CHAPTER XII.
A STARTLING REVELATION.
When Sabine de Mussidan told her lover that she would appeal to the generosity of M.de Breulh-Faverlay, she had not calculated on the necessity she would have for endurance, but had rather listened to the dictates of her heart; and this fact came the more strongly before her, when in the solitude of her own chamber, she inquired of herself how she was to carry out her promise.

It seemed to her very terrible to have to lay bare the secrets of her soul to any one, but the more so to M.de Breulh-Faverlay, who had asked for her hand in marriage.

She uttered no word on her way home, where she arrived just in time to take her place at the dinner table, and never was a more dismal company assembled for the evening meal.

Her own miseries occupied Sabine, and her father and mother were suffering from their interviews with Mascarin and Dr.
Hortebise.

What did the liveried servants, who waited at table with such an affectation of interest, care for the sorrows of their master or mistress?
They were well lodged and well fed, and nothing save their wages did they care for.