to the mother, and, no doubt, this was at the bottom of that remarkable
mutual estrangement between mother and child.

I tried to quiet her. I told her that in a very short period a great
many serious catastrophes, such as frequent earthquakes, great
inundations, and similar unfortunate and most terrible events, had
shocked the world and buried whole cities, destroyed the lives and
fortunes of thousands upon thousands of happy and innocent persons. Even
this Rossberg catastrophe had been preceded by another at the same spot,
about the beginning of the present century. Such catastrophes were by no
means to be considered as a punishment from God Almighty, Who is far too
magnanimous to visit the sins of the guilty upon the heads of the
innocent, but simply as the outcome of geological and meteorological
phases of our globe, depending upon natural laws. If anybody was really
to be blamed for the present misfortune, it must be the engineer who had
planned and erected that insufficient barrier instead of a strong
bastion.

Mr. Dumany's entrance interrupted our painful conversation. He came on
the pretence that letters and newspapers had arrived for me, and with
that he handed me a copy of the _Hon_.

"But I had them addressed to the Hôtel d'Espagne," I said.

"They have been already informed that you are here," he answered; and
then, turning to his wife, he said--

"Have you drunk deep enough of the bitter cup? or do you thirst for
more of its contents?"