pa Ravinet started up as if he had been shot.

"What," he said, "you know that?"

"I learned it three months ago. I also know that my friend, the
proud nobleman, Maxime de Brevan, who has been received in the most
aristocratic _salons_ of Paris, has been a galley-slave, condemned for
forgery."

Henrietta had risen, filled with terror.

"Then," she stammered, "this wretched man was"--

"Chevassat's son; yes, madam," replied Mrs. Bertolle.

"Oh!" exclaimed the poor girl, "oh!"

And she fell heavily back into her chair, overcome by this discovery.
The old dealer alone preserved his calm appearance.

"How did you learn that?" he asked Daniel.

"Through the man whom my friend Maxime had hired to murder me."

Positively this threatened to be too much for Henrietta's mind.

"Ah! I thought the mean coward would try to get you out of the way,
Daniel. I wrote to you to be careful."

"And I received your letter, my darling, but too late. After having
missed me twice, the assassin fired at me; and I was in my bed, a ball
in my chest, dying."

"What has become of the murderer?" asked Papa Ravinet.

"He was arrested."

"Then he confessed?"

"Yes, thanks to the astonishing cleverness of the magistrate who carried
on the investigation."

"What has become of him?"

"He has left Saigon by this time. They have sent him home to be tried
here."

"And Brevan?"

"I am surprised he has not yet been arrested. The papers in the case
were sent to Paris by a vessel which left a fortnight before I left. To
be sure, 'The Saint Louis' may have gotten ahead of her. At all events,
I have in my keeping a letter to the court."

Papa Ravinet seemed to be almost delirious with joy. He gesticulated
like a madman; he laughed nervously, and almost frightfully, till his
sides shook; and at last he said,--

"I shall see Brevan on the scaffold! Yes, I shall!"

But from that moment there was an end of that logical order which the
old gentleman had so far kept up. As it always happens with people who
are under the influence of some passion, eager to learn what they do not
know, and little disposed to tell what they do know, confusion prevailed
soon. Questions crossed each other, and followed, without order or
connection. Answers came at haphazard. Each wanted to be heard; and
all were speaking at once. Thus the explanations, which, by a little
management, might have been given in twenty minutes, took them more than
two hours.

At l