himself in relation to Les Moulineaux. If you have been, as you say,
to Monsieur Margueron, it was to tell him to feign illness. He is so
little ill that he is coming here to dinner this evening. Now,
monsieur, I could pardon you having made two hundred and fifty
thousand francs out of your situation in seventeen years,--I can
understand that. You might each time have asked me for what you took,
and I would have given it to you; but let that pass. You have been,
notwithstanding this disloyalty, better than others, as I believe. But
that you, who knew my toil for our country, for France, you have seen
me giving night after night to the Emperor's service, and working
eighteen hours of each twenty-four for months together, you who knew
my love for Madame de Serizy,--that you should have gossiped about me
before a boy! holding up my secrets and my affections to the ridicule
of a Madame Husson!--"

"Monseigneur!"

"It is unpardonable. To injure a man's interest, why, that is nothing;
but to stab his heart!--Oh! you do not know what you have done!"

The count put his head in his hands and was silent for some moments.

"I leave you what you have gained," he said after a time, "and I shall
forget you. For my sake, for my dignity, and for your honor, we will
part decently; for I cannot but remember even now what your father did
for mine. You will explain the duties of the stewardship in a proper
manner to Monsieur de Reybert, who succeeds you. Be calm, as I am.
Give no opportunity for fools to talk. Above all, let there be no
recrimination or petty meanness. Though you no longer possess my
confidence, endeavor to behave with the decorum of well-bred persons.