"But"--

"You ought to credit her, besides, with sufficient astuteness and
experience to know that she had taken the most careful precautions,
having destroyed every evidence of her own complicity, and feeling quite
safe in that direction. Moreover, she had studied Malgat's character,
as she studied afterwards Kergrist's. She was quite sure that neither of
them would accuse her, even at the moment of death. And yet, in the
case of this Mutual Discount Society, her calculations did not prove
absolutely correct."

"How so?"

"It became known that she had received Malgat two or three times
secretly, for he did not openly enter her house; and the penny papers
had it, that 'the fair stranger was no stranger to small peculations.'
Public opinion was veering around, when it was reported that she
had been summoned to appear before a magistrate. That, however, was
fortunate for her; she came out from the trial whiter and purer than
Alpine snow."

"Oh!"

"And so perfectly cleared, that, when the whole matter was brought up in
court, she was not even summoned as a witness."

Daniel started up, and exclaimed,--

"What! Malgat had the sublime self-abnegation to undergo the agonies of