“’And I declare before the Supreme Judge who hears me, that I should have cursed heaven and my own existence, if I had not met my lover’s deep, devoted, tender, unshaken affection, if I had not felt in his arms that the Creator made His creatures to love, sustain and console each other, and to weep together in the hours of sadness.

“’Monsieur de Courcils is the father of my two eldest sons; Rene alone owes his life to Monsieur de Bourneval.  I pray to the Master of men and of their destinies, to place father and son above social prejudices, to make them love each other until they die, and to love me also in my coffin.

     “’These are my last thoughts, and my last wish.

     “‘MATHILDE DE CROIXLUCE.’”

“’Monsieur de Courcils had arisen and he cried: 

“‘It is the will of a mad woman.’

“Then Monsieur de Bourneval stepped forward and said in a loud and penetrating voice:  ’I, Simon de Bourneval, solemnly declare that this writing contains nothing but the strict truth, and I am ready to prove it by letters which I possess.’

“On hearing that, Monsieur de Courcils went up to him, and I thought they were going to collar each other.  There they stood, both of them tall, one stout and the other thin, both trembling.  My mother’s husband stammered out:  ‘You are a worthless wretch!’ And the other replied in a loud, dry voice:  ’We will meet somewhere else, monsieur.  I should have already slapped your ugly face, and challenged you a long time ago, if I had not, before everything else, thought of the peace of mind of that poor woman whom you made suffer so much during her lifetime.’

“Then, turning to me, he said:  ’You are my son; will you come with me?  I have no right to take you away, but I shall assume it, if you will kindly come with me.’  I shook his hand without replying, and we went out together; I was certainly three parts mad.

“Two days later Monsieur de Bourneval killed Monsieur de Courcils in a duel.  My brothers, fearing some terrible scandal, held their tongues, and I offered them, and they accepted, half the fortune which my mother had left me.  I took my real father’s name, renouncing that which the law gave me, but which was not really mine.  Monsieur de Bourneval died three years afterwards, and I have not consoled myself yet.”

He rose from his chair, walked up and down the room, and, standing in front of me, he said: 

“Well, I say that my mother’s will was one of the most beautiful and loyal, as well as one of the grandest acts that a woman could perform.  Do you not think so?”

I gave him both my hands: 

“Most certainly I do, my friend.”

A COUNTRY EXCURSION

For five months they had been talking of going to lunch at some country restaurant in the neighborhood of Paris, on Madame Dufour’s birthday, and as they were looking forward very impatiently to the outing, they had got up very early that morning.  Monsieur Dufour had borrowed the milkman’s tilted cart, and drove himself.  It was a very tidy, two-wheeled conveyance, with a hood, and in it the wife, resplendent in a wonderful, sherry-colored, silk dress, sat by the side of her husband.