"Simply," replied Yvonne, "that I am lost unless I can find some one to help me.--Ah!" she continued, holding her face in her hands as though to shut out some dreadful nightmare, "when I think of all that has taken place since yesterday, I cannot help thinking that I am in a dream.--In the first place we are ruined, absolutely, irreparably ruined. I only heard of it twenty-four hours ago.--Poor Gontran did everything to keep me from learning the truth right to the end,--and I reproached him for gambling at Monte Carlo! Poor, dear fellow! He hoped that a lucky chance would give him a hundred or two hundred thousand francs, something of a capital with which to rebuild our fortune.--For he is going to work! He is determined to do something, no matter what.--If you only knew how good and courageous he is!--It is only on my account he feels the misfortune. It was for me, to obtain everything for me, that he entered into too risky investments. He does not know how little I care for wealth.--I can live on next to nothing, I have already told him.--All I want is a little _couturière_ whom I can direct to make my costumes according to my ideas; a little establishment at Passy in one of those tiny English houses; a hired carriage or a coupé for my visits and for going to the theatre, and I should be the happiest woman. I would go to the market in the morning, and I am sure I should have a better table than we have now. And I know I should be happy in such a life.--As a matter of fact, I was not born to be rich--happily!" She sketched out this little programme that she thought so modest and which would have necessitated at the least 50,000f. a year, with such a charming mixture of girlishness and courage that Madame de Carlsberg's heart ached. She took her by the hand and kissed her, saying:-- "I know your kind heart, Yvonne.--But I hope everything is not yet lost.--You have many friends, good ones, beginning with myself.--At first one is terrified, and then it is always discovered that the ruin is not as complete as was thought." "This time it appears that the contrary is the case," said the young woman, shaking her head. "But it is precisely because I know you to be my friend," she went on, "that I have come to see you this morning. The other evening the Archduke spoke to my husband of the difficulty he experienced in finding some upright superintendent to look after his estates in Transylvania.--And as the Prince was so pleasant to us that evening we thought--" "That Chésy could become his superintendent," interrupted Ely, who could not keep back a smile at her friend's naïveté. "I wouldn't wish such a fate for my worst enemy.--If things are really at such a point that your husband has to seek a position, there is only one man who can help him."