“And may I ask you for what purpose?” said M. de Baleinier, with a slight shrug of the shoulders, and in a tone of irony.  “What interest had I to commit such a crime, even admitting that my reputation did not place me above so odious and absurd a charge?”

“You are said to have acted, sir, in furtherance of a family plot, devised against Mdlle. de Cardoville for a pecuniary motive.”

“And who has dared, sir, to make so calumnious a charge?” cried Dr. Baleinier, with indignant warmth.  “Who has had the audacity to accuse a respectable, and I dare to say, respected man, of having been the accomplice in such infamy?”

“I,” said Rodin, coldly.

“You!” cried Dr. Baleinier, falling back two steps, as if thunderstruck.

“Yes, I accuse you,” repeated Rodin, in a clear sharp voice.

“Yes, it was this gentleman who came to me this morning, with ample proofs, to demand my interference in favor of Mdlle. de Cardoville,” said the magistrate, drawing back a little, to give Adrienne the opportunity of seeing her defender.

Throughout this scene, Rodin’s name had not hitherto been mentioned.  Mdlle. de Cardoville had often heard speak of the Abbe d’Aigrigny’s secretary in no very favorable terms; but, never having seen him, she did not know that her liberator was this very Jesuit.  She therefore looked towards him, with a glance in which were mingled curiosity, interest, surprise and gratitude.  Rodin’s cadaverous countenance, his repulsive ugliness, his sordid dress, would a few days before have occasioned Adrienne a perhaps invincible feeling of disgust.  But the young lady, remembering how the sempstress, poor, feeble, deformed, and dressed almost in rags was endowed notwithstanding her wretched exterior, with one of the noblest and most admirable hearts, recalled this recollection in favor of the Jesuit.  She forgot that he was ugly and sordid, only to remember that he was old, that he seemed poor, and that he had come to her assistance.  Dr. Baleinier, notwithstanding his craft, notwithstanding his audacious hypocrisy, in spite even of his presence of mind, could not conceal how much he was disturbed by Rodin’s denunciation.  His head became troubled as he remembered how, on the first day of Adrienne’s confinement in this house, the implacable appeal of Rodin, through the hole in the door, had prevented him (Baleinier) from yielding to emotions of pity, inspired by the despair of this unfortunate young girl, driven almost to doubt of her own reason.  And yet it was this very Rodin, so cruel, so inexorable, the devoted agent of Father d’Aigrigny, who denounced him (Baleinier), and brought a magistrate to set Adrienne at liberty—­when, only the day before, Father d’Aigrigny had ordered an increase of severity towards her!

The lay Jesuit felt persuaded that Rodin was betraying Father d’Aigrigny in the most shameful manner, and that Mdlle. de Cardoville’s friends had bribed and bought over this scoundrelly secretary.  Exasperated by what he considered a monstrous piece of treachery, the doctor exclaimed, in a voice broken with rage:  “And it is you, sir, that have the impudence to accuse me—­you, who only a few days ago—­”