This is what Grandpapa Chandore would not admit.

“Still,” he said, “if we could bring influential men to help us?”

“Can you?”

“Certainly.  Boiscoran has old friends, who, no doubt, are all-powerful still under the present government.  He was, in former years, very intimate with M. de Margeril.”

M. Folgat’s expression was very encouraging.

“Ah!” he said, “if M. de Margeril could give us a lift!  But he is not easily approached.”

“We might send Boiscoran to see him, at least.  Since he remained in Paris for the purpose of assisting us there, now he will have an opportunity.  I will write to him to-night.”

Since the name of Margeril had been mentioned, the marchioness had become, if possible, paler than ever.  At the old gentleman’s last words she rose, and said anxiously,—­

“Do not write, sir:  it would be useless.  I do not wish it.”

Her embarrassment was so evident, that the others were quite surprised.

“Have Boiscoran and M. de Margeril had any difficulty?” asked M. de Chandore.

“Yes.”

“But,” cried Dionysia, “it is a matter of life and death for Jacques.”

Alas!  The poor woman could not speak of the suspicions which had darkened the whole life of the Marquis de Boiscoran, nor of the cruel penalty which the wife was now called upon to pay for a slight imprudence.

“If it is absolutely necessary,” she said with a half-stifled voice, “if that is our very last hope, then I will go and see M. de Margeril myself.”

M. Folgat was the only one who suspected what painful antecedents there might be in the life of the marchioness, and how she was harassed by their memory now.  He interposed, therefore, saying,—­

“At all events, my advice is to await the end of the preliminary investigation.  I may be mistaken, however, and, before any answer is sent to M. Jacques, I desire that the lawyer to whom he alludes should be consulted.”

“That is certainly the wisest plan,” said M. de Chandore.  And, ringing for a servant, he sent him at once to M. Magloire, to ask him to call after dinner.  Jacques de Boiscoran had chosen wisely.  M. Magloire was looked upon in Sauveterre as the most eloquent and most skilful lawyer, not only of the district, but of the whole province.  And what is rarer still, and far more glorious, he had, besides, the reputation of being unsurpassed in integrity and a high sense of honor.  It was well known that he would never had consented to plead a doubtful cause; and they told of him a number of heroic stories, in which he had thrown clients out of the window, who had been so ill-advised to come to him, money in hand, to ask him to undertake an unclean case.  He was naturally not a rich man, and preserved, at fifty-four or five, all the habits of a frugal and thrifty young man.