This story first appeared in Charles Dickens' magazine, "Household Words," volume 16, number 382, July 18, 1857. Published anonymously, as all contributions to the magazine were, it was attributed definitely to Wilkie Collins by Anne Lohrli in her analysis of the magazine's finanacial accounts. In the original, there is an acute accent over the final "e" of "Rance"; "Theatre Francois" should have an acute accent over the first "e", a circumflex accent over the first "a", and a cedilla under the "c".
A FAIR PENITENT
Charles Pineau Duclos was a French writer of biographies and novels, who lived and worked during the first half of the eighteenth century. He