“And yet, during your first residence in Paris, you spent a great deal, as compared with your small income?”
“Yes, monsieur; but at that time I had a most devoted friend in Mademoiselle Coralie, and I was so unhappy as to lose her. It was my grief at her death that made me return to my country home.”
“That is right, monsieur,” said Camusot; “I commend your frankness; it will be thoroughly appreciated.”
Lucien, it will be seen, was prepared to make a clean breast of it.
“On your return to Paris you lived even more expensively than before,” Camusot went on. “You lived like a man who might have about sixty thousand francs a year.”
“Yes, monsieur.”
“Who supplied you with the money?”
“My protector, the Abbe Carlos Herrera.”
“Where did you meet him?”
“We met when traveling, just as I was about to be quit of life by committing suicide.”