“It is impossible for me to express to you my horror at this reply. ‘What, then, has become of this sum?’ I exclaimed. ‘My daughter and myself have no other resource, and, if we are deprived of that, nothing remains for us but complete wretchedness. What will become of us?’ ‘I really don’t know,’ replied the notary, coldly. ‘It is most probable that your brother, instead of placing this sum with me, as you say, has used it in those unfortunate speculations in which, unknown to any one, he was engaged.’ ‘It is false, sir!’ I exclaimed. ‘My brother was honour itself, and, so far from despoiling me and my daughter, he would have sacrificed himself for us. He would never marry, in order that he might leave all he had to my child.’ ‘Dare you to assert, madame, that I am capable of denying a dep
