name mentioned among these persons?"

"Certainly it was."

"And when my name was mentioned was there no one there who spoke of me?
Yes, yes, your silence is a sufficient answer; they did speak of me.
Well, Monsieur le Cure, I am now serious, very serious. I beg you as a
favor to tell me what was said."

"But," replied the poor Cure, who felt himself upon burning coals, "they
spoke of your large fortune."

"Yes, of course, they would be obliged to speak of that, and no doubt
they said that I was very rich, but had not been rich long--that I was a
parvenu. Very well, but that is not all; they must have said something
else."

"No, indeed; I have heard nothing else."

"Oh, Monsieur le Cure, that is what you may call a white lie, and it is
making you very unhappy, because naturally you are the soul of truth; but
if I torment you thus it is because I have the greatest interest in
knowing what was said."

"You are right," interrupted Jean, "you are right. They said you were one
of the most elegant, the most brilliant, and the--"

"And one of the prettiest women in Paris. With a little indulgence they
might say that; but that is not all yet--there is something else."

"Oh! I assure you--"

"Yes, there is something else, and I should like to hear it this very
moment, and I should like the information to be very frank and very
exact. It seems to me that I am in a lucky vein to-day, and I feel as if
you were both a little inclined to be my friends, and that you will be so
entirely some day. Well, tell me if I am right in supposing that should
false and absurd stories be told about me you will help me to contradict
them."

"Yes!" replied Jean, "you are right in believing that."

"Well, then, it is to you that I address myself. You are a soldier, and
courage is part of your profession. Promise me to be brave. Will you
promise me?"

"What do you understand by being brave?"

"Promise, promise--without explanations, without conditions."

"Well, I promise."

"You will then reply frankly, 'Yes' or 'No,' to questions?"

"I will."

"Did they say that I had begged in the streets of New York?"

"Yes, they said so."

"Did they say I had been a rider in a travelling circus?"

"Yes; they said that, too."

"Very well; that is plain speaking. Now remark first that in all this
there is nothing that one might not acknowledge if it were true; but it
is not true, and have I not the right of denying it? My history--I will