ely at Daniel, who stood in the centre of
the room like a statue.

She had on a simple black merino dress; she wore no jewelry; but her
marvellous, fatal beauty seemed to be all the more dazzling. The years
had passed over her without leaving any more traces on her than the
spring breeze leaves on a half-opened rose. Her hair still shone with
its golden flashes; her rosy lips smiled sweetly; and her velvet eyes
caressed you still, till hot fire seemed to run in your veins.

Once before Daniel had been thus alone with her; and, as the sensations
he then felt rose in his mind, he began to tremble violently. Then,
thinking of his purpose in coming here, and the treacherous part he was
about to act, he felt a desire to escape.

It was she who broke the charm. She began, saying,--

"You know, I presume, the misfortunes that have befallen us. Your
betrothed, Henrietta? Has the count told you?"

Daniel had taken a chair. He replied,--

"The count has said nothing about his daughter."

"Well, then, my saddest presentiments have been fulfilled. Unhappy girl!
I did what I could to keep her in the right way. But she fell, step by
step, and finally so low, that one day, when a ray of sense fell upon
her mind, she went and killed herself."

It was done. Sarah had overcome the last hesitation which Daniel still
felt. Now he was in the right temper to meet cunning with cunning. He
answered in an admirably-feigned tone of indifference,--

"Ah!"

Then, encouraged by the joyous surprise he read in Sarah's face, he went
on,--

"This expedition has cost me dear. Count Ville-Handry has just informed
me that he has lost his whole fortune. I am in the same category."

"What! You are"--

"Ruined. Yes; that is to say, I have been robbed,--robbed of every cent
I ever had. On the eve of my departure, I intrusted a hundred thousand
dollars, all I ever possessed, to M. de Brevan, with orders to hold
it at Miss Henrietta's disposal. He found it easier to appropriate the
whole to himself. So, you see, I am reduced to my pittance of pay as a
lieutenant. That is not much."

Sarah looked at Daniel with perfect amazement. In any other man, this
prodigious confidence in a friend would have appeared to her the extreme
of human folly; in Daniel, she thought it was sublime.

"Is that the reason why they have arrested M. de Brevan?" she asked.

Daniel had not heard of his arrest.

"What!" he said. "Maxime"--

"Was arrested last night, a