dame de Lucenay on the point of commencing so delicate a
conversation, he expected from her caution and management. What was his
astonishment! She spoke with as much assurance and haughtiness as if she
were discoursing about the simplest thing in the world; and as if,
before a man of his sort, she had no care for reserve or those
concealments which she would assuredly have maintained with her equals.
In fact, the coarse brutality of the notary wounded her to the quick,
and had led Madame de Lucenay to quit the humble and supplicating part
she was acting with much difficulty to herself. Returned to herself, she
thought it beneath her to descend to the least concealment with a mere
scribbler of acts and deeds. High-spirited, charitable, generous,
overflowing with kindness, warm-heartedness, and energy, in spite of her
faults,--but the daughter of a mother of no principle, and who had even
disgraced the noble and respectable, though fallen position of an
_emigree_,--Madame de Lucenay, in her inborn contempt for certain
classes, would have said with the Roman empress who took her bath in the
presence of a male slave, "He is not a man!"

"Monsieur Notary," said the duchess, with a determined air, to Jacques
Ferrand, "M. de Saint-Remy is one of my friends, and has confided to me
the embarrassment under which he is at this moment suffering, from a
twofold treachery of which he is the victim. All is arranged as to the
money. How much is required to terminate these miserable annoyances?"

Jacques Ferrand was actually aghast at this cavalier and deliberate
manner of entering on this affair.

"One hundred thousand francs are required," he repeated, after having in
some degree surmounted his surprise.

"You shall have your one hundred thousand francs; so send, at once,
these annoying papers to M. de Saint-Remy."

"Where are the one hundred thousand francs, Madame la Duchesse?"

"Have I not said you should have them, sir?"

"I must have them to-morrow, and before noon, madame; or else
proceedings will be instantly commenced for the forgery."

"Well, do you pay this sum, which I will repay to you."

"But madame, it is impossible."

"But, sir, you will not tell me, I imagine, that a notary, like you,
cannot find one hundred thousand francs by to-morrow morning?"

"On what securities, madame?"

"What do you mean? Explain!"

"Who will be answerable to me for this sum?"

"I will."

"Still, madame--"

"Need I say that