Champcey.
All weapons are fair when we are called upon to defend our lives and our
honor against rascals; and that is where we are. If we do not hasten to
strike Sarah Brandon, she will anticipate us; and then"--

He had been leaning against the mantlepiece, close to Mrs. Bertolle, who
sat there silent and immovable; and now he raised his head, and, looking
attentively at Henrietta and Daniel by turns, he added,--

"Perhaps you are both not exactly conscious of the position in which you
stand. Having been reunited to-night, after such terrible trials, and
having, both of you, escaped, almost by a miracle, from death, you feel,
no doubt, as if all trouble was at an end, and the future was yours. I
must undeceive you. You are precisely where you were the day before M.
Champcey left France. You cannot any more now than at that time marry
without Count Ville-Handry's consent. Will he give it? You know very
well that the Countess Sarah will not let him. Will you defy prejudices,
and proudly avow your love? Ah, have a care! If you sin against social
conventionalities, you risk your whole happiness of life. Will you hide
yourself, on the other hand? However careful you may be, the world will
find you out; and fools and hypocrites will overwhelm you with slander.
And Miss Henrietta has been too much calumniated already."

To soar in the azure air, and suddenly to fall back into the mud on
earth; to indulge in the sweetest of dreams, and all at once to be
recalled to stern reality,--this is what Daniel and Henrietta endured at
that moment. The calm, collected voice of the old dealer sounded cruel
to them. Still he was but a sincere friend, who did his painful duty in
awakening them from such deceptive illusions.

"Now," he went on, "mind that I take everything at the best; and even
suppose the case, that Count Ville-Handry leaves his daughter free
to choose: would that be enough? Evidently not; for the moment Sarah
Brandon hears that Miss Henrietta has not committed suicide, but
is, instead, at the Hotel du Louvre, within easy reach of M. Daniel
Champcey, she will prevail on her husband to shut his daughter up in a
convent. For another year, Miss Henrietta is yet under paternal control;
that is, in this case, at the mercy of a revengeful step-mother, who
looks upon her as a successful rival."

At this idea, that Henrietta might be once more taken from him, Daniel
felt his blood chill off in his veins; and he exclaimed,--