o, and
to night he is to leave Paris.'

'It is he, then, whom we saw arrested!' exclaimed Adelaide; 'and he
will not be able to return home. Oh, let us go to Lucille at once! Do,
pray, come with me, Madame d'Heranville!' and turning to her friend,
she pleaded so earnestly, and the large tears stood so imploringly in
her eyes, that it was impossible to resist. Madame d'Heranville
refastened her cloak, and soon afterwards, with Adelaide and M.
Lagnier, found herself ascending the steep and dilapidated staircase
of the house inhabited by the Delmonts. Adelaide seated herself upon
the highest step, to await the arrival of her friend, whose agility in
mounting was not quite equal to her own. As she did so, a loud and
angry voice was heard proceeding from the apartment to which this
staircase led. It was followed by a sound as of a young girl weeping,
and then a few low, half-broken sentences were uttered in a voice of
heart-broken distress.

'Mother, dear mother,' were the words, 'do not torture me. I am so
ill--so wretched, I wish I were dead.'

'Ill! wretched! ungrateful girl!' was the reply. 'And whose fault is
it that you are so? Not mine! Blame yourself, if you will, and him,
your darling Andre. What will he do now that you have no more to give?
nothing even that you can sell, to supply him with the means of
gratifying his extravagance. You will soon see how sincere he is in
his affection, and how grateful he feels for all the sacrifices that
you have made--sacrifices, Lucille, that you would not have made for
me.'

'Mother,' murmured the poor girl in a tone of heart-broken reproach,
'I have given my beauty for him; but I have given my life for you.'
Adelaide listened no more. Shocked beyond measure at the misery
expressed in the low, earnest voice of Lucille, she knocked at the
door of the apartment, and scarcely waiting for permission, lifted the
latch and entered hurriedly.

Lucille was seated at a window working, or seeming at least to do so;
for her head was bent over a wreath of artificial flowers, through
which her emaciated fingers passed with a quick convulsive motion. It
needed not, however, a very nice observation to discover that the work
progressed but slowly. The very anxiety with which she exerted
herself, seemed to impede her movements, and the tears which fell from
time to time upon the leaves obscured her sight, and often completely
arrested her hand. She did not raise her head as Adelaide enter