They told him that the forgery
had been discovered: that suit had been brought; that he was ruined.
They offered him, also, money to flee.

"Poor Kergrist! They had not miscalculated. Descended from a family in
which a keen sense of honor had been hereditary for many generations,
he did not hesitate. As soon as he left the house, he hanged himself on
Sarah's window, thinking that he would thus hold up to public censure
the infamous creature who had led him to commit a crime.

"Poor child! They had deceived him. He was not ruined. The forgery had
never been discovered; the drafts had never been used at all. A careful
investigation revealed nothing against Sarah Brandon; but the scandals
of the suicide diminished her prestige. She felt it; and, giving up her
dreams of greatness, she thought of marrying a fool who was immensely
wealthy, M. Wilkie Gordon, when Sir Thorn spoke to her of Count
Ville-Handry.

"In fortune, name, and age, the count was exactly what Sarah had dreamed
of so often. She threw herself upon him.

"How the old gentleman was drawn to Circus Street; how he was
surrounded, insnared, intoxicated, and finally made a husband--all that
you know but too well, M. Champcey. But what you do not know is the fact
that this marriage brought discord into the camp. M. de Brevan would not
hear of it; and it was the hope he had of breaking it up, which made
him speak to you so frankly of Sarah Brandon. When you went to ask
his advice, he was on bad terms with her: she had turned him off, and
refused to pay him any money. And he was so mortally offended, that he
would have betrayed her to the courts even, if he had known how to do it
without inculpating himself.

"You were the very person to reconcile them again, inasmuch as you gave
Maxime an opportunity of rendering Sarah Brandon a great service.

"He did not then anticipate that she would ever fall in love with
you, and that she, in her turn, would have to succumb to one of those
desperate passions which she had so often kindled in others, and used
for her own advantage. This discovery made him furious; and Sarah's
love, and Maxime's rage, will explain to you the double plot by
which you were victimized. Sarah, who loved you, wanted to get rid of
Henrietta, who was your betrothed: Maxime, stung by jealousy, wanted you
to die."

Visibly overcome by fatigue, Papa Ravinet fell back in his chair, and
remained silent for more than five minutes. Then he seemed to ma