We'll have a hearty laugh over them!"
"Let us finish this first."
"Of course." And he resumed: "'If I had been alone. I should not
have hesitated. I was so wretched that death seemed a refuge to
me. But what was to become of my child? Should I kill him, and
destroy myself afterward? I thought of doing so, but I lacked the
courage. And what I implored you in pity to give me, was
rightfully mine. I had only to present myself at your house and
demand it. Alas! I did not know that then. I believed myself
bound by a solemn oath, and you inspired me with inexpressible
terror. And still I could not see my child die of starvation
before my very eyes. So I abandoned myself to my fate, and I have
sunk so low that I have been obliged to separate from my son. He
must not know the shame to which he owes his livelihood. And he
is ignorant even of my existence.'"
M. Fortunat was as motionless as if he had been turned to stone.
After the information he had obtained respecting the count's past,
and after the story told him by Madame Vantrasson, he could
scarcely doubt. "This letter," he thought, "can only be from
Mademoiselle Hermine de Chalusse."
However, M. Casimir resumed his reading: "'If I apply to you
again, if from the depth of infamy into which I have fallen, I
again call upon you for help, it is because I am at the end of my
resources--because, before I die, I must see my son's future
assured.
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