"At the end of the campaign, your father's first care was for the little orphan. She was a charming child, of from ten to twelve years, who promised to be as beautiful as you are. The death of M. de Chaverny, her father, left her without support or fortune; your father placed her at the convent of the Faubourg Saint Antoine, and announced that at a proper age he should give her a dowry." "I thank God," cried Helene, "for having made me the child of a man who so nobly kept his promise." "Wait, Helene," said the unknown, "for now comes the time when your father will not receive your praises." Helene was silent. The unknown continued: "Your father, indeed, watched over the orphan till her eighteenth year. She was an adorable young girl, and his visits to the convent became longer and more frequent than they should have been: your father began to love his protegée. At first he was frightened at his own love, for he remembered his promise to her dying father. He begged the superior to look for a suitable husband for Mademoiselle de Chaverny, and was told that her nephew, a young Breton, having seen her, loved her, and wished to obtain her hand." "Well, monsieur?" asked Helene, hearing that the unknown hesitated to proceed. "Well; your father's surprise was great, Helene, when he learned from the superior that Mademoiselle de Chaverny had replied that she did not wish to marry, and that her greatest desire was to remain in the convent where she had been brought up, and that the happiest day of her life would be that on which she should pronounce her vows." "She loved some one," said Helene. "Yes, my child, you are right--alas! we cannot avoid our fate--Mademoiselle de Chaverny loved your father. For a long time she kept her secret, but one day, when your father begged her to renounce her strange wish to take the veil, the poor child confessed all. Strong against his love when he did not believe it returned, he succumbed when he found he had but to desire and to obtain. They were both so young--your father scarcely twenty-five, she not eighteen--they forgot the world, and only remembered that they could be happy." "But since they loved," said Helene, "why did they not marry?" "Union was impossible, on account of the distance which separated them. Do you not know that your father is of high station?" "Alas! yes," said Helene, "I know it." "During a year," continued he, "their happiness surpassed their hopes; but at the end of that time you came into the world, and then--" "Well?" asked the young girl, timidly. "Your birth cost your mother's life." Helene sobbed. "Yes," continued the unknown, in a voice full of emotion, "yes, Helene, weep for your mother; she was a noble woman, of whom, through his griefs, his pleasures, even his follies--your father retains a tender recollection; he transferred to you all his love for her." "And yet," said Helene, "he consented to remove me from him, and has never again seen me."