e. Asie
knows the secrets of her country; she will help me to die quietly. A
prick--whiff, it is all over!

"I ask but one thing, my dearest, and that is that you will not deceive
me. I have had my share of living. Since the day I first saw you, in
1824, till this day, I have known more happiness than can be put into
the lives of ten fortunate wives. So take me for what I am--a woman as
strong as I am weak. Say 'I am going to be married.' I will ask no more
of you than a fond farewell, and you shall never hear of me again."

There was a moment's silence after this explanation as sincere as her
action and tone were guileless.

"Is it that you are going to be married?" she repeated, looking into
Lucien's blue eyes with one of her fascinating glances, as brilliant as
a steel blade.

"We have been toiling at my marriage for eighteen months past, and it is
not yet settled," replied Lucien. "I do not know when it can be settled;
but it is not in question now, child!--It is the Abbe, I, you.--We are
in real peril. Nucingen saw you----"

"Yes, in the wood at Vincennes," said she. "Did he recognize me?"

"No," said Lucien. "But he has fallen so desperately in love with
you, that he would sacrifice his coffers. After dinner, when he
was describing how he had met you, I was so foolish as to smile
involuntarily, and most imprudently, for I live in a world like a savage
surrounded by the traps of a hostile tribe. Carlos, who spares me
the pains of thinking, regards the position as dangerous, and he has
undertaken to pay Nucingen out if the Baron takes it into his head
to spy on us; and he is quite capable of it; he spoke to me of the
incapacity of the police. You have lighted a flame in an old chimney
choked with soot."

"And what does your Spaniard propose to do?" asked Esther very softly.

"I do not know in the least," said Lucien; "he told me I might sleep
soundly and leave it to him;"--but he dared not look at Esther.

"If that is the case, I will obey him with the dog-like submission I
profess," said Esther, putting her hand through Lucien's arm and leading
him into her bedroom, saying, "At any rate, I hope you dined well, my
Lulu, at that detestable Baron's?"

"Asie's cooking prevents my ever thinking a dinner good, however famous
the chef may be, where I happen to dine. However, Careme did the dinner
to-night, as he does every Sunday."

Lucien involuntarily compared Esther with Clotilde. The mistress was so
beau