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"It was not I," he said, "who received the benefit of M. de Tregars' fortune." Marius nodded approvingly. "I know now," he replied, "among whom the spoils were divided. You, M. Costeclar, you took what you could get, timidly, and according to your means. Sharks are always accompanied by small fishes, to which they abandon the crumbs they disdain.

But was it probable, was it even possible, that M. Costeclar could venture upon such a step after Mlle. Gilberte's treatment of him on the previous Saturday evening? "No, a thousand times no!" affirmed Maxence to his mother and sister. "So you may rest easy." Indeed they tried to be, until that very afternoon the sound of rapidly-rolling wheels attracted Mme. Favoral to the window.

"Your father, my children," she said, "had long since lost his sleep. There was hardly ever a night that he did not get up and walk the room for hours." They understood, now, his efforts to compel Mlle. Gilberte to marry M. Costeclar. "He thought that Costeclar would help him out of the scrape," suggested Maxence to his sister.

He spoke of throwing out in the street his wife and children, or starving them out, or shutting up his daughter in a house of correction; until at last, language failing his fury, beside himself, he left, swearing that he would bring M. Costeclar home himself, and then they would see. "Very well, we shall see," said Mlle. Gilberte.

"I saw the reporter who wrote the article in question; and, after beating about the bush for some time, he finally confessed that he knew nothing more than had been published, and that he had obtained his information from two intimate friends of the cashier, M. Costeclar and M. Saint Pavin." "You should have gone to see those gentlemen." "I did." "Very well. What then?"

M. Costeclar bowed, rounding his shoulders, bending his lean form in a half-circle, and letting his arms hang forward. "I am too much the friend of our dear Favoral, madame," he uttered, "not to have heard of you long since, nor to know your merits, and the fact that he owes to you that peaceful happiness which he enjoys, and which we all envy him."

He owned that he had at heart his daughter's marriage with M. Costeclar; but he acknowledged that he had made use of the surest means for making it fail. He should, he humbly confessed, have expected every thing of time and circumstances, of M. Costeclar's excellent qualities, and of his beautiful, darling daughter's good sense. More than of all his violence, Mme.

If she had to select between the amiable Costeclar and a charcoal furnace, it is not the furnace she would take." At all times, Marius de Tregars disliked Mlle. Cesarine to a supreme degree; but at this moment, without the pressing desire he had to see the Baron and Baroness de Thaller, he would have withdrawn. "Believe me, mademoiselle," he uttered coldly.

"Gilberte." "Hallo! a nice name for a cashier's daughter! I am aware that she once sent that poor Costeclar and his offer to Chaillot. But she had resources then; whilst now It's stupid as it can be; but people have to eat!" "There are still women, mademoiselle, capable of starving to death." M. de Tregars now felt satisfied.

"Father must have a still more considerable interest in this alliance than he has allowed us to think," she remarked to her brother. Maxence was also absolutely of the same opinion. "And then," he added, "our father must be terribly rich; for, do not deceive yourself, it isn't solely for your pretty blue eyes that this Costeclar persists in coming here twice a week to pocket a new mortification.