the reality of
her position, and recalled to her the sufferings of the past and the
uncertainty of the future.

The good widow in the meantime assisted her in getting up; and they
spent the day together in the little parlor, busily cutting out and
making up a black silk dress for which Papa Ravinet had brought the
material in the morning, and which was to take the place of Henrietta's
miserable, worn-out, alpaca dress. When the young girl had first seen
the silk, she had remembered all the kind widow had told her of their
excessive economy, and with difficulty only succeeded in checking her
tears.

"Why should you go to such an expense?" she had said very sadly. "Would
not a woollen dress have done quite as well? The hospitality which you
offer me must in itself be quite a heavy charge upon you. I should never
forgive myself for becoming a source of still greater privations to such
very kind friends."

But the old lady shook her head, and replied,--

"Don't be afraid, child. We have money enough."

They had just lighted the lamp, when they heard a key in the outer door;
and a moment later Papa Ravinet appeared. He was very red; and, although
it was freezing outdoors, he was streaming with perspiration.

"I am exhausted," he said, sinking into, an armchair, and wiping his
forehead with his broad checkered handkerchief. "You cannot imagine how
I have been running about to-day! I wanted to take an omnibus to come
home, but they were all full."

Henrietta jumped up, and exclaimed,--

"You have been to see my father?"

"No, madam. A week ago already, Count Ville-Handry left his palace."

A mad thought, the hope that her father might have separated from his
wife, crossed Henrietta's mind.

"And the countess," she asked,--"the Countess Sarah?"

"She has gone with her husband. They live in Peletier Street, in a
modest apartment just above the office of the Pennsylvania Petroleum
Company. Sir Thorn and Mrs. Brian are there also. They have only kept
two servants,--Ernest, the count's valet, and a certain Clarissa."

The name of the vile creature whose treachery had been one of the
principal causes of Henrietta's misfortunes did not strike her ear.

"How could my father ever be induced to leave his home?" she asked.

"He sold it, madam, ten days ago."

"Great God! My father must be ruined!"

The old man bowed his head.

"Yes!"

Thus were the sad presentiments realized which she had felt when first
she had