I stooped and picked it up, and read on it the ominous words, 'blow out my brains!' I had not been mistaken, then, and was face to face with some coming tragedy.

Having once yielded, I made no further efforts at self-control.

The waiters were running about; no one paid any attention to me; and creeping to the place that the unknown had occupied, I obtained possession of two more scraps of paper.

Upon one I read, 'shame and horror!' upon the other, 'one hundred thousand francs by to-night.' The meaning of these few words were as clear as daylight to me; but for all that, I managed to collect every atom of the torn paper, and piecing them together, read this:-- "'CHARLES,--'I must have one hundred thousand francs to-night, and you are the only one to whom I can apply.

The shame and horror of my position are too much for me.