son
best known to yourself you cannot answer them, and that it is useless
to torment you further. But something must be done and that at once. I
am going to my father!"

Esperance caught her wildly by the arm.

"You are mad!" cried he.

"It is you who are mad--you and Giovanni! I tell you, I am going to my
father; if you are innocent, you have nothing to fear from any
revelation I may make!"

With these words she freed herself from her brother's grasp and quitted
the salon, leaving Esperance standing in the centre of the apartment as
if he were rooted to the spot.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

CAPTAIN JOLIETTE'S LOVE.

In a small but cosy and elegant suite of apartments in a mansion on the
Rue des Capucines resided Mlle. Louise d'Armilly and her brother Leon;
as has already been stated, the celebrated cantatrice had retired from
the boards in consequence of having inherited a fortune of several
millions of francs from the estate of her deceased father, who, rumor
asserted, had been a very wealthy Parisian banker; Leon had abandoned
the stage simultaneously with his sister, who had invited him to share
her suddenly acquired riches, for, strange to say, the banker had not
bequeathed to him a single sou.

The immense inheritance had been a complete surprise to Mlle. d'Armilly,
and for some time she had hesitated to accept it, as a condition imposed
by the will was her immediate withdrawal from her operatic career, and
the prima donna was as ambitious as gifted; but, finally, she had
yielded to the persuasive eloquence of the notary and the earnest
entreaties of her friends, canceling all her engagements, and with them
abandoning her bright professional future.

The director of the Academie Royale demanded a large sum to release the
artiste from her contract with him, and this was paid by the notary with
an alacrity that seemed to suggest he was not acting solely according to
the directions of the will, but was influenced by some personage who
chose to remain in the background; the notary also paid all other
demands made by the various operatic managers who claimed they would
lose by Mlle. d'Armilly's failure to appear; these amounts were not
deducted from the legacy, a circumstance that gave additional color to
the supposition that the will of the deceased banker was not the sole
factor in the celebrated cantatrice's good luck.

One evening, shortly after Paris had again quieted down, Mlle. d'Armilly
was seated i