turned on his heel, and went into the
drawing-room.

His daughter would have followed him;
but Daniville caught her by the hand.

"Can you be hard-hearted enough to leave
me here alone?" he asked.

"What is to become of all my bosom friends
in the next room, you selfish man, if I stop
here with you?" retorted mademoiselle,
struggling to free herself.

"Call them in here," said Danville, gaily,
making himself master of her other hand.

She laughed, and drew him away towards
the drawing-room.

"Come!" she cried, "and let all the ladies
see what a tyrant I am going to marry.
Come and show them what an obstinate,
unreasonable, wearisome—"

Her voice suddenly failed her; she
shuddered, and turned faint. Danville's hand had
in one instant grown cold as death in hers:
the momentary touch of his fingers, as she
felt their grasp loosen, struck some mysterious
chill through her from head to foot.
She glanced round at him affrightedly; and
saw his eyes looking straight into the
drawing-room. They were fixed in a strange,
unwavering, awful stare; while, from the rest
of his face, all expression, all character, all
recognisable play and movement of feature had
utterly gone. It was a breathless, lifeless
mask—a white blank. With a cry of terror,
she looked where he seemed to be looking;
and could see nothing but the stranger
standing in the middle of the drawing-room.
Before she could ask a question, before she
could speak even a single word, her father
came to her, caught Danville by the arm, and
pushed her roughly back into the library.

"Go there, and take the women with you,"
he said in a quick fierce whisper. "Into the
library!" he continued, turning to the ladies,
and raising his voice. "Into the library, all
of you, along with my daughter."

The women, terrified by his manner, obeyed
him in the greatest confusion. As they
hurried past him into the library, he signed
to the notary to follow; and then closed the
door of communication between the two
rooms.

"Stop where you are! " he cried, addressing
the old officers who had risen from their
chairs. "Stay, I insist on it! Whatever
happens, Jacques Berthelin has done nothing
to be ashamed of in the presence of his old
friends and companions. You have seen the
beginning, now stay and see the end."

While he spoke, he walked into the middle
of the room. He had never quitted his hold
of Danville's arm—step by step, they
advanced together to the place where Trudaine
was standing.

"You have come into my house, and asked
me for my daughter in marriage—and I have
given her to you," said the general, addressing
Danville quietly. "You told me that your
first wife and her brother were guillotined
three years ago in the time of the Terror—
and I believed you. Now, look at that man
—look him straight in the face. He has
announced himself to me as the brother of your
wife, and he asserts that his sister is alive at
this moment. One of you two has deceived
me. Which is it?"

Danville tried to speak; but no sound
passed his lips; tried to wrench his arm from
the grasp that was on it, but could not stir
the old soldier's steady hand.

"Are you afraid? are you a coward?
Can't you look him in the face?" asked the
general, tightening his hold sternly.

"Stop! stop!" interposed one of the old
officers, coming forward. "Give him time.
This may be a case of strange accidental
resemblance; which would be enough, under
the circumstances, to discompose any man.
You will excuse me, citizen," he continued,
turning to Trudaine. "But you are a
stranger; you have given us no proof of your
identity."

"There is the proof," said Trudaine,.
pointing to Danville's face.

"Yes, yes," pursued the other;" he looks
pale and startled enough, certainly. But I
say again—let us not be too hasty: there are
strange cases on record of accidental
resemblances, and this may be one of them!"

As he repeated those words, Danville looked
at him with a faint, cringing gratitude stealing
slowly over the blank terror of his face.
He bowed his head, murmured something,
and gesticulated confusedly with the hand
that he was free to use.

"Look!" cried the old officer; "look,
Berthelin, he denies the man's identity."

"Do you hear that?" said the general,
appealing to Trudaine. "Have you proofs to.
confute him? If you have, produce them,
instantly."

Before the answer could be given, the door
leading into the drawing-room from the
staircase was violently flung open, and Madame
Danville—her hair in disorder, her face in its
colourless terror looking like the very counterpart
of her son's—appeared on the threshold,
with the old man Dubois and a group of
amazed and startled servants behind her.

"For God's sake don't sign! for God's sake
come away!" she cried. "I have seen your
wife—in the spirit, or in the flesh, I know not
which—but I have seen her. Charles!
Charles! as true as Heaven is above us, I
have seen your wife!"

"You have seen her in the flesh, living and
breathing as you see her brother yonder,"
said a firm, quiet voice from among the
servants on the landing outside.

"Let that man enter, whoever he is!" cried
the general.

Lomaque passed Madame Danville on the
threshold. She trembled as he brushed by
her; then, supporting herself by the wall,
followed him a few paces into the room. She
looked first at her son—after that, at