marriage tie. I have not the slightest idea who she could be. I never
at least heard of one connected, however distantly, with my family, whom
I could identify with the writer of these letters."

"I may hold them a short time in my possession?"

"Pardon me a preliminary question. If I may venture to form a
conjecture, the object of your search must be connected with your
countryman, whom the lady politely calls the 'wretched Englishman;' but I
own I should not like to lend, through these letters, a pretence to any
steps that may lead to a scandal in which my father's name or that of any
member of my family could be mixed up."

"Marquis, it is to prevent the possibility of all scandal that I ask you
to trust these letters to my discretion."

"_Foi de gentilhomme_?"

"_Foi de gentilhomme_!"

"Take them. When and where shall we meet again?"

"Soon, I trust; but I must leave Paris this evening. I am bound to
Berlin in quest of this Countess von Rudesheim: and I fear that in a very
few days intercourse between France and the German frontier will be
closed upon travellers."

After a few more words not worth recording, the two young men shook hands
and parted.