"Ever the same, always generous and devoted! Rely on me. I will write to-day to Madame d'Harville. Where shall I address my answer?" "To Asnieres _Poste-Restante_." "How odd! Why do you live there, and not in Paris?" "I detest Paris, because of the recollections it excites in me!" said M. de Saint-Remy, with a gloomy air. "My old physician, Doctor Griffon, with whom I have kept up a correspondence, has a small house on the banks of the Seine, near Asnieres, which he does not occupy in the winter; he offered it to me; it is almost close to Paris, and there I could be undisturbed, and find the solitude I desire. So I accepted it." "I will then write to you at Asnieres, and I can give you some information which may be useful to you, and which I had from Madame d'Harville. Madame de Fermont's ruin has been occasioned by the roguery of the notary in whose hands all your deceased relative's fortune was deposited. The notary denied that the money was ever placed in his hands." "The scoundrel! And his name?" "M. Jacques Ferrand," replied the duchess, without being able to conceal her inclination to laugh. "How strange you are, Clotilde!" said the comte, surprised and annoyed; "nothing can be more serious, more sad than this, and yet you laugh." In fact, Madame de Lucenay, at the recollection of the amorous declaration of the notary, had been unable to repress her hilarity. "Pardon me, my dear sir," she replied, "but this notary is such a singular being, and they tell such odd stories about him; but, in truth, if his reputation as an honest man is not more deserved than his reputation as a religious man (and I declare that is hypocrisy) he is a great wretch." "And he lives--" "Rue du Sentier." "I will call upon him. What you tell me confirms certain other suspicions." "What suspicions?" "From certain information as to the death of the brother of my poor friend, I should be almost tempted to believe that that unhappy man, instead of committing suicide, had been the victim of assassination." "And what can make you suppose that?" "Several reasons, which would be too long to detail to you now. I will leave you. Do not forget the promises of service which you have made me in your own and your husband's name." "What, will you go without seeing Florestan?" "You may suppose how painful this interview would be to me. I would brave it only in the hope of finding some information as to Madame de Fermont, being unwilling to neglect anything to discover her. Now, then, adieu!" "Ah, you are pitiless!" "Do you not know?" "I know that your son was never in greater need of your advice." "What, is he not rich--happy?"