vel," said the lawyer very sternly, "neither my wife nor I
can be present at that marriage; not out of interest, for I spoke in
all sincerity just now. Yes, I am most happy to think that you may find
happiness in this union; but I act on considerations of honor and good
feeling which you must understand, and which I cannot speak of here, as
they reopen wounds still ready to bleed----"

The Baroness telegraphed a signal to Hortense, who tucked her little one
under her arm, saying, "Come Wenceslas, and have your bath!--Good-bye,
Monsieur Crevel."

The Baroness also bowed to Crevel without a word; and Crevel could
not help smiling at the child's astonishment when threatened with this
impromptu tubbing.

"You, monsieur," said Victorin, when he found himself alone with
Lisbeth, his wife, and his father-in-law, "are about to marry a woman
loaded with the spoils of my father; it was she who, in cold blood,
brought him down to such depths; a woman who is the son-in-law's
mistress after ruining the father-in-law; who is the cause of constant
grief to my sister!--And you fancy that I shall seem to sanction your
madness by my presence? I deeply pity you, dear Monsieur Crevel; you
have no family feeling; you do not understand the unity of the honor
which binds the members of it together. There is no arguing with
passion--as I have too much reason to know. The slaves of their passions
are as deaf as they are blind. Your daughter Celestine has too strong a
sense of her duty to proffer a word of reproach."

"That would, indeed, be a pretty thing!" cried Crevel, trying to cut
short this harangue.

"Celestine would not be my wife if she made the slightest remonstrance,"
the lawyer went on. "But I, at least, may try to stop you before you
step over the precipice, especially after giving you ample proof of my
disinterestedness. It is not your fortune, it is you that I care about.
Nay, to make it quite plain to you, I may add, if it were only to set
your mind at ease with regard to your marriage contract, that I am now
in a position which leaves me with nothing to wish for--"

"Thanks to me!" exclaimed Crevel, whose face was purple.

"Thanks to Celestine's fortune," replied Victorin. "And if you regret
having given to your daughter as a present from yourself, a sum which is
not half what her mother left her, I can only say that we are prepared
to give it back."

"And do you not know, my respected son-in-law," said Crevel, striking