oor mamma! It is for me
that she would like to make money. You do not know, Lisbeth, but I have
a horrible suspicion that she works for it in secret."

They were crossing the large, dark drawing-room where there were
no candles, all following Mariette, who was carrying the lamp into
Adeline's bedroom. At this instant Victorin just touched Lisbeth
and Hortense on the arm. The two women, understanding the hint, left
Wenceslas, Celestine, the Marshal, and the Baroness to go on together,
and remained standing in a window-bay.

"What is it, Victorin?" said Lisbeth. "Some disaster caused by your
father, I dare wager."

"Yes, alas!" replied Victorin. "A money-lender named Vauvinet has bills
of my father's to the amount of sixty thousand francs, and wants to
prosecute. I tried to speak of the matter to my father at the Chamber,
but he would not understand me; he almost avoided me. Had we better tell
my mother?"

"No, no," said Lisbeth, "she has too many troubles; it would be a
death-blow; you must spare her. You have no idea how low she has fallen.
But for your uncle, you would have found no dinner here this evening."

"Dear Heaven! Victorin, what wretches we are!" said Hortense to her
brother. "We ought to have guessed what Lisbeth has told us. My dinner
is choking me!"

Hortense could say no more; she covered her mouth with her handkerchief
to smother a sob, and melted into tears.

"I told the fellow Vauvinet to call on me to-morrow," replied Victorin,
"but will he be satisfied by my guarantee on a mortgage? I doubt it.
Those men insist on ready money to sweat others on usurious terms."

"Let us sell out of the funds!" said Lisbeth to Hortense.

"What good would that do?" replied Victorin. "It would bring fifteen or
sixteen thousand francs, and we want sixty thousand."

"Dear cousin!" cried Hortense, embracing Lisbeth with the enthusiasm of
guilelessness.

"No, Lisbeth, keep your little fortune," said Victorin, pressing the old
maid's hand. "I shall see to-morrow what this man would be up to.
With my wife's consent, I can at least hinder or postpone the
prosecution--for it would really be frightful to see my father's honor
impugned. What would the War Minister say? My father's salary, which
he pledged for three years, will not be released before the month of
December, so we cannot offer that as a guarantee. This Vauvinet has
renewed the bills eleven times; so you may imagine what my father must
pay in interest.