ing that I am once more rich, to insist on having them back. Ah! my
angel, give them to him; you owe him your father; he alone consoled me
in my troubles, he alone has had faith in me,--without him I should have
died."

"Monsieur! monsieur!" cried Lemulquinier.

"What is it?" said Balthazar, turning round.

"A diamond!"

Claes sprang into the parlor and saw the stone in the hands of the old
valet, who whispered in his ear,--

"I have been to the laboratory."

The chemist, forgetting everything about him, cast a terrible look on
the old Fleming which meant, "You went before me to the laboratory!"

"Yes," continued Lemulquinier, "I found the diamond in the china capsule
which communicated with the battery which we left to work, monsieur--and
see!" he added, showing a white diamond of octahedral form, whose
brilliancy drew the astonished gaze of all present.

"My children, my friends," said Balthazar, "forgive my old servant,
forgive me! This event will drive me mad. The chance work of seven years
has produced--without me--a discovery I have sought for sixteen years.
How? My God, I know not--yes, I left sulphide of carbon under the
influence of a Voltaic pile, whose action ought to have been watched
from day to day. During my absence the power of God has worked in my
laboratory, but I was not there to note its progressive effects! Is it
not awful? Oh, cursed exile! cursed chance! Alas! had I watched that
slow, that sudden--what can I call it?--crystallization, transformation,
in short that miracle, then, then my children would have been richer
still. Though this result is not the solution of the Problem which I
seek, the first rays of my glory would have shone from that diamond upon
my native country, and this hour, which our satisfied affections have
made so happy, would have glowed with the sunlight of Science."

Every one kept silence in the presence of such a man. The disconnected
words wrung from him by his anguish were too sincere not to be sublime.

Suddenly, Balthazar drove back his despair into the depths of his own
being, and cast upon the assembly a majestic look which affected
the souls of all; he took the diamond and offered it to Marguerite,
saying,--

"It is thine, my angel."

Then he dismissed Lemulquinier with a gesture, and motioned to the
notary, saying, "Go on."

The two words sent a shudder of emotion through the company such as
Talma in certain roles produced among his auditors. Baltha