"Here it is," he said, opening a paper bearing the royal mark.
"But how did it come into your hands?"
"In a very simple way—I bought it."
"You—and for what reason?"
"Can you not suppose that my only motive was to render you a service?"
The Vicomte shrugged his shoulders.
"You are right," answered Fernando, in reply to this mute protest. "I have another reason. I do not wish the Vicomte de Talizac to come to grief because my fortune is intimately connected with his—because his father, the Marquis de Fongereues, has rendered and will render great services to a cause that is mine. You must promise me to be guilty of no more imprudences like this."
"Do you mean to give me that paper?"
"No, it is not altogether mine; those who retain an interest in it can alone surrender it to you."