and said,--

"Believe me, sir, I am exceedingly obliged to you for all you have done
for me, and for your effort to convince me."

The poor man looked disappointed.

"In fact, you reject my offers, because I do not explain them to you by
any of the usual motives. But what can I tell you? Suppose I should say
to you that I have a daughter who has secretly left me, so that I do
not know what has become of her, and that her memory makes me anxious
to serve you. May I not have said to myself, that perhaps she is
struggling, just as you have done, with poverty; that she also has been
abandoned by her lover?"

The poor girl turned deadly pale as he spoke thus, and interrupted him
eagerly, raising herself on her pillows,--

"You are mistaken, sir. My position here may justify such suspicions, I
know; but I have no lover."

He replied,--

"I believe you; I swear I believe you. But, if that is so, how did you
get here? and how were you reduced to such extreme suffering?"

At last Papa Ravinet had touched the right chord. The poor girl was
deeply moved; and the tears started in her eyes. She said in a low
voice,--