have employed force to gain
my ends? Do you wish to be convinced of the folly of such an imputation?
Why, by my orders, Germain, my cashier, returned here last night at ten
o'clock to complete some very important papers, and until one o'clock
this morning he was writing in the chamber directly under yours; would
he not then have been sure to have heard the slightest sound, much less
the repetition of such a struggle as we had together a little while ago,
my saucy little beauty, when you were not quite in as complying a humour
as I found you in last evening? Germain must have heard you during the
stillness of the night had you but called for assistance. Ask him, when
you see him, whether any such sound occurred; he will tell you no, and
that he worked on uninterruptedly during the very hours you are accusing
me of forcibly entering your bedchamber.'"

"Ah!" cried Rodolph, "the villain had evidently taken every precaution
to prevent detection."

"He had, indeed. As for me, sir," continued Louise, "I was so
thunderstruck with horror at these assertions of M. Ferrand, that I knew
not what to reply. Ignorant of my having taken anything to induce sleep,
I felt wholly unable to account for my having slept so unusually heavy
and long. Appearances were strongly against me; what would it avail for
me to publish the dreadful story? No one would believe me innocent. How,
indeed, could I hope or expect they should, when even to myself the
events of that fatal night continued an impenetrable mystery?"

Even Rodolph remained speechless with horror at this fearful revelation
of the diabolical hypocrisy of M. Ferrand.

"Then," said he, after a pause of some minutes, "you never ventured to
inform your father of the infamous treatment you had received?"

"No," answered she, "for I dreaded lest he might suppose I had willingly
listened to the persuasions of my master; and I also feared that, in the
first burst of his indignation, my poor father would forget that not
only his own freedom, but the very existence of his family, depended
upon the pleasure of M. Ferrand."

"And probably," continued Rodolph, desirous if possible to save Louise
the painful confession, "probably, yielding to constraint, and the dread
of endangering the safety of your father and family by a refusal, you
continued to be the victim of this monster's brutality?"

Louise spoke not, but her cast-down eyes, and the deep blushes which
dyed her pale cheek, answered