"My daughter?" said he, half aloud and half to himself. The words meant nothing, but they were not words of refusal. Oliver felt a great wave of blinding hope sweep over him. Suddenly the marquis turned and came back to the table. He motioned Oliver to a chair. "Let us talk this matter over," said he, seriously, and they both sat down. Oliver's heart thumped within him like a trip-hammer. "Do you know," said the marquis, "what a thing it is that you ask? Do you know that you ask an alliance with one of the noblest houses of France?" Oliver could not answer. "And you," continued the marquis, "who are you? I do not know you; nobody knows you. You may be what you represent yourself to be; you may be an adventurer." Oliver's heart was sinking like a plummet of lead. "My diamonds are real," he croaked. [Illustration: "'DO YOU KNOW,' SAID THE MARQUIS, 'WHAT A THING IT IS THAT YOU ASK?'"] The marquis smiled, and then a long space of silence fell. At last he spoke again, and his words shot through Oliver's heart like a dart. "What settlement, then, would you propose to make upon your wife?" said he. "Wife!" Oliver's heart thrilled with the sudden keenness of that pang of sharp delight. His brain whirled in an eddy of dizzy light. At last, with a supreme effort, he found his tongue. "Anything," he cried--"anything that you choose!" The marquis smiled again. "We are ardent," said he. "I see that if this matter is to be carried forward, I must act not only as a father, but as a friend. I confess to you, Oliver, that I am deeply in debt, that Flourens is mortgaged to the last inch. Would you be willing to release Flourens, and then settle the estate upon your wife?" "Yes," said Oliver, eagerly. The marquis's smile grew wider than ever. "That is good," said he. "But you must know that you are one of the richest men in France, Oliver. You should do even more than that for your wife." "I will settle upon her everything that I have in the world," said Oliver. The marquis laughed. "Ah!" said he, "we are certainly too ardent--far too ardent. Half of your fortune would be sufficient; or three-quarters of it, at the most." "She shall have either, as you may choose," said Oliver. "I suppose," said the marquis, "that it will be best that I should manage her fortune for her?" "Yes," said Oliver. "And you shall manage mine also, if you choose." The marquis saw that there was no limit to Oliver's complacency. "And you will subscribe to that?" said he. "Yes," said Oliver. "I am willing to subscribe to anything." The marquis rose from the chair, and opened his arms. "Embrace me, my son," said he. Oliver could have cried with happiness. "And may I," said he, tremulously, when the marquis had released him from his arms--"may I then--" He hesitated; he could not believe that he had reached such a dizzy pinnacle of happiness. The marquis laughed. "You will find mademoiselle in the garden," said he.