air, and ten times as much is
floating in the air of the stock-exchange. Money is not a tangible
quantity. This catastrophe--which, after all, may still be averted,
for it is possible that the fire may be extinguished--will be a
terrible engine in the hands of the enemies of the company, who want,
above all things, to upset Kaulmann. The colliery explosion is a
powder-mine in the hands of the bears. To-day he is a king, hands full
of gold are stretched out to him, a hundred millions are eagerly
offered to him; to-morrow these very people will surround him,
clamoring to get back their money, which they have intrusted to him.
Whether the cry is raised or not depends altogether on one man, and
this man is Prince Waldemar Sondersheim. He is here; he arrived
to-day. Probably he has had news of the explosion sooner than
Kaulmann, whose director, Raune, no doubt, hoped against hope to get
the fire under. Kaulmann's fate lies in the hands of Prince
Sondersheim, and so does my own. I do not conceal it. I was the pivot
of an enormous, world-wide project. To-morrow Kaulmann's proposal for
the Church loan was to be laid before the financial world of Paris and
Brussels; it is an important crisis that may give to history a new
page. If Prince Waldemar makes use of his knowledge of the collapse of
the Bondavara Company to raise a cry against us, then the whole fabric
upon which so much is built vanishes as a dream. If he or his bears
call out on the exchange that the Bondavara shares are sixty per cent.
below par we are lost. If he keeps silent the loan will float
splendidly, and then the Bondavara misfortune will sink into a matter
of small importance, such as constantly occurs in the money-market.
Now you can understand what an effect a word from you may have, and
what you can do if you speak this word."

Eveline shook her head, and laid her finger on her lips; she looked
the very genius of silence.

"What!" cried the abbe, his anger getting the better of him, "you
refuse? You think more of one word that can cost you nothing than of
the consequences? The Holy See may be overthrown, the standard of
infidelity may be unfurled, the saints torn from their shrines--and
all for a woman's caprice."

Eveline spread out her arms as if she were engaged in a combat with a
giant. She called out, in a resolute voice:

"No; I cannot speak to that man."

The abbe grew angry. He said to himself if he could not persuade this
vexatious woman,