day
he provided his accomplice, the Viscount de Coralth, with those fatal
cards? And apart from this there was something extremely appalling in
the position of this ruined millionaire, who was contending desperately
against his creditors for the vain appearance of splendor, with
the despairing energy of a ship-wrecked mariner struggling for the
possession of a floating spar. Had he not confessed to M. Fortunat that
he had suffered the tortures of the damned in his struggle to maintain
a show of wealth, while he was often without a penny in his pocket, and
was ever subject to the pitiless surveillance of thirty servants?
His agony, when he thought of his precarious condition, could only be
compared to that of a miner, who, while ascending from the bowels of
the earth, finds that the rope, upon which his life depends, is slowly
parting strand by strand, and who asks himself, in terror, if the few
threads that still remain unsevered will be strong enough to raise him
to the mouth of the pit.

However, the moment which M. de Valorsay had asked for had lengthened
into a quarter of an hour, and he had not yet finished his work. "What
the devil is he doing?" wondered Pascal, who was following his enemy's
slightest movement with eager curiosity.

Countless sporting newspapers were strewn over the table, the chairs,
and the floor around the marquis, who took them up one after another,
glanced rapidly through their columns, and threw them on the floor
again, or placed them on a pile before him, first marking certain
passages with a red pencil. At last, probably fearing that Pascal was
growing impatient, he looked up and said:

"I am really very sorry to keep you waiting so long, but some one is
waiting for this work to be completed."

"Oh! pray continue, Monsieur le Marquis," interrupted Pascal. "Strange
to say, I have a little leisure at my command just now."

The marquis seemed to feel that it was necessary to make some remark
in acknowledgment of this courtesy on his visitor's part, and so, as
he continued his work, he condescended to explain its purpose. "I am
playing the part of a commentator," he remarked. "I sold seven of my
horses a few days ago, and the purchaser, before paying the stipulated
price, naturally required an exact and authentic statement of each
animal's performances. However, even this does not seem to have
satisfied the gentleman, for he has now taken it into his head to ask
for such copies of the s