“Now, you think that story might become a weapon in your hands?  No, Daniel.  Still it is not a very long one; and I can now tell it to you more in detail than I could before.

“About fifteen months ago, there arrived in Paris a nice young man called Charles de Kergrist.  He had lost as yet none of his illusions, being barely twenty-five years old, and having something like a hundred thousand dollars of his own.  He saw Miss Brandon, and instantly ’took fire.’  He fell desperately in love with her.  What his relations were with her, no one can tell positively,—­I mean with sufficient evidence to carry conviction to others,—­for the young man was a model of discretion.  But what became only too well known was the fact, that, about eight months later, the people living near Miss Brandon’s house saw one morning, when the shutters were opened, a corpse dangling at a distance of a few feet above the ground from the iron fastenings of the lady’s window.  Upon inspection, the dead man proved to be that unlucky Kergrist.  In the pocket of his overcoat a letter was found, in which he declared that he committed suicide because an unreturned affection had made life unbearable to him.  Now, this letter—­mark the fact—­was open; that is to say, it had been sealed, and the seal was broken.”

“By whom?”

“Let me finish.  The accident, as you may imagine, made a tremendous noise.  The family took it up.  An inquest was held; and it was found that the hundred thousand dollars which Kergrist had brought with him had utterly disappeared.”

“And Miss Brandon’s reputation was not ruined?”

Maxime replied with a bitter, ironical smile,—­

“You know very well that she was not.  On the contrary, the hanging was turned by her partisans into an occasion for praising her marvellous virtuousness.  ‘If she had been weak,’ they said, ’Kergrist would not have hanged himself.  Besides,’ they added, ’how can a girl, be she ever so pure and innocent, prevent her lovers from hanging themselves at her windows?  As to the money,’ they said, ’it had been lost at the gaming-table.’  Kergrist was reported to have been seen at Baden-Baden and at Homburg; no doubt he played.”

“And the world was content with such an explanation?”

“Yes; why not?  To be sure, some sceptical persons told the whole story very differently.  According, to their account, Miss Sarah had been the mistress of M. de Kergrist, and, seeing him utterly ruined, had sent him off one fine morning.  They stated, that, the evening before the accident, he had come to the house at the usual hour, and, finding it closed, had begged, and even wept, and finally threatened to kill himself; that, thereupon, he had really killed himself; (poor fool that he was!) that Miss Brandon, concealed behind the blinds, had watched all his preparations for the fearful act; that she had seen him fasten the rope to the outside hinges of her window, put the noose around his neck, and then swing off into eternity; that she had watched him closely during his agony, and stood there till the last convulsions had passed away.”