But still, in spite of the pressing need she had for rest, her promise kept her awake for the greater part of the night; for she passed in her mind once more over the whole lamentable story of her sufferings, and asked herself what she might confess to, and what she ought to withhold from the old dealer.  Had he not already discovered, by the address of one of her letters, that she was the daughter of Count Ville-Handry?  And just that she would have liked to keep him from knowing.  On the other hand, was it not foolish to ask the advice of a man to whom we will not confess the whole truth?

“I must tell him all,” she said, “or nothing.”  And, after a moment’s reflection, she added,—­“I will tell him all, and keep nothing back.”  She was in this disposition, when in the morning, about nine o’clock, Papa Ravinet reappeared in her room.  He looked very pale, the old man; and the expression of his face, and the tone of his voice, betrayed an emotion which he could scarcely control, together with deep anxiety.

“Well?” he asked forgetting in his preoccupation to inquire even how the poor girl had passed the night.

She shook her head sadly, and replied, pointing to a chair,—­

“I have made up my mind, sir; sit down, please, and listen to me.”  The old dealer had been fully convinced that Henrietta would come to that; but he had not hoped for it so soon.  He could not help exclaiming, “At last!” and intense, almost delirious joy shone in his eyes.  Even this joy seemed to be so unnatural, that the young girl was made quite uncomfortable by it.  Fixing her eyes upon the old man with all the power of observation of which she was capable, she said,—­

“I am fully aware that what I am about to do is almost unparalleled in rashness.  I put myself, to a certain extent, absolutely in your power, sir,—­the power of an utter stranger, of whom I am told I have every thing to fear.”

“O miss!” he declared, “believe me”—­

But she interrupted him, saying with great solemnity,—­

“I think, if you were to deceive me, you would be the meanest and least of men.  I rely upon your honor.”

And then in a firm voice she began the account of her life, from that fatal evening on which her father had said to her,—­

“I have resolved, my daughter, to give you a second mother.”

The old dealer had taken a seat facing Henrietta, and listened, fixing his eyes upon her face as if to enter into her thoughts, and to anticipate her meaning.  His face was all aglow with excitement, like the face of a gambler who is watching the little white ball that is to make him a rich man or a beggar.  It looked almost as if he had foreseen the terrible communication she was making, and was experiencing a bitter satisfaction at finding his presentiments confirmed,—­

As Henrietta was proceeding, he would murmur now and then,—­

“That is so!  Yes, of course that had to come next.”