been
carefully arranged. To-morrow night at the latest Madame Leon will let
this man into the Hotel de Chalusse by the garden gate, which she has
kept the key of. Vantrasson, as the man is called, knows the management
of the house, and he will break open the escritoire and take the vial
away. You may say that there are seals upon the furniture, placed there
by the justice of the peace. That's true, but this man tells me that he
can remove and replace them in such a way as to defy detection; and
as the lock has been forced once already--the day after the count's
death--a second attempt to break the escritoire open will not be
detected."

The viscount remarked, with an ironical air: "All that is perfect; but
the autopsy will reveal the falseness of the accusation."

"Naturally--but an autopsy will require time, and that will suit my
plans admirably. After eight or ten days' solitary confinement and
several rigid examinations, Mademoiselle Marguerite's energy and courage
will flag. What do you think she will reply to the man who says to her:
'I love you, and for your sake I will attempt the impossible. Swear to
become my wife and I will establish your innocence?'"

"I think she will say: 'Save me and I will marry you!'"

M. de Valorsay clapped his hands. "Bravo!" he exclaimed; "you have
spoken the truth. Remember, now, that your dark forebodings are only
chimeras! Yes, she will swear it, and I know she is the woman to keep
her vow, even if she died of sorrow. And the very next day I will go to
the examining magistrate and say to him: 'Marguerite a thief! Ah, what
a frightful mistake. A robbery has been committed, it's true; but I know
the real culprit--a scoundrel who fancied that by destroying a single
letter he would annihilate all traces of the breach of fidelity he had
committed. Fortunately, the Count de Chalusse distrusted this man, and
proof of his breach of trust is in existence. I have this proof in
my hands.' And I will show a letter establishing the truth of my
assertion."

No forebodings clouded the marquis's joy; he saw no obstacles; it seemed
to him as if he had already triumphed. "And the day following," he
resumed, "when Marguerite becomes my wife, I shall take from a certain
drawer a certain document, given to me by M. de Chalusse when I was
on the point of becoming his son-in-law, and in which he recognizes
Marguerite as his daughter, and makes her his sole legatee. And this
document is perfectly en