ead, the poor cashier had to attend to his
daily duties, and from morning till night receive tens and hundreds of
thousands; and never yet, I swear it, the thought occurred to him of
taking a small fraction of these treasures.

"He had determined to sell all his collections as a whole, at any price
he could get, when one day, a few moments before the office closed, a
lady appeared, whose ample dress concealed her figure, while a thick
veil completely shrouded her features.

"This lady raised her veil. It was she. It was Sarah Brandon.

"Malgat begged her to enter. He was overcome. What new misfortune had
happened to induce her to take such a step? She told him in a few words.

"Sir Thorn had found out their secret meetings: he had told her to be
ready to start for Philadelphia the next morning.

"The crisis had come. They must choose now between two things,--either
to flee that very day, or be separated forever.

"Ah! never had Sarah been so beautiful as at this moment, when she
seemed to be maddened by grief; never had her whole personal beauty
exhaled such powerful, such irresistible charms. Her breath went and
came, causing her almost to sob at every respiration; and big tears,
like scattered beads from a chaplet of pearls, rolled down her pale
cheeks.

"Malgat stood a moment before her, stunned by the blow; and the
imminence of the danger extorted from him a confession of the reasons
that had made him hesitate so long. He told her, cruelly humiliated by
the avowal, that he had no money.

"But she rose when she heard it, as if she had been stung by an insult,
and repeated with crushing irony,--

"'No money? No money?'

"And when Malgat, more heartily ashamed of his poverty than he could
have been of a crime, blushed to the roots of his hair, she pointed at
the immense safe, which overflowed with gold and bank-notes, and said,--

"'And what is all that?'

"Malgat jumped up, and stood before the safe, his arms far outstretched,
as if to defend it, and said in an accent of ineffable terror,--

"'What are you thinking of? And my honor?'

"This was to be his last effort to preserve his honor. Sarah looked him
straight in the face, and said slowly,--

"'And my honor! My honor is nothing to you? Do I not give myself? Do you
mean to drive a bargain?'

"Great God! She said this with an accent and with a look which would
have tempted an angel. Malgat fell helpless into a chair.

"Then she came close up to