n never be repaired. May your conscience forgive you,
as I, myself, forgive you. Farewell!"

This was said so perfectly, with such entire harmony of intonation and
gesture, that M. de Sairmeuse was bewildered.

With an absolutely wonderstruck air he watched the marquis and his
daughter depart, and they had been gone some moments before he recovered
himself sufficiently to exclaim:

"Old hypocrite! does he believe me his dupe?"

His dupe! M. de Sairmeuse was so far from being his dupe, that his next
thought was:

"What is to follow this farce? He says that he pardons us--that means
that he has some crushing blow in store for us."

This conviction filled him with disquietude. He really felt unable to
cope successfully with the perfidious marquis.

"But Martial is a match for him!" he exclaimed. "Yes, I must see Martial
at once."

So great was his anxiety that he lent a helping hand in harnessing the
horses he had ordered, and when the carriage was ready, he announced his
determination to drive himself.

As he urged the horses furiously on he tried to reflect, but the most
contradictory ideas seethed in his brain, and he lost all power to
consider the situation calmly.

He burst into Martial's room like a tornado. "I think you must certainly
have gone mad, Marquis," he exclaimed. "That is the only valid excuse
you can offer."

But Martial, who had been expecting this visit, had prepared himself for
it.

"Never, on the contrary, have I felt more calm and composed in mind,"
he replied. "Allow me to ask you one question. Was it you who sent the
soldiers to the rendezvous which Maurice d'Escorval had appointed?"

"Marquis!"

"Very well! Then it was another act of infamy on the part of the Marquis
de Courtornieu."

The duke made no reply. In spite of his faults and his vices,
this haughty man possessed the characteristic of the old French
nobility--fidelity to his word and undoubted valor.

He thought it perfectly natural, even necessary, that Martial should
fight with Maurice; and he thought it a contemptible act to send armed
soldiers to seize an honest and confiding opponent.

"This is the second time," pursued Martial, "that this scoundrel has
attempted to bring dishonor upon our name; and if I desire to convince
people of the truth of this assertion, I must break off all connection
with him and his daughter. I have done this. I do not regret it, since I
married her only out of deference to your wishe