“Well, then, I must see M. de Boiscoran:  I must speak to him.”

She expected the clerk to start, to cry out, to protest.  Far from it:  he said in the quietest tone,—­

“To be sure; but how?”

“Blangin the keeper, and his wife, keep their places only because they give them a support.  Why might I not offer them, in return for an interview with M. de Boiscoran, the means to go and live in the country?”

“Why not?” said the clerk.

And in a lower voice, replying to the voice of his conscience, he went on,—­

“The jail in Sauveterre is not at all like the police-stations and prisons of larger towns.  The prisoners are few in number; they are hardly guarded.  When the doors are shut, Blangin is master within.”

“I will go and see him to-morrow,” declared Dionysia.

There are certain slopes on which you must glide down.  Having once yielded to Dionysia’s suggestions, Mechinet had, unconsciously, bound himself to her forever.

“No:  do not go there, madam,” he said.  “You could not make Blangin believe that he runs no danger; nor could you sufficiently arouse his cupidity.  I will speak to him myself.”

“O sir!” exclaimed Dionysia, “how can I ever?”—­

“How much may I offer him?” asked the clerk.

“Whatever you think proper—­any thing.”

“Then, madam, I will bring you an answer to-morrow, here, and at the same hour.”

And he went away, leaving Dionysia so buoyed up by hope, that all the evening, and the next day, the two aunts and the marchioness, neither of whom was in the secret, asked each other incessantly,—­

“What is the matter with the child?”

She was thinking, that, if the answer was favorable, ere twenty-four hours had gone by, she would see Jacques; and she kept saying to herself,—­

“If only Mechinet is punctual!”

He was so.  At ten o’clock precisely, he pushed open the little gate, just as the night before, and said at once,—­

“It is all right!”

Dionysia was so terribly excited, that she had to lean against a tree.

“Blangin agrees,” the clerk went on.  “I promised him sixteen thousand francs.  Perhaps that is rather much?”

“It is very little.”

“He insists upon having them in gold.”

“He shall have it.”

“Finally, he makes certain conditions with regard to the interview, which will appear rather hard to you.”

The young girl had quite recovered by this time.

“What are they?”

“Blangin is taking all possible precautions against detection, although he is quite prepared for the worst.  He has arranged it this way:  To-morrow evening, at six o’clock, you will pass by the jail.  The door will stand open, and Blangin’s wife, whom you know very well, as she has formerly been in your service, will be standing in the door.  If she does not speak to you, you keep on:  something