ve
her assistance. So she handed him the Marquis de Valorsay's letter,
saying, with melancholy dignity, "It is my happiness and my future that
I place in your hands--and I have no fears."

He read her thoughts, and understood that she either dared not ask for a
pledge of secrecy, or else that she thought it unnecessary. He took pity
on her, and his last doubt fled. "I shall read this letter, madame,"
said he, "but I am the only person who will read it. I give you my word
on that! No one but myself will see the proofs."

Greatly moved, she offered him her hand, and simply said, "Thanks; I am
more than repaid."

To obtain an absolutely perfect facsimile of a letter is a delicate
and sometimes lengthy operation. However, at the end of about twenty
minutes, the photographer possessed two negatives that promised him
perfect proofs. He looked at them with a satisfied air; and then
returning the letter to Mademoiselle Marguerite, he said, "In less than
three days the facsimiles will be ready, madame; and if you will tell me
to what address I ought to send them----"

She trembled on hearing these words, and quickly answered, "Don't send
them, sir--keep them carefully. Great heavens! all would be lost if it
came to the knowledge of any one. I will send for them, or come myself."
And, feeling the extent of her obligation, she added, "But I will not go
without introducing myself--I am Mademoiselle Marguerite de Chalusse."
And, thereupon, she went off, leaving the photographer surprised at the
adventure and dazzled by his strange visitor's beauty.

Rather more than an hour had elapsed since Marguerite left M. de
Fondege's house. "How time flies!" she murmured, quickening her pace
as much as she could without exciting remark--"how time flies!" But,
hurried as she was, she stopped and spent five minutes at a shop in the
Rue Notre Dame de Lorette where she purchased some black ribbon and a
few other trifles. How else could she explain and justify her absence,
if the servants, who had probably discovered she had gone out, chanced
to speak of it?

But her heart throbbed as if it would burst as she ascended the
General's staircase, and anxiety checked her breathing as she rang the
bell. "What if Madame de Fondege and Madame Leon had returned, and
the abstraction of the letter been discovered!" Fortunately, Madame de
Fondege required more than an hour to purchase the materials for the
elaborate toilette she had dreamt of. The ladie