“What was to become of him, now that this woman was no longer there to sustain and inspire him,—­that woman with the marvellous talent for intrigue, the matchless courage that shrank from nothing, and the energy which sufficed for everything?  Sarah had, besides, filled his imagination with such magnificent hopes, and opened before his covetous eyes such a vast horizon of enjoyment, that he had come to look upon things as pitiful, which would formerly have satisfied his highest wishes.  Should he, after having dreamed of those glorious achievements by which millions are won in a day, sink back again into the meanness of petty thefts?  His heart turned from that prospect with unspeakable loathing; and yet what was he to do?

“He knew, that, if he returned to Paris, matters would not be very pleasant for him there.  His creditors, made restless by his prolonged absence, would fall upon him instantly.  How could he induce them to wait?  Where could he get the money to pay them, at least, a percentage of his dues?  How would he support himself?  Were all of his dark works to be useless?  Was he to be shipwrecked before ever seeing even the distant port?

“Nevertheless, he returned to Paris, faced the storm, passed through the crisis, and resumed his miserable life, associating with another adventurer like himself, and succeeding thus, by immensely hard work, in maintaining his existence and his assumed name.  Ah! if our honest friends could but know what misery, what humiliations and anxieties are hid beneath that false splendor of high life, which they often envy, they would think themselves fully avenged.

“It is certain that Maxime de Brevan found times hard in those days, and actually more than once regretted that he had not remained a stupid, honest man.  He thought that was so simple, and so clever.

“Thus it came about, that, two years later, he had not yet been reconciled to Sarah’s absence.  Often and often, in his hours of distress, he recalled her parting promise, ’You shall see me again when our fortune is made.’  He knew she was quite capable of amassing millions; but, when she had them, would she still think of him?  Where was she?  What could have become of her?

“Sarah was at that time in America.

“That tall, light-haired gentleman, that eminently respectable lady, who had carried her off, were M. Thomas Elgin and Mrs. Brian.  Who were these people?  I have had no time to trace out their antecedents.  All I know is, that they belonged to that class of adventurers whom one sees at all the watering-places and gambling-resorts,—­at Nice, at Monaco, and during the winter in Italy; swindlers of the highest class, who unite consummate skill with excessive caution; who are occasionally suspected, but never found out; and who are frequently indebted to their art of making themselves agreeable, and even useful to others, to the carelessness of travellers, and their thorough knowledge of life, for the acquaintance, or even friendship, of people whom one is astonished to find in such company.