“Would you like to have the priest?” Gaspard could think of no other aid in this extremity.

“No! no! I will not die! They come to your deathbed. Stay with me yourself.”

“What can I do?”

He was silent a long while. His breath came slowly and with effort, and shudders ran over him.

“Renée,” he said presently. “You have the child, Gaspard?”

“Yes; you gave her to me.”

“If you had died—your money——”

“I had made a will. Everything would have gone to her.”

“That was right—right. Gaspard, there is some gold—is any one listening?” moving his eyes in a frightened way.

“No, no!”