"What do you mean?" she faltered.
"You know as well as I do."
"I don't understand you--explain yourself."
With the impatient gesture of a man who finds himself compelled to
answer an idle question, and assuming an air of hypocritical
commiseration, he replied: "Well, since you insist upon it, I
know, in Paris--in the Rue de Helder, to be more exact--a nice
young fellow, whose lot I have often envied. He has wanted for
nothing since the day he came into the world. At school, he had
three times as much money as his richest playfellow. When his
studies were finished, a tutor was provided--with his pockets full
of gold--to conduct this favored youth to Italy, Egypt, and
Greece. He is now studying law; and four times a year, with
unvarying punctuality, he receives a letter from London containing
five thousand francs. This is all the more remarkable, as this
young man has neither a father nor a mother. He is alone in the
world with his income of twenty thousand francs. I have heard him
say, jestingly. that some good fairy must be watching over him;
but I know that he believes himself to be the illegitimate son of
some great English nobleman. Sometimes, when he has drunk a
little too much, he talks of going in search of my lord, his
father."
The effect M. de Coralth had created by these words must have been
extremely gratifying to him, for Madame d'Argeles had fallen back
in her chair, almost fainting.
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