s about her
always and under all circumstances, an indescribable flavor of the
_parvenue_. Her gestures had remained trivial; her voice, common and
vulgar.

Throwing herself into an arm-chair, and bursting into a loud laugh,

"Confess, my dear marquis," she said, "that you are terribly
astonished to see me thus drop upon you, without warning, at eleven
o'clock in the morning."

"I feel, above all, terribly flattered," replied M. de Tregars,
smiling.

With a rapid glance she was surveying the little study, the modest
furniture, the papers piled on the desk, as if she had hoped that
the dwelling would reveal to her something of the master's ideas
and projects.

"I was just coming from Van Klopen's," she resumed; "and passing
before your house, I took a fancy to come in and stir you up; and
here I am."

M. de Tregars was too much a man of the world, and of the best world,
to allow his features to betray the secret of his impressions; and
yet, to any one who had known him well, a certain contraction of the
eyelids would have revealed a serious annoyance and an intense
anxiety.

"How is the baron?" he inquired.

"As sound as an oak," answered Mme. de Thaller, "notwithstanding all
the cares and the troubles, which you can well imagine. By the way,
you know what has happened to us?"

"I read in the papers that the cashier of the Mutual Credit had
disappeared."

"And it is but too true. That wretch Favoral has gone off with an
enormous amount of money."

"Twelve millions, I heard."

"Something like it. A man who had the reputation of a saint too; a
puritan. Trust people's faces after that! I never liked him, I
confess. But M. de Thaller had a perfect fancy for him; and, when
he had spoken of his Favoral, there was nothing more to say. Any
way, he has cleared out, leaving his family without means. A very
interesting family, it seems, too,--a wife who is goodness itself,
and a charming daughter: at least, so says Costeclar, who is very
much in love with her."

M. de Tregars' countenance remained perfectly indifferent, like
that of a man who is hearing about persons and things in which he
does not take the slightest interest.

Mme. de Thaller noticed this.

"But it isn't to tell you all this," she went on, "that I came up.
It is an interested motive brought me. We have, some of my friends
and myself, organized a lottery--a work of charity, my dear marquis,
and quite patriotic--for the benefit of t