"I don't think it; I am sure of it! Haven't I served him in his intrigues a hundred times--carried his love letters and his messages? Ten thousand thunders! And I laughed at it, and thought that it was all right for him to amuse himself--to deceive poor girls who were often driven to despair by his treachery--to make sport of other people's sufferings! Ah! I was a heartless villain; and, instead of serving him so faithfully, I ought to have said to him: 'Monsieur Albert, what you are doing is all wrong, and I refuse to do any more of your dirty work.'--But when we ourselves are not injured, we don't care; it seems nothing at all to us, and we even laugh sometimes at the rascality practised on others! Ah! my poor Liline! Why did father let you go to that lady's at Clermont? why didn't he keep you with him at the cottage? and me too, instead of sending me to Paris? Ah! a man ought never to part with his children! ain't they always better off with their parents than anywhere else? Come, come; you are crying now; come and kiss me: don't cry, don't despair!" The pretty Auvergnate wept bitterly, for her brother had torn her heart by telling her that her lover was a deceiver; but she could not believe as yet that Albert did not intend to keep his promise, and she murmured between her sobs: "Oh, brother! I am very sure that he loves me; he tells me so all day long. Why should he have brought me to Paris, if he doesn't love me?" "Oh! he loves you enough to make you his mistress--but his wife! remember that we are only poor folk, that I am only a messenger--while he is a young man of high social position; he is rich; he wouldn't have me for a brother-in-law; why, you see, even you yourself, who have had a fine education and learned society manners, didn't dare to tell him that your brother was a messenger." "Oh! forgive me, brother!" And the girl threw herself into Sans-Cravate's arms, hid her face against his breast, and sobbed as if her heart would break. "No, no!" she repeated; "he will not deceive me." Sans-Cravate disengaged himself from her arms, drew the back of his hand across his eyes, and cried: "Well! this is no time to cry like two children; that won't help us. I must act; I must decide what to do. But I have made up my mind." "What are you going to do, brother?"