age on which they have played a scene of hatred and
provocation.

"But," said Solonet, thinking of his rights as notary, "isn't it my
place to buy that land you mentioned? The money is part of our dowry."

"How can you put property bought in the name of Mademoiselle Evangelista
into the creation of an entail by the Comte de Manerville?" replied
Mathias.

"We shall have to ask the chancellor about that," said Solonet.

"But I am the notary of the seller as well as of the buyer of that
land," said Mathias. "Besides, Monsieur de Manerville can buy in his own
name. At the time of payment we can make mention of the fact that the
dowry funds are put into it."

"You've an answer for everything, old man," said Solonet, laughing. "You
were really surpassing to-night; you beat us squarely."

"For an old fellow who didn't expect your batteries of grape-shot, I did
pretty well, didn't I?"

"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed Solonet.

The odious struggle in which the material welfare of a family had been
so perilously near destruction was to the two notaries nothing more than
a matter of professional polemics.

"I haven't been forty years in harness for nothing," remarked Mathias.
"Look here, Solonet," he added, "I'm a good fellow; you shall help in
drawing the deeds for the sale of those lands."

"Thanks, my dear Mathias. I'll serve you in return on the very first
occasion."

While the two notaries were peacefully returning homeward, with no other
sensations than a little throaty warmth, Paul and Madame Evangelista
were left a prey to the nervous trepidation, the quivering of the flesh
and brain which excitable natures pass through after a scene in which
their interests and their feelings have been violently shaken. In Madame
Evangelista these last mutterings of the storm were overshadowed by a
terrible reflection, a lurid gleam which she wanted, at any cost, to
dispel.

"Has Maitre Mathias destroyed in a few minutes the work I have been
doing for six months?" she asked herself. "Was he withdrawing Paul from
my influence by filling his mind with suspicion during their secret
conference in the next room?"

She was standing absorbed in these thoughts before the fireplace, her
elbow resting on the marble mantel-shelf. When the porte-cochere closed
behind the carriage of the two notaries, she turned to her future
son-in-law, impatient to solve her doubts.

"This has been the most terrible day of my life," cried Paul, overjoyed
to