"A formal recognition of his daughter was attended by too many
difficulties, and even dangers. Mademoiselle Marguerite had been
abandoned by her mother when only five or six months old; it is
only a few years since M. de Chalusse, after a thousand vain
attempts, at last succeeded in finding her."

It was no longer on Pascal's account, but on his own, that Baron
Trigault listened with breathless attention. "How very strange,"
he exclaimed, in default of something better to say. "How very
strange!"

"Isn't it? It is as good as a novel."

"Would it be--indiscreet----"

"To inquire? Certainly not. The count told me the whole story,
without entering into particulars--you understand. When he was
quite young, M. de Chalusse became enamoured of a charming young
lady, whose husband had gone to tempt fortune in America. Being
an honest woman, she resisted the count's advances for awhile--a
very little while; but in less than a year after her husband's
departure, she gave birth to a pretty little daughter,
Mademoiselle Marguerite. But then why had the husband gone to
America?"

"Yes," faltered the baron; "why--why, indeed?"

"Everything was progressing finely, when M. de Chalusse was in his
turn obliged to start for Germany, having been informed that a