face with a blush of shame.

"_Deceive!_" echoed he, bitterly; "oh, no! but I dare not, by a rash
avowal of my want, stifle the love that is growing up mutually. Whenever
it becomes necessary to be decided, I will make a loyal disclosure of my
condition. If the declaration ruin my hopes I will follow your advice. I
will sell all I have; I will quit the country and seek in some foreign
land to maintain myself and my beloved child by teaching." He stopped
for a moment, as if swallowing his grief, and then continued, in a lower
tone, half speaking to himself, "And, yet, did I not promise my dear
wife on her death-bed--did I not promise it on the holy cross--that our
child should not undergo such a fate? Ten years of suffering--ten abject
years--have not sufficed to realize my promise; and now, at last, a
feeble ray of hope struggles into my sombre future--" He grasped the
notary's hand, looked wildly but earnestly into his eyes, and added, in
suppliant tones, "Oh, my friend, help me! help me in this last and
trying effort; do not prolong my torture; grant my prayer, and as long
as I live I will bless my benefactor, the savior of my child!"

The notary withdrew his hand as he answered, with some embarrassment,
"Yet, Monsieur De Vlierbeck, I cannot comprehend what all this has to do
with the loan of a thousand _francs_!"

De Vlierbeck thrust his rejected hand into his pocket as he replied,
"Yes, sir, it _is_ ridiculous, is it not, to fall so low and to see
one's happiness or misery depend on things about which other persons may
laugh? And yet, alas! so it is! The young gentleman of whom I spoke to
you is to dine with us to-morrow in company with his uncle,--the uncle
invited himself,--and we have absolutely _nothing to give them!_ Besides
this, my child needs some trifles to appear decently before the guests,