"It will be better for me not to see my father again until we are reunited with my mother." "Ah, mademoiselle, how can you be so cruel?" murmured Segoffin, despairingly. "If you knew how wretched he is--" "No, I am not cruel," replied the girl; "at least I do not mean to be. I can only repeat what I said to Suzanne just now. For two days I have been reflecting on the course I ought to pursue, and my decision is irrevocable." A gloomy silence greeted this announcement. Segoffin was the first to speak. "You surely will not refuse to hear a letter from M. Cloarek read, mademoiselle," he said, at last. "It is the only request he makes of you, for he foresaw the aversion you would feel for him." "Aversion!" cried Sabine, like one in mortal agony. Then controlling herself, she added: "There seems to have been a strange and cruel fatality about all this." "Yes," answered the old servant, sighing; "but as M. Cloarek is never to see you again, will you not at least listen to the letter I brought to M. Onésime?" "It is undoubtedly my duty to comply with my father's wishes, so I am ready to listen, M. Onésime." The young man opened the envelope Segoffin handed him. The letter which Cloarek had written to his daughter was accompanied with the following brief note: "I implore you to read the enclosed letter to Sabine, my dear Onésime. It is a last proof of esteem and affection I desire to give you. "May this truthful account written by a despairing parent, and read by a beloved voice, reach his daughter's heart. Yours affectionately, "Y. CLOAREK." After telling Sabine the contents of this note the young man read the following aloud: "'TO MY DAUGHTER:--Fate seems to decree that I am to be separated from you for ever, my child, for now I know you can no longer bear the sight of me. "'A strange and unforeseen event has revealed a terrible and jealously guarded secret to you. "'Yes, that man in the strange costume, whom you have always remembered as your mother's murderer, was I, your father. "'The privateer whose deeds inspired you with such horror was I. "'Your mother was _enceinte_. We had a quarrel,--the first in our whole married life, I swear it! I gave way to my temper, and my anger became so terrible that, in your mother's nervous condition, her fright killed her. "'Mine was a double crime, for the terror that proved fatal to your mother also had a lasting effect upon you, for the unfortunate impression made upon you at that tender age had a most deplorable influence, not only upon your health, but upon your whole life. "'You know my crime, now let me tell you how I have expiated it. "'When I saw you motherless, I asked myself what would become of you. "'The small fortune that your mother and I possessed had been almost entirely lost in consequence of the political agitations of the day and a ruinous lawsuit. I had lost my position as a magistrate in consequence of the scandal which my ebullitions of temper caused.