"'How long you were in coming!' she murmured faintly.
"I was about to make some excuse, when she motioned me to pause, and
ordered the women who surrounded her to leave the room.
"As soon as we were alone:
"'You are an honest boy,', said she, 'and I am about to give you a proof
of my confidence. People believe me to be poor, but they are mistaken.
While my relatives were gayly ruining themselves, I was saving the five
hundred louis which the duke, my brother, gave me each year.'
"She motioned me to come nearer, and to kneel beside her bed.
"I obeyed, and Mademoiselle Armande leaned toward me, almost glued her
lips to my ear, and added:
"'I possess eighty thousand francs.'
"I felt a sudden giddiness, but my godmother did not notice it.
"'This amount,' she continued, 'is not a quarter part of the former
income from our family estates. But now, who knows but it will, one day,
be the only resource of the Sairmeuse? I am going to place it in your
charge, Lacheneur. I confide it to your honor and to your devotion. The
estates belonging to the emigrants are to be sold, I hear.
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