nge."

"Then she cannot have told you the importance of the proofs I have
in my hands."

But the Baron persisted, as Mlle. Cesarine would have said, to "do
it up in the tender style."

"There is scarcely a family," he resumed, "in which there is not
some one of those painful secrets which they try to withhold from
the wickedness of the world. There is one in mine. Yes, it is
true, that before our marriage, my wife had had a child, whom
poverty had compelled her to abandon. We have since done everything
that was humanly possible to find that child, but without success.
It is a great misfortune, which has weighed upon our life; but it is
not a crime. If, however, you deem it your interest to divulge our
secret, and to disgrace a woman, you are free to do so: I cannot
prevent you. But I declare it to you, that fact is the only thing
real in your accusations. You say that your father has been duped
and defrauded. From whom did you get such an idea?

"From Marcolet, doubtless, a man without character, who has become
my mortal enemy since the day when he tried a sharp game on me, and
came out second best. Or from Costeclar, perhaps, who does not
forgive me for having refused him my daughter's hand, and who hates
me because I know that he committed forgery once, and that he would
be in prison but for your father's extreme indulgence. Well,
Costeclar and Marcolet have deceived you. If the Marquis de Tregars
ruined himself, it is because he undertook a business that he knew
nothing about, and speculated right and left. It does not take
long to sink a fortune, even without the assistance of thieves.

"As to pretend that I have benefitted by the embezzlements of my
cashier that is simply stupid; and there can be no one to suggest
such a thing, except Jottras and Saint Pavin, two scoundrels whom
I have had ten times the opportunity to send to prison and who were
the accomplices of Favoral. Besides, the matter is in the hands of
justice; and I shall prove in the broad daylight of the court-room,
as I have already done in the office of the examining judge, that,
to save the Mutual Credit, I have sacrificed more than half my
private fortune."

Tired of this speech, the evident object of which was to lead him
to discuss, and to betray himself,

"Conclude, sir," M. de Tregars interrupted harshly. Still in the
same placid tone,

"To conclude is easy enough," replied the baron. "My wife has told
me that you were