The Count and Countess believed that Sabine had slept through this interview, but they were mistaken, for Sabine had heard all those fatal words—­“ruin, dishonor, and despair!” At first she scarcely understood.  Were not these words merely the offspring of her delirium?  She strove to shake it off, but too soon she knew that the whispered words were sad realities, and she lay on her bed quivering with terror.  Much of the conversation escaped her, but she heard enough.  Her mother’s past sins were to be exposed if the daughter did not marry a man entirely unknown to her—­the Marquis de Croisenois.  She knew that her torments would not be of very long duration, for to part with her love for Andre would be to part with life itself.  She made up her mind to live until she had saved her parents’ honor by the sacrifice of herself, and then she would be free to accept the calm repose of the grave.

But the terrible revelation bore its fruits, for her fever came back, and a relapse was the result.  But youth and a sound constitution gained the day, and when she was convalescent her will was as strong as ever.

Her first act was to write the letter to her lover which had driven him to the verge of distraction; and then, fearing lest her father might, in his agony and remorse, be driven to some rash act, she went to him and told him that she knew all.

“I never loved M. de Breulh,” said she with a pitiful smile, “and therefore the sacrifice is not so great after all.”

The Count was not for a moment the dupe of the generous-souled girl, but he did not dare to brave the scandal of the death of Montlouis, and still less the exposure of his wife’s conduct.  Time was passing, however, and the miscreants in whose power they were made no signs of life.  Hortebise did not appear any more, and there were moments when the miserable Diana actually ventured to hope.  “Have they forgotten us?” thought she.

Alas! no; they were people who never forgot.

The Champdoce affair had been satisfactorily arranged, and every precaution had been taken to prevent the detection of Paul as an impostor, and engaged as he had been, Mascarin had no time to turn his attention to the marriage of Sabine and De Croisenois.  The famous Limited Company, with the Marquis as chairman, had, too, to be started, the shares of which were to be taken up by the unhappy victims of the blackmailers; but first some decided steps must be taken with the Mussidans, and Tantaine was dispatched on this errand.

This amiable individual, though he was going into such very excellent society, did not consider it necessary to make any improvement in his attire.  This was the reason why the footman, upon seeing such a shabby visitor and hearing him ask for the Count or Countess, did not hesitate to reply, with a sneer, that his master and mistress had been out for some months, and were not likely to return for a week or two.  This fact did not disconcert the wily man, for drawing one of Mascarin’s cards from his pocket, he begged the kind gentleman to take it upstairs, when he was sure that he would at once be sent for.