"My name is Ernest de La Briere, related to the family of the late cabinet minister, and his private secretary during his term of office.

On his dismissal, his Excellency put me in the Court of Claims, to which I am legal counsel, and where I may possibly succeed as chief--" "And how does all this concern Mademoiselle de La Bastie ?" asked the count.
"Monsieur, I love her; and I have the unhoped-for happiness of being loved by her.

Hear me, monsieur," cried Ernest, checking a violent movement on the part of the angry father.

"I have the strangest confession to make to you, a shameful one for a man of honor; but the worst punishment of my conduct, natural enough in itself, is not the telling of it to you; no, I fear the daughter even more than the father." Ernest then related simply, and with the nobleness that comes of sincerity, all the facts of his little drama, not omitting the twenty or more letters, which he had brought with him, nor the interview which he had just had with Canalis.

When Monsieur Mignon had finished reading the letters, the unfortunate lover, pale and suppliant, actually trembled under the fiery glance of the Provencal.
"Monsieur," said the latter, "in this whole matter there is but one error, but that is cardinal.