is a good man, and he has won our
eternal gratitude."

"I ought to add," continued Dionysia, "that I was ever so brave. I
should never have thought that I could be so bold. I wish you had been
hid in some corner, grandpapa, to see me and hear me. You would not have
recognized your grandchild. I cried a little, it is true, when I had
carried my point."

"Oh, dear, dear child!" murmured the old gentleman, deeply moved.

"You see, grandpapa, I thought of nothing but of Jacques's danger, and
of the glory of proving myself worthy of him, who is so brave himself. I
hope he will be satisfied with me."

"He would be hard to please, indeed, if he were not!" exclaimed M. de
Chandore.

The grandfather and his child were standing all the while under the
trees in the great Square while they were thus talking to each other;
and already a number of people had taken the opportunity of passing
close by them, with ears wide open, and all eagerness, to find out
what was going on: it is a way people have in small towns. Dionysia
remembered the clerk's kindly warnings; and, as soon as she became aware
of it, she said to her grandfather,--

"Come, grandpapa. People are listening. I will tell you the rest as we
are going home."

And so, on their way, she told him all the little details of her
interview; and the old gentleman declared, in all earnest, that he did
not kn