dead brother he
would hide my dishonor, and he ordered me to seclude myself from the
sight of all persons. I obeyed him like a slave, grateful even for the
shelter of his roof."

"A roof that was your own, as he very well knew. And he knew, also, the
caitiff! that if the circumstance became known the whole State would
have protected you in your rights, and ejected him like a cur."

"Nay, even in that case no harm should have reached him on my account.
He was my husband's brother."

"And worst enemy! But proceed, dear lady."

"Well, I secluded myself as he commanded. For four months I never left
the attic to which he had ordered me to retreat. At the end of that
time I became the mother of twins--a boy and a girl. The boy only
opened his eyes on this world to close them again directly. The girl
was living and healthy. The old nurse who attended me had an honest and
compassionate face; I persuaded her to secrete and save the living
child, and to present the dead babe to Colonel Le Noir as the only one,
for the suspicions that had never been awakened for myself were alarmed
for my child. I instinctively felt that he would have destroyed it."

"The mother's instinct is like inspiration," said Traverse.

"It may be so. Well, the old woman pitied me and did as I desired. She
took the dead child to Colonel Le Noir, who carried it off, and
afterward buried it as the sole heir of his elder brother. The old
woman carried off my living child and my wedding ring, concealed under
her ample shawl. Anxiety for the fate of my child caused me to do what
nothing else on earth would have tempted me to do--to creep about the
halls and passages on tiptoe and under cover of the night and listen at
keyholes," said the lady, blushing deeply at the recollection.

"You--you were perfectly right, Mrs. Le Noir! In a den of robbers,
where your life and honor were always at stake, you could have done no
otherwise!" exclaimed Traverse, warmly.

"I learned by this means that my poor old nurse had paid with her
liberty for her kindness to me. She had been abducted and forced from
her native country together with a child found in her possession, which
they evidently suspected, and I knew, to be mine. Oh, heaven! the agony
then of thinking of what might be her unknown fate, worse than death,
perhaps! I felt that I had only succeeded in saving her life--doubtful
good!"

Here Mrs. Le Noir paused in thought for a few moments and then resumed.