dress was a strange mixture of extreme elegance and the roughest texture," and will place a hundred louis d'ors against your own."

"A match!" cried Gaudin, throwing his purse on the bed, round which the party gathered, including Marie, who still kept close to his side.

"There are my pieces," replied the other; "they need no counting."

And he placed a rude leathern bag by Sainte-Croix's sparkling purse. "I shall beat you, Chavagnac," said Gaudin.

"You will be clever to do it," observed a bystander. "The Count de Chavagnac has ruined us this night."

"A new gown of ruby velvet à longues manches, at the next Foire Sainte Germain, for me, if you win, Chavagnac," said one of the handsomest of the women.

"You shall have it, Marotte," replied the Count.

"What do you promise me, M. de Sainte-Croix, for old friendship?" continued Marotte Dupré,-for it was her,-turning to Gaudin. "Let it be a kiss, if it be nothing else."

Gaudin looked towards her, and pressed her arm, as he contracted his forehead, and made a sign of silence. He felt a sudden shudder pass over the frame of the Marchioness; and, when he turned round, her eyes glared like a fury's through her mask. She withdrew her arm, and coldly fell back, as she whispered,

Beware!"

My eyes are being opened anew. Gaudin was for the instant annoyed, and returned no answer. rotte Dupré had not taken the hint, and continued,

Ma

"You owe me something on the score of your conduct when Antoine Brinvilliers carried me to the Rue d'Enfer against my will. By the way, where is his wife, Dubois? You know the secrets of every woman in our good city."

This was addressed to the Abbé Dubois, whose name as a gallant, either on his own part or that of the King's, was pretty well established.

"Where she should be, quietly at home," replied the Abbé. "Brinvilliers is on his travels. He is another man since she left him, How is it, M. de Sainte

or he left her, or they left one another. Croix ?-you ought to know."

"By the mass!" cried Gaudin angrily, "my sword can answer the curiosity of any one better than my tongue."

"It is the more innocent weapon of the two in Paris just at present," said Marotte. "O my reputation!"

Gaudin looked towards Marie. By the quivering of a jewelled ai grette that formed a portion of her head-dress, he could see that she was trembling, and her hand tightly clutched part of the rich curtain that hung beside her.

"Chut!" cried Lauzun, observing Sainte-Croix's kindling temper; "to your play."

"Nine!" said Gaudin, throwing his dice, as he caught at the opportunity of turning the subject.

"Nine also," observed Chavagnac, throwing.

"Ten!" exclaimed Gaudin. Will you pay me half, or run the chance?"

"I will play," replied Chavagnac, gently shaking the dice-box.

"Twelve."

"Peste !" cried Gaudin, "you have gained them. I thought my dice knew better than that."

"You forgot whose they were to play against," said Chavagnac with a grim smile, taking up the money. "Come, I shall be in funds again. Lauzun's hospitality has kept me from the high-road. The twelve hundred pistoles I appropriated from the good people of the Garonne were nearly gone."

"You can still give me the kiss, Gaudin, without being entirely ruined," said Marotte Dupré, as she pouted her red lips towards him. Sainte-Croix inclined his head towards her. As he did so, Marie darted forward, and violently drew him back. The action was seen by all the bystanders. They said nothing, but shrugged their shoulders; whilst Marotte Dupré looked as if she felt perfectly ready for another duel with her new and unknown rival.

"Messieurs,” cried Lauzun, “I have a novelty in store for you. I have picked up a fellow on the Pont-Neuf, who will sing you couplets about yourselves by the mile. He is there every afternoon that it is warm enough for folks to stand and listen.”

"Let us see him," said Dubois, anxious with the rest to turn the attention of the company. "A diable les femmes ! There is not a misery in the world but is connected with them, if you search its source." "Nor a pleasure," replied Lauzun. "You ought to know, Abbé, if experience teaches anything."

"And Monsieur does know," said a person who entered just at the moment. A glance sufficed to show Sainte-Croix that it was Benoit, who appeared to have re-assumed, in part, his ancient mountebank costume.

"This is the fellow," said Lauzun. "Come, friend," he continued, addressing the other, "do you see any one here you can sing about?"

"That do I," said Benoit, looking over the crowd; "there is the Abbé Dubois."

"Respect the church," cried Lauzun laughing. "The Abbé is beyond your couplets."

"Not at all," said Benoit. "Mère Ledru left the Quartier SaintHonoré but yesterday, entirely to save her daughter from his addresses. Oh! the Abbé is a bon diable, but sly in his pursuits. Hem!"

And clearing his voice, he sang these lines, the others repeating the last lines in chorus:

"Monsieur l'Abbé, ou allez-vous?
Vous allez vous casser le cou,

Vous allez sans chandelles,

Eh bien !

Pour voir les demoiselles !
Vous m'entendez bien !

C'est bien !

Pour voir les demoiselles !"

"Silence, rascal!" cried Dubois, hurling some pieces at Benoit's head, who picked them up, put them in his pocket, and was quieted directly, sooner, indeed, than the laugh against the gallant Abbé which he had raised.

"Let M. de Sainte-Croix have his turn," said Chavagnac. "Do you know him, fool?”

Benoit glanced expressively at Gaudin as he commenced :—

"Monsieur Gaudin de Sainte-Croix,

Whence do you your treasures draw?
Not from dice, nor cards alone,
Nor philosophy's rare stone,
Biribi!

Why affect such scenes as these,
And neglect your belle Marquise ?
Where is she?

Left lamenting, like Louise.-
Sacristie !"

Gaudin's cheek flamed with anger. The company observed that he was stung deeper than mere badinage could have done; and this time the laugh was less general than the one which had been raised against the Abbé. He drew Marie's arm closer within his own, and, with a look of vengeance at Benoit, left the circle; whilst the other proceeded to launch a couplet against Chavagnac, filled with no very complimentary allusions to his wild spirit of appropriation.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Sainte-Croix and Marie encounter an uninvited guest.

THEY were each in ill humour with one another. The apparent intimacy of Marotte Dupré had aroused all Marie's jealousy, so terrible in its very calm; and Gaudin had been annoyed by Benoit's allusions. They passed along the room without speaking, nor was it until they gained an apartment at the end of the suite that a word was spoken.

It was a small room they entered, with two deeply-stained windows, and lighted by lamps placed on the outer side of the glass, producing almost the same effect as though it had been day.

"I think you must repent having brought me here," said the Marchioness coldly. It was badly contrived on your part not to forewarn your other favourites, that they might have been more cautious."

"Your suspicions are so utterly without foundation," replied SainteCroix, "that I shall not take the pains to refute them. At present there are other matters of deeper import that demand my attention. I expect, when you learn all, you will give yourself little care about the continuance of our liaison. We may then know some respite from the fevered restlessness and uncertainty of our connexion. We have experienced but little since we have been acquainted."

There was a bitterness of tone in his manner of pronouncing the last sentences that attracted the attention of the Marchioness. "What are you alluding to?" she asked.

"In a word, Marie, I am ruined. The sum of money I brought here with me to-night, in the hope of doubling it, is gone. I am deeply involved: my creditors are pressing me on every side, and I know not which way to turn to extricate myself."

"You judge me too harshly, Sainte-Croix,” replied the Marchioness. "My sweetest revenge would be to assist you when you were utterly destitute. What must be done? The money left me by my father is in my brothers' keeping. Not a sol is spent but I must render them an account."

"But one step is left to be taken," said Gaudin. "The time has arrived : they must be removed."

Marie remained for a time silent, as if waiting for Sainte-Croix more fully to develope his meaning. At length she spoke :

"I know not how we can proceed. I cannot tell whether it be my own fancy or there is in reality ground for suspicion, but my brothers appear to watch me in every action. every step. I see so little of them, too. They are seldom in the Rue Saint Paul."

"We must set other agencies to work," said Gaudin. "An apparent stranger would never be suspected."

"It is dangerous," replied the Marchioness.

"It is necessary," added Sainte-Croix. And after a moment's pause he continued: "The man Lachaussée, whom you have seen with me, is mine, body and soul. I can in an instant cause to fall the sword which hangs over his head. Your brothers' occupation of Offemont will require an increase of their establishment: can we not get Lachaussée into their service? They will then be comparatively in our hands."

"Is he to be trusted ?"

"He is wily as an adder, and as fatal in his attack, to those who have not charmed him. I will put this scheme in train to-morrow. He only awaits my word to proceed."

"It must be done," replied the Marchioness.

And then she uttered a long deep sigh, the relief to her overcharged heart being accompanied by a low moan of intense mental pain,-not from remorse, but utter despondency of the reaction of her spirits, and the apparent blackness of the prospect before her. The next moment, as if ashamed of the demonstration of her feelings, she started up from the couch on which they had been sitting, and prepared to return to the principal room. As she advanced towards the door, she took a brilliant jewelled chain from her neck, and placed it in Gaudin's

hands.

"Whilst we have an opportunity," she said, "let me give you this carcanet. It is of some value, and, by selling it at the Quai des Orfevres you can provide for your present superficial expenses."

Gaudin did not hesitate to take the costly ornament. He knew the necessities of his position: besides, all finer feelings of delicacy had long been merged in the gulf of his darker passions. He placed_the chain in the pocket of his cloak, and went towards the corridor. But, as they were about to pass out, a portion of a large book-case, masking a door with imitations of the backs of volumes, was thrown open, and Exili stood before them.

Marie uttered a slight cry of alarm, as she started at the sudden apparition. Sainte-Croix seized the handle of his sword, and partly drew it from its scabbard; but the moment he recognised the physician he returned it.

"Exili!" he exclaimed.

"You may well be surprised," replied the intruder. "I can excuse your alarm, especially when you had such interesting schemes to settle."

He has heard everything!" said the Marchioness to Sainte-Croix. She spoke in a low, hurried tone, scarcely above a whisper; but the quick ears of Exili caught the import.

'Ay, everything," he replied, with emphasis upon the last word;