and did not entirely sell myself to the devil.  Since that time I have led a changeful, stirring existence, often in danger of getting a bullet in my head, or a rope around my neck.  But what has given me courage to deride, defy all these perils?  The thought of my child, my beautiful, beloved daughter Leonore.  I had taken her to Paris, and placed her in one of the most fashionable boarding schools.  I wished to have her trained to be an aristocratic lady.  I had told her all my plans for the future, and as, like me, she despised the world and human beings, she had approved those plans and solemnly vowed by the memory of her mother, murdered by want, famine, and grief, to avenge herself with me upon society—­wrest from it what formerly it had so cruelly denied:  wealth, honor, and distinction.”

“And I think I have kept my oath,” she said earnestly.  “I have entered into all your plans; I have accepted the part which you imposed upon me, and for three years have played it with success.  Baroness von Vernon was as useful to you in Berlin the last two years, as Baroness de Simonie is now in Vienna.  She aided you in all your plans, entered into your designs, pitilessly betrayed all who trusted her and whose secrets she stole by craft, falsehood, and hypocrisy.”

“Why did they allow them to be stolen?” he said, shrugging his shoulders.  “Why were they so reckless as to trust a beautiful woman, when experience teaches that all women lie, deceive, and are incapable of keeping a secret?  They must bear the consequences of their own folly; we need not reproach ourselves for it.”

“I do not reproach myself,” she said, “only life bores me.  I long for rest, for peace, for solitude around me, that I may not be so unutterably lonely within.”

“You wish to conceal the truth from me, Leonore,” he cried, shrugging his shoulders, “but I know it.  You are in love, my child, and since, as I suppose, this is your first love, it cannot fail to be very passionate and transfigure all humanity with a roseate glow.  But wait! that will pass away and you will soon be disenchanted.  Hush! do not answer; do not try to contradict me; lovers’ reasons have no convincing power.  We will leave everything to time and say no more about it.  Let us rather talk about the great affair, which you just mentioned, and which certainly might greatly promote our prosperity.  Then you really believe in a conspiracy?”

“I do.  I know some of the accomplices and shall succeed in discovering others.  But I repeat, I will do nothing in regard to this matter until you have granted my condition.”