adame d'Orbigny, laughing.

"You hear, sir? I must not contradict such a handsome lady."

"My dear M. Ferrand, let us speak seriously of serious things, and, you
know, this is a most serious matter. Do you really refuse me?" inquired
the viscount, with an anxiety which he could not altogether dissemble.

The notary was cruel enough to appear to hesitate; M. de Saint-Remy had
an instant's hope.

"What, man of iron, do you yield?" said Madame d'Harville's stepmother,
laughing still. "Do you, too, yield to the charm of the irresistible?"

"_Ma foi_, madame! I was on the point of yielding, as you say; but you
make me blush for my weakness," added M. Ferrand. And then, addressing
himself to the viscount, he said to him, with an accent of which
Saint-Remy felt all the meaning, "Well then, seriously," (and he dwelt
on the word), "it is impossible."

"Ah, the Puritan! Hark to the Puritan!" said Madame d'Orbigny.

"See M. Petit-Jean. He will think precisely as I do, I am sure, and,
like me, will say to you 'No!'"

M. de Saint-Remy rushed out in despair.

After a moment's reflection he said to himself, "It must be so!" Then he
added, addressing his chasseur, who was standing with the door of his
carriage opened, "To the Hotel de Lucenay."

Whilst M. de Saint-Remy is on his way to see the duchess, we will
present the reader at the interview between M. Ferrand and the
stepmother of Madame d'Harville.

CHAPTER V.

THE CLIENTS.

The reader may have forgotten the portrait of the stepmother of Madame
d'Harville as drawn by the latter. Let us then repeat, that Madame
d'Orbigny was a slight, fair, delicate woman, with eyelashes almost
white, round and palish blue eyes, with a soft voice, a hypocritical
air, insidious and insinuating manners. Any one who studied her
treacherous and perfidious countenance would detect therein craft and
cruelty.

"What a delightful young man M. de Saint-Remy is!" said Madame d'Orbigny
to Jacques Ferrand, when the viscount had left them.

"Delightful! But, madame, let us now proceed to our business. You wrote
to me from Normandy that you desired to consult me upon most serious
matters."

"Have you not always been my adviser ever since the worthy Doctor
Polidori introduced me to you? By the way, have you heard from him
recently?" inquired Madame d'Orbigny, with an air of complete
carelessness.

"Since he left Paris he has not written me a single line," replied the
notary, with a