"She deserves an answer, a sincere and loyal and frank answer, and, above all, the honest expression of your thought.

Examine yourself! sound your heart and purge it of its meannesses.

What would Moliere's Alceste say ?" And La Briere, having started from the boulevard Poissoniere, walked so slowly, absorbed in these reflections, that he was more than an hour in reaching the boulevard des Capucines.

Then he followed the quays, which led him to the Cour des Comptes, situated in that time close to the Saint-Chapelle.

Instead of beginning on the accounts as he should have done, he remained at the mercy of his perplexities.
"One thing is evident," he said to himself; "she hasn't six millions; but that's not the point--" Six days later, Modeste received the following letter: Mademoiselle,--You are not a D'Este.