de Lorcy when she undertook to speak to him of the Countess Larinski.

"What do you mean ?" he finally asked.
"Why, did you not confide to me yourself that you were married ?" Samuel opened wide his eyes; during some moments he seemed to be in a dream; then, suddenly putting his hand to his brow and beginning to smile, he said: "Ah! I see--I see.

Did you take me literally?
I thought you understood what I said.

No, my dear abbe, I am not married, and I never shall marry; but there are free unions as sacred, as indissoluble as marriage." The abbe knit his brows, his countenance assumed an expression of chagrin and disapproval.

He was about delivering to his dear count a sermon on the immorality and positive danger of free unions, but Samuel Brohl gave him no time.