"Wait, wait!" replied Antoine, "we can still agree with a word, madame! I can act here in a way to satisfy everybody. It depends on you!"
"Never!" cried the marchioness indignantly; "you are a lunatic and I am ashamed to have accepted your services!"
She went out, forgetting her notary, and Antoine stood abashed, with contracted brows, buried in mysterious meditation, and with eyes fixed on the door.
"They had agreed to act against me," Julie whispered to Marcel; "now what are they going to do?"
"Be patient," Marcel replied; "I think that I can guess."
He had no time to explain himself. Monsieur Antoine emerged from his reverie and said, addressing the notary:
"Well, how far have we gone, and what is our decision?"
"For my own part, monsieur," replied the notary, putting his papers
