inly
resign."

"I do not speak of what he wished to do, but of what he has done."

"Well, what has he done? I should like to be edified."

"First, he kept his oath to D'Argenson."

"I doubt it not, he is faithful to his word; and but for me would have
kept his word also with Pontcalec, Talhouet, etc."

"Yes, but one was more difficult than the other. He had sworn not to
mention his sentence to any one, and he did not speak of it to his
mistress."

"Nor to you?"

"He spoke of it to me, because I told him that I knew it. He forbade me
to ask anything of the regent, desiring, he said, but one favor."

"And that one?"

"To marry Helene, in order to leave her a fortune and a name."

"Good; he wants to leave your daughter a fortune and a name; he is
polite, at least."

"Do you forget that this is a secret from him?"

"Who knows?"

"Dubois, I do not know in what your hands were steeped the day you were
born, but I know that you sully everything you touch."

"Except conspirators, monseigneur, for it seems to me that there, on the
contrary, I purify. Look at those of Cellamare, how all that affair was
cleared out; Dubois here, Dubois there, I hope the apothecary has
properly purged France from Spain. Well, it shall be the same with
Olivares as with Cellamare. There is now only Bretagne congested; a good
dose, and all will be right."

"Dubois, you would joke with the Gospel."

"Pardieu! I began by that."

The regent rose.

"Come, monseigneur, I was wrong; I forgot you were fasting; let us hear
the end of this story."

"The end is that I promised to ask this favor from the regent, and that
the regent will grant it."

"The regent will commit a folly."

"No, he will only repair a fault."

"Ah, now you find you have a reparation to make to M. de Chanlay."

"Not to him, but to his brother."

"Still better. What have you done to his brother?"

"I took from him the woman he loved."

"Who?"----"Helene's mother."

"Well, that time you were wrong; for if you had let her alone we should
not have had all this tiresome affair on our hands."

"But we have it, and must now get out of it as well as possible."

"Just what I am working at: and when is the marriage to take place?"

"To-morrow."

"In the chapel of the Palais Royal? You shall dress in the costume of a
knight of the order; you shall extend both hands over your son-in-law's
head--one more than he meant to have held over you--it will be very
af