rles--who, not understanding his mother's grief, stood
speechless at the sight of her tears--at the cot where Eugenie lay
sleeping, and Caroline's face, on which grief had the effect of rain
falling across the beams of cheerful sunshine.

"Yes, my darling," said Roger, after a long silence, "that is the great
secret: I am married. But some day I hope we may form but one family. My
wife has been given over ever since last March. I do not wish her dead;
still, if it should please God to take her to Himself, I believe
she will be happier in Paradise than in a world to whose griefs and
pleasures she is equally indifferent."

"How I hate that woman! How could she bear to make you unhappy? And yet
it is to that unhappiness that I owe my happiness!"

Her tears suddenly ceased.

"Caroline, let us hope," cried Roger. "Do not be frightened by anything
that priest may have said to you. Though my wife's confessor is a man to
be feared for his power in the congregation, if he should try to blight
our happiness I would find means--"

"What could you do?"

"We would go to Italy: I would fly--"

A shriek that rang out from the adjoining room made Roger start
and Mademoiselle de Bellefeuille quake; but she rushed into the
drawing-room, and there found Madame de Granville in a dead faint. When
the Countess recovered her senses, she sighed deeply on finding herself
supported by the Count and her rival, whom she instinctively pushed
away with a gesture of contempt. Mademoiselle de Bellefeuille rose to
withdraw.

"You are at home, madame," said Granville, taking Caroline by the arm.
"Stay."

The Judge took up his wife in his arms, carried her to the carriage, and
got into it with her.

"Who is it that has brought you to the point of wishing me dead, of
resolving to fly?" asked the Countess, looking at her husband with grief
mingled with indignation. "Was I not young? you thought me pretty--what
fault have you to find with me? Have I been false to you? Have I not
been a virtuous and well-conducted wife? My heart has cherished no image
but yours, my ears have listened to no other voice. What duty have I
failed in? What have I ever denied you?"

"Happiness, madame," said the Count severely. "You know, madame, that
there are two ways of serving God. Some Christians imagine that by
going to church at fixed hours to say a _Paternoster_, by attending Mass
regularly and avoiding sin, they may win heaven--but they, madame, will
go to