"If I am not mistaken, Madame," answered the Prince, in a light tone, "you do me the favor of asking what my intentions are for the future? I will answer you with precision. I purpose leaving to-night for Aix-la- Chapelle, where I shall join my friend Herzog. We shall begin our business again. My wife, on whose good feelings I rely, will accompany me, notwithstanding everything." And in these last words he put all the venom of his soul. "My daughter will not leave me!" exclaimed Madame Desvarennes. "Very well, then, you can accompany her," retorted Panine. "That arrangement will suit me. Since my troubles I have learned to appreciate domestic happiness." "Ah! you hope to play your old games on me," said Madame Desvarennes. "You won't get much out of me. My daughter and I with you--in the stream where you are going to sink? Never!" "Well, then," cried Panine, "what do you expect?" A violent ring at the front door resounded as Madame Desvarennes was about to answer, and stopped the words on her lips. This signal, which was used only on important occasions, sounded to Madame like a funeral knell. Serge frowned, and instinctively moved back. Marechal appeared through the half-open door with a scared face, and silently handed Madame Desvarennes a card. She glanced at it, turned pale, and said to the secretary: "Very well, let him wait!" She threw the card on the table. Serge came forward and read: "Delbarre, sheriff's officer." Haggard-looking and aghast, he turned to the mistress, as if seeking an explanation. "Well!" she observed: "it is clear, he has come to arrest you." Serge rushed to a cabinet, and opening a drawer, took forth some handfuls of gold and notes, which he crammed into his pockets. "By the back stairs I shall have time to get away. It is my last chance! Keep the man for five minutes only." "And if the door is guarded?" asked Madame Desvarennes. Serge remained abject before her. He felt himself enclosed in a ring which he could not break through. "One may be prosecuted without being condemned," he gasped. "You will use your influence, I know, and you will get me out of this mess. I shall be grateful to you for ever, and will do anything you like! But don't leave me, it would be cowardly!" He trembled, as he thus besought her distractedly. "The son-in-law of Madame Desvarennes does not go before the Assize Courts even to be acquitted," said she, with a firm voice. "What would you have me do?" cried Serge, passionately. Madame Desvarennes did not answer, but pointed to the revolver on the table. "Kill myself? Ah! no; that would be giving you too much pleasure." And he gave the weapon a push, so that it rolled close to Madame Desvarennes. "Ah! wretch!" cried she, giving way to her suppressed rage. "You are not even a Panine! The Panines knew how to die." "I have not time to act a melodrama with you," snarled Serge. "I am going to try to save myself."