francs; well, that is all right now, and we may put
'settled' against that: but then, you see, there are the costs, caption,
etc., amounting to eleven hundred and forty francs, still to be paid."

"Gracious heavens!" cried Louise, "I thought one thousand three hundred
francs would pay everything! But, sir, we will make up the money, and
bring it to you very soon; take this for the present, it is a good sum;
take it as paid on account; it will go towards the debt, at least, won't
it, father?"

"Very well; then all you have to do is to bring the required sum to the
prison, and then, and not till then, your father--if he is your
father--will be set at liberty. Come, master, we must start, or we never
shall get there."

"Do you really mean to take him away?"

"Do I? Don't I? Just look here; I am ready to give you a memorandum of
having received so much on account; and, whenever you bring the rest,
you shall have a receipt in full, and your father along with it. There,
now, that's a handsome offer, ain't it?"

"Mercy! mercy!" supplicated Louise.

"Whew!" cried the man, "here's a scene over again! My stars, I hope this
one isn't a-going mad, too, for the whole family seems uncommon queer
about the head! Well, I declare I never see anything like it! It is
enough to set a man 'prespiring' in the midst of winter!" and here the
bailiff burst into a loud, coarse laugh at his own brutal wit.

"Oh, my poor, dear father!" exclaimed Louise, almost distractedly; "when
I had hoped to have saved you!"

"No, no!" cried the lapidary, in a tone of utter despair, and stamping
his foot in wild desperation, "hope nothing for me; God has forgotten
me, and Heaven has ceased to be just to a wretch like me!"

"Calm yourself, my worthy friend," said a rich, manly voice; "there is
always a kind Providence that watches over and preserves good and honest
men like you."

At the same instant Rodolph appeared at the door of the small recess we
have spoken of, from whence he had been an invisible spectator of much
that we have related; he was pale, and extremely agitated. At this
sudden apparition the bailiff drew back, with surprise; while Morel and
his daughter gazed on the stranger with bewildered wonder. Taking from
his waistcoat pocket a quantity of folded bank-notes, Rodolph selected
three, and, presenting them to Malicorne, he said:

"Here are two thousand five hundred francs; give this young woman back
the money you have just receive