“But your worthy father has surely understood that I did wish it absolutely?” “No, madame,” replied I with firmness, for it was a question of my duty, and I assumed the only part proper for me to play, in the presence of this noble lady. “No, my father does not so understand it. His conscience forbids him to betray the interests confided to him by M. le comte d’Ionis. He thinks that you will induce your husband to adopt a compromise and he will render it as acceptable as possible to the adversaries that you protect. But he will never bring himself to persuade M. d’Ionis that his cause is bad in justice.” “In legal justice,” she replied, with a sweet sad smile; “but, in real justice, in moral and natural justice, your worthy father knows well that our right leads us to exercise a cruel spoliation.” “What my father thinks of this subject,” I replied a little confused, “he is only accountable for to his own conscience. When a lawyer can defend a cause where the two justices of which you speak are in his favor, he is very fortunate, thoroughly compensated for those cases where he finds them in opposition; but he ought never to observe this distinction when he has voluntarily accepted the charge, and you know, madame, that my father has only consented to oppose M. d’Aillane because you wished him to do so.” “I did wish it, yes! I obtained my husband’s consent that this suit should not be confided to another; I hoped that your father, the best and most honest man of my acquaintance would succeed in saving this unhappy family from the rigorous pursuit of my own. A lawyer can always show himself reticent and generous, above all when he knows that he will not be blamed by his principal client. And I am this client, monsieur. It concerns my fortune, and not M. d’Ionis, which nothing menaces.” “It is true, madame but you are in the power of your husband; and the husband, like the chief of the community....” “Ah! I know the rest! He has more rights over my fortune than I myself possess, and he uses them in my interest, I am willing to believe it, but he forgets, that in this, my conscience is concerned; and for whom? He has an immense personal fortune and no children; I have then before God the right to despoil myself of a portion of my wealth in order not to ruin honest people, victims of a question of procedure.” “Such a sentiment is worthy of you, madame, and I am not here to dispute so fine a right, but to remind you of our duty, and to beg of you not to require us to be faithless to our trust. All the concessions consistent with the success of your suit, we will observe, even should we incur the reproaches of M. d’Ionis and those of his mother. But to withdraw from the accepted task, declaring that success is doubtful, and that it would be better to compromise, is what a thorough investigation of the affair forbids us to do, under penalty of falsehood and betrayal.”