"Alas, Monsieur le Vicomte! can you flatter yourself that you will regain the society you have quitted, and the name you have--" Louvier stopped short; something in the Vicomte's eye daunted him. "The name I have laid aside for convenience of travel. Princes travel incognito, and so may a simple _gentilhomme_. 'Regain my place in society,' say you? Yes; it is not that which troubles me." "What does?" "The consideration whether on a very modest income I can be sufficiently esteemed for myself to render that society more pleasant than ever. Ah, _mon cher_! why recoil? why so frightened? Do you think I am going to ask you for money? Have I ever done so since we parted; and did I ever do so before without repaying you? Bah! you _roturiers_ are worse than the Bourbons. You never learn or unlearn. 'Fors non mutat genus.'" The magnificent _millionaire_, accustomed to the homage of grandees from the Faubourg and _lions_ from the Chaussee d'Antin, rose to his feet in superb wrath, less at the taunting words than at the haughtiness of mien with which they were uttered. "Monsieur, I cannot permit you to address me in that tone. Do you mean to insult me?" "Certainly not. Tranquillize your nerves, reseat yourself, and listen,-- reseat yourself, I say." Louvier dropped into his chair. "No," resumed the Vicomte, politely, "I do not come here to insult you, neither do I come to ask money; I assume that I am in my rights when I ask Monsieur Louvier what has become of Louise Duval?" "Louise Duval! I know nothing about her." "Possibly not now; but you did know her well enough, when we two parted, to be a candidate for her hand. You did know her enough to solicit my good offices in promotion of your suit; and you did, at my advice, quit Paris to seek her at Aix-la-Chapelle." "What! have you, Monsieur de Mauleon, not heard news of her since that day?" "I decline to accept your question as an answer to mine. You went to Aix-la-Chapelle; you saw Louise Duval, at my urgent request she condescended to accept your hand." "No, Monsieur de Mauleon, she did not accept my hand. I did not even see her. The day before I arrived at Aix-la-Chapelle she had left it,--not alone,--left it with her lover." "Her lover! You do not mean the miserable Englishman who--" "No Englishman," interrupted Louvier, fiercely. "Enough that the step she took placed an eternal barrier between her and myself. I have never even sought to hear of her since that day. Vicomte, that woman was the one love of my life. I loved her, as you must have known, to folly, to madness. And how was my love requited? Ah! you open a very deep wound, Monsieur le Vicomte." "Pardon me, Louvier; I did not give you credit for feelings so keen and so genuine, nor did I think myself thus easily affected by matters belonging to a past life so remote from the present. For whom did Louise forsake you?" "It matters not; he is dead." "I regret to hear that; I might have avenged you."