our ears. The wife of the banker came hurriedly towards us and closed
the window.

"Let us avoid a scene," she said. "If Mademoiselle Taillefer hears her
father, she might be thrown into hysterics."

The banker now re-entered the salon, looked round for Victorine, and
said a few words in her ear. Instantly the young girl uttered a cry,
ran to the door, and disappeared. This event produced a great
sensation. The card-players paused. Every one questioned his neighbor.
The murmur of voices swelled, and groups gathered.

"Can Monsieur Taillefer be--" I began.

"--dead?" said my sarcastic neighbor. "You would wear the gayest
mourning, I fancy!"

"But what has happened to him?"

"The poor dear man," said the mistress of the house, "is subject to
attacks of a disease the name of which I never can remember, though
Monsieur Brousson has often told it to me; and he has just been seized
with one."

"What is the nature of the disease?" asked an examining-judge.

"Oh, it is something terrible, monsieur," she replied. "The doctors
know no remedy. It causes the most dreadful suffering. One day, while
the unfortunate man was staying at my country-house, he had an attack,
and I was obliged to go away and stay with a neighbor to avoid hearing