f a woman which he kissed and called by name like a man
distraught with grief and despair.

Cadet's coarse and immovable nature stood him in good stead at this
moment. He saw at a glance what had happened. The girl they had come
to bear away was dead! How? He knew not; but the Intendant must not be
suffered to make an alarm. There was danger of discovery on all sides
now, and the necessity of concealment was a thousand times greater than
ever. There was no time to question, but instant help was needed.
In amaze at the spectacle before him, Cadet instantly flew to the
assistance of the Intendant.

He approached Bigot without speaking a word, although his great eyes
expressed a look of sympathy never seen there before. He disengaged the
dead form of Caroline tenderly from the embrace of Bigot, and laid it
gently upon the floor, and lifting Bigot up in his stout arms, whispered
hoarsely in his ear, "Keep still, Bigot! keep still! not one word! make
no alarm! This is a dreadful business, but we must go to another room to
consider calmly, calmly, mind, what it means and what is to be done."

"Oh, Cadet! Cadet!" moaned the Intendant, still resting on his shoulder,
"she is dead! dead! when I just wanted her to live! I have been hard
with women, but if there was one I loved it was she who lies dead before
me! Who, who has done this bloody deed to me?"

"Who has done it to her, you mean! You are not killed yet, old friend,
but will live to revenge this horrid business!" answered Cadet with
rough sympathy.

"I would give my life to restore hers!" replied Bigot despairingly. "Oh,
Cadet, you never knew what was in my heart about this girl, and how I
had resolved to make her reparation for the evil I had done her!"

"Well, I can guess what was in your heart, Bigot. Come, old friend, you
are getting more calm, you can walk now. Let us go upstairs to consider
what is to be done about it. Damn the women! They are man's torment
whether alive or dead!"

Bigot was too much absorbed in his own tumultuous feelings to notice
Cadet's remark. He allowed himself to be led without resistance to
another room, out of sight of the murdered girl, in whose presence Cadet
knew calm council was impossible.

Cadet seated Bigot on a couch and, sitting beside him, bade him be a man
and not a fool. He tried to rouse Bigot by irritating him, thinking, in
his coarse way, that that was better than to be maudlin over him, as he
considered it, with vai