If he had told me outright that he meant to try his luck with Tessie, I should hardly have believed more firmly than I did that her sweet face was in his mind’s eye as he spoke to me. It made me very glad. Her loving heart and patient endurance deserved so bright a lot that no one could envy her the best fortune that might occur. And _this_ fortune, I felt as I looked at Armand de Nesselrode, would be very bright indeed. The young man had so much good in him, beneath the crust of despondency and defiance of public opinion which his self-entailed losses and the desertion of his relatives had caused him to assume, and I was sure that renewed prosperity and the love of a true heart would bring out the best points of his character instead of obliterating them. To some people misfortune acts as a blister instead of a purge: it irritates instead of humbling them; and when the wheel turns in the right direction, gratitude makes them good. So I believed it would be—was already commencing to be—with Armand de Nesselrode; so I fervently hoped it might be, for Tessie’s sake. ‘Mademoiselle!’ his soft voice broke in upon my reverie, ‘if I am not presumptuous in hoping you will listen to me, may I at some future day tell you of the chapter of accidents which led me to this downfall?’ ‘I shall be very pleased to hear it, monsieur!’ ‘I do not wish you to think me worse than I really am—you, who appear to believe I have still the capability of rising.’ ‘I _do_ believe it!’ ‘Then I will try and make your belief a certainty,’ he answered, as he bent over my hand and raised it, foreign fashion, to his lips, before he bowed and left me. I was very much gratified with the success of my boldness. I felt that I had gained even more than I strove for. Monsieur de Nesselrode would not only give Arthur Thrale some sterling good advice, but do what was better still—set him the example of doing right. For what Mr. Charteris and my guardian might think of the new arrangement I cared little. They must play by themselves for the future. It was not likely I should interfere to save either of them. But the Baron was quite different. The Baron had a great end in view which he was destroying by this fatal proclivity for gaming, and no means could have been too strong to adopt in order to rescue him. Particularly as it was all for Tessie! As I sat in the evening light after he had left me, thinking of the interview just concluded, and softly stroking the hand he had raised to his lips, I kept on repeating, in a tone of the greatest satisfaction to myself, that I had done it all for Tessie. [Illustration: [Fleuron]] CHAPTER VIII. A REVELATION. I had begun to be ashamed to meet Mrs. Carolus. Ange’s silver earrings had only cost twenty-five francs, but I had not the wherewithal to pay for them, and I felt mean and shabby every time I saw her, and did not broach the subject of remuneration.