"The will of the countess contained several legacies. You seem to be the only person who was forgotten, in fact." "I had no right to expect any bequest, M. le marquis. I was paid for my services." "By Madame de Beaumesnil?" "By Madame de Beaumesnil," answered Herminie, firmly. "Yes, you said as much to Madame de la Rochaigue on so nobly returning--" "Money that did not belong to me, M. le marquis, that is all." "No!" exclaimed M. de Maillefort, his former convictions suddenly regaining the ascendency. "No, I was not mistaken,--instinct, reason, conviction, all tell me that you are--" "M. le marquis," said Herminie, interrupting the hunchback, for she was anxious to put an end to this painful scene, "one word more, and only one. You were Madame de Beaumesnil's most valued friend, for on her death-bed she entrusted her daughter to your care. Would she not also have told you in that supreme moment if she had another child?" "Great Heaven, no!" exclaimed the marquis, involuntarily. "The unhappy woman would have shrunk from the shame of such an avowal." "Yes, I am sure of that," thought Herminie, bitterly. "And is it I who will make the disgraceful confession from which my poor mother shrank?" The conversation was here interrupted by M. Bouffard's entrance. The emotion of the marquis and of the young girl was so great that they had not noticed the opening of the hall door. The once ferocious landlord seemed to be in a very different mood. Something must have appeased his wrath, for his coarse and brutal manner had vanished, and his rubicund visage was wreathed with a crafty smile. "What do you want?" demanded the marquis, curtly. "What are you doing here?" "I came to make my excuses to mademoiselle." "Your excuses?" said the young girl, greatly surprised. "Yes, mademoiselle, and I wish to make them before monsieur, as I reproached you for not paying me in his presence, so I now declare before him,--I swear it in the presence of God and man,--I swear that I have been paid all that mademoiselle owed me." "You have been paid!" cried Herminie, in amazement; "and by whom, monsieur?" "Oh, you know very well, mademoiselle," responded M. Bouffard, with the same coarse laugh. "You know very well! What a sly one you are!" "I have no idea what you mean, monsieur," said Herminie, indignantly. "Bah!" cried M. Bouffard, shrugging his shoulders, "I suppose you're not going to try to make me believe that handsome young men pay the rent for pretty blondes merely for the love of God!" "Some one has paid my rent for me, monsieur?" demanded Herminie, blushing scarlet. "Yes, some one has paid it, and in shining yellow gold," replied M. Bouffard, drawing several gleaming coins from his pocket and tossing them up in the air. "Look at the yellow boys, ain't they pretty, eh?" "And this gold, monsieur," said Herminie, unable to believe her own ears,--"this gold--who gave it to you?"