uestion. We business folk when we fail, and cannot
pay our way, throw blood on the blot and it disappears. You members of
the nobility, when you are disgraced, how do you manage?"

"If I am not mistaken, Madame," answered the Prince, in a light tone,
"you do me the favor of asking what my intentions are for the future? I
will answer you with precision. I purpose leaving to-night for
Aix-la-Chapelle, where I shall join my friend Herzog. We shall begin our
business again. My wife, on whose good feelings I rely, will accompany
me, notwithstanding everything."

And in these last words he put all the venom of his soul.

"My daughter will not leave me!" exclaimed Madame Desvarennes.

"Very well, then, you can accompany her," retorted Panine. "That
arrangement will suit me. Since my troubles I have learned to appreciate
domestic happiness."

"Ah! you hope to play your old games on me," said Madame Desvarennes.
"You won't get much out of me. My daughter and I with you--in the stream
where you are going to sink? Never!"

"Well, then," cried Panine, "what do you expect?"

A violent ring at the front door resounded as Madame Desvarennes was
about to answer, and stopped the words on her lips. This signal, which
was used only on important occasions, sounded to Madame like a funeral
knell. Serge frowned, and instinctively moved back.

Marechal appeared through the half-open door with a scared face, and
silently handed Madame Desvarennes a card. She glanced at it, turned
pale, and said to the secretary:

"Very well, let him wait!" She threw the card on the table. Serge came
forward and read:

"Delbarre, sheriff's officer."

Haggard-looking and aghast, he turned to the mistress, as if seeking an
explanation.

"Well!" she observed: "it is clear, he has come to arrest you."

Serge rushed to a cabinet, and opening a drawer, took forth some handfuls
of gold and notes, which he crammed into his pockets.

"By the back stairs I shall have time to get away. It is my last chance!
Keep the man for five minutes only."

"And if the door is guarded?" asked Madame Desvarennes.

Serge remained abject before her. He felt himself enclosed in a ring
which he could not break through.

"One may be prosecuted without being condemned," he gasped. "You will use
your influence, I know, and you will get me out of this mess. I shall be
grateful to you for ever, and will do anything you like! But don't leave
me, it would be cowardly!"

He