At last de Sigognac said softly, "I can scarcely believe even yet in the reality of so much bliss.

Oh! what a strange, contradictory destiny is mine.

You loved me, my darling, because I was poor and unhappy--and thus my past misery was the direct cause of my present felicity.

A troupe of strolling actors, who chanced to seek refuge under my crumbling roof, held in reserve for me an angel of purity and goodness--a hostile encounter has given me a devoted friend--and, most wonderful of all, your forcible abduction led to your meeting the fond father who had been seeking you so many years in vain.

And all this because a Thespian chariot went astray one stormy night in the Landes." "We were destined for each other--it was all arranged for us in heaven above.