The appeal was so natural and pitiful, despite its burlesque savagery, that Nanon realized that it came from the bottom of the heart. "Yes," said she, "it is remorse, and you are a better man than I thought." "Very well, if it is remorse here goes for the African campaign; you will give me a trifle to cover the expense of the journey and my equipment, won't you, little sister? Would I could carry away all your grief with my own!" "You will not go away, my friend," said Nanon, "but you will live henceforth as prosperously as those most favored by destiny. For ten years you have straggled with poverty; I say nothing of the risks you have run, for they are incident to the life of a soldier. On this last occasion your life was saved where another's life was lost; it must have been God's will that you should live, and it is my desire, quite in accord with his will, that your life from this day on shall be happy." "What a way you have of saying that, little sister! Pray what do you mean by it?" "I mean that you are to go to my house at Libourne before it is pillaged; there you will find in the secret cupboard behind my Venetian mirror--" "In the secret cupboard?" queried Cauvignac. "Yes, you know it well, do you not?" said Nanon, with a feeble smile; "you took two hundred pistoles from it last month, didn't you?" "Nanon, do me the justice to admit that I might have taken more had I wished, for the cupboard was filled with gold; but I took no more than the sum that I actually needed." "That is true," said Nanon, "and I am only too glad to bear witness to it, if it excuses you in your own eyes." Cauvignac blushed and hung his head. _"Mon Dieu!"_ said Nanon, "think no more about it; you know that I forgive you." "What proof have I?" "This: you will go to Libourne, you will open the cupboard, and you will find there all of my fortune that I was able to turn into money,--twenty thousand crowns in gold." "What shall I do with them?" "Take them." "But to whom are the twenty thousand crowns to belong?" "To you, my brother; it is all that I have to give, for, as you know, when I left Monsieur d'Épernon I asked nothing for myself, and my houses and lands were seized." "What do you say, sister?" cried Cauvignac, in dismay. "What idea have you in your head now?" "Simply, Roland, that you are to take the twenty thousand crowns." "That's very well for me, but what about yourself?" "I have no use for that money now." "Ah! I understand,--you have other funds; so much the better. But it's an enormous sum, sister; think of it! It's too much for me, at least at one stroke." "I have no other funds; I keep nothing but my jewels. I would be glad to give you them as well, but I must use them to pay for the privilege of entering this convent." Cauvignac leaped into the air in his surprise. "This convent!" he cried; "you, my dear sister, propose to enter a convent?" "Yes, dear brother."