I had never been able to find the explanation, put me on the track of this odious machination.  To express then and there the sudden horror I felt at these crimes, would have been to ruin all.  I did not make this mistake.  I opposed cunning to cunning; I appeared even more eager than Abbe d’Aigrigny.  Had this immense inheritance been destined for me alone, I could not have shown myself more grasping and merciless.  Thanks to this stratagem, Abbe d’Aigrigny had no suspicion.  A providential accident having rescued the inheritance from his hands, he left the house in a state of profound consternation.  For my part, I felt indescribable joy; for I had now the means of saving and avenging you, my dear young lady.  As usual, I went yesterday evening to my place of business.  During the absence of the abbe, it was easy for me to peruse the correspondence relative to the inheritance.  In this way I was able to unite all the threads of this immense plot.  Oh! then, my dear young lady, I remained, struck with horror, in presence of the discoveries that I made, and that I never should have made under any other circumstances.”

“What discoveries, sir?”

“There are some secrets which are terrible to those who possess them.  Do not ask me to explain, my dear young lady; but, in this examination, the league formed against you and your relations, from motives of insatiable cupidity, appeared to me in all its dark audacity.  Thereupon, the lively and deep interest which I already felt for you, my dear young lady, was augmented greatly, and extended itself to the other innocent victims of this infernal conspiracy.  In spite of my weakness, I determined to risk all, to unmask the Abbe d’Aigrigny.  I collected the necessary proofs, to give my declaration before the magistrate the needful authority; and, this morning, I left the abbe’s house without revealing to him my projects.  He might have employed some violent method to detain me; yet it would have been cowardly to attack him without warning.  Once out of his house, I wrote to him, that I had in my hands proof enough of his crimes, to attack him openly in the face of day.  I would accuse, and he must defend himself.  I went directly to a magistrate, and you know the rest.”

At this juncture, the door opened, and one of the nurses appeared, and said to Rodin:  “Sir, the messenger that you and the magistrate sent to the Rue Brise-Miche has just come back.”

“Has he left the letter?”

“Yes, sir; and it was taken upstairs directly.”

“Very well.  Leave us!” The nurse went out.

CHAPTER XXXV.

Sympathy.

If it had been possible for Mdlle. de Cardoville to harbor any suspicion of the sincerity of Rodin’s devotion, it must have given way before this reasoning, unfortunately so simple and undeniable.  How could she suppose the faintest complicity between the Abbe d’Aigrigny and his secretary, when it was the latter who completely unveiled the machinations of his master, and exposed them to the tribunals? when in this, Rodin went even further than Mdlle. de Cardoville would herself have gone?  Of what secret design could she suspect the Jesuit?  At worst, of a desire to earn by his services the profitable patronage of the young lady.