I don't know how many months under an assumed name, but all in
vain. He was at last compelled to conceal his daughter in some
provincial convent. During the last few months of his life he
obtained peace--that is to say, he bought it. This lady's husband
must either be very poor or exceedingly stingy; and as she was
exceedingly fond of luxury, M. de Chalusse effected a compromise
by giving her a large sum monthly, and also by paying her dress-
maker's bills."

The baron sprang to his feet with a passionate exclamation. "The
vile wretch!" he said.

But he quickly reseated himself, and the exclamation astonished M.
de Valorsay so little that he quietly concluded by saying: "And
this is the reason, baron, why my beloved Marguerite, the future
Marquise de Valorsay, has no dowry."

The baron cast a look of positive anguish at the door of the
smoking-room. He had heard a slight movement there; and he
trembled with fear lest Pascal, maddened with anger and jealousy,
should rush in and throw himself upon the marquis. Plainly
enough, this perilous situation could not last much longer. The
baron's own powers of self-control and dissimulation were almost
exhausted, and so postponing until another time the many questions
he still wished to ask M. de Valorsay, he made haste to check
these confidential disclosures. "Upon my word," he exclaimed,
with a forced laugh, "I was expecting something quite different.
This affair begins like a genuine romance, and ends, as everything
ends nowadays, in money!"