ds, to dine with me, by the side of my wife
and children. She came. Her husband made me sign every thing he
pleased; but, as she went off, she pressed my hand."

He was still shuddering at the recollection of it, the poor fellow!

"The next day," he went on, "I handed to Thaller all I had in the
world; and, in exchange, he gave me the position of cashier in the
Mutual Credit, which he had just founded. He treated me like an
inferior, and did not admit me to visit his family. But I didn't
care: the baroness had permitted me to see her again, and almost
every afternoon I met her at the Tuileries; and I had made bold to
tell her that I loved her to desperation. At last, one evening,
she consented to make an appointment with me for the second
following day, in an apartment which I had rented.

"The day before I was to meet her, and whilst I was beside myself
with joy, the Baron de Thaller requested me to assist him, by
means of certain irregular entries, to conceal a deficit arising
from unsuccessful speculations. How could I refuse a man, whom,
as I thought, I was about to deceive grossly! I did as he wished.
The next day Mme. de Thaller became my mistress; and I was a lost
man."

Was he trying to exculpate himself? Was he merely yielding to that
imperious sentiment, more powerful than the will or the reason,
which impels the criminal to reveal the secret which oppresses him?

"From that day," he went on, "began for me the torment of that
double existence which I underwent for years. I had given to my
mistress all I had in the world; and she was insatiable. She
wanted money always, any way, and in heaps. She made me buy the
house in the Rue du Cirque for our meetings; and, between the
demands of the husband and those of the wife, I was almost insane.
I drew from the funds of the Mutual Credit as from an inexhaustible
mine; and, as I foresaw that some day must come when all would be
discovered, I always carried about me a loaded revolver, with
which to blow out my brains when they came to arrest me."

And he showed to Marius the handle of a revolver protruding from his
pocket.

"And if only she had been faithful to me!" he continued, becoming
more and more animated. "But what have I not endured! When the
Marquis de Tregars returned to Paris, and they set about defrauding
him of his fortune, she did not hesitate a moment to become his
mistress again. She used to tell me, 'What a fool you are! all
I wa