“Then, Emmanuel?” said the young girl with hesitation, “it is your opinion that I should obey this invitation?”
“Yes. Did not the messenger say your father’s safety depended upon it?”
“But what danger threatens him, then, Emmanuel?” she asked.
Emmanuel hesitated a moment, but his desire to make Julie decide immediately made him reply.
“Listen,” he said; “today is the 5th of September, is it not?”
“Yes.”
“Today, then, at eleven o’clock, your father has nearly three hundred thousand francs to pay?”
“Yes, we know that.”
“Well, then,” continued Emmanuel, “we have not fifteen thousand francs in the house.”
“What will happen then?”