not deceive me. All
this is quite proper; I have not even that to reproach myself with." And
with her little white teeth, she bit at a rosy nail of her right hand,
from which she had just drawn the glove.

It is hardly necessary to say, that Adrienne's letter had not been
delivered to the prince, and that he had not gone to pass the day in the
country with Marshal Simon. During the three days in which Montbron had
not seen Djalma, Faringhea had persuaded him, that, by affecting another
passion, he would bring Mdlle. de Cardoville to terms. With regard
to Djalma's presence at the theatre, Rodin had learned from her maid,
Florine, that her mistress was to go in the evening to the Porte-Saint
Martin. Before Djalma had recognized her, Adrienne, who felt her
strength failing her, was on the point of quitting the theatre; the man,
whom she had hitherto placed so high, whom she had regarded as a hero
and a demi-god and whom she had imagined plunged in such dreadful
despair, that, led by the most tender pity, she had written to him with
simple frankness, that a sweet hope might calm his grief--replied to
a generous mark of sincerity and love, by making himself a ridiculous
spectacle with a creature unworthy of him. What incurable wounds for
Adrienne's pride! It mattered little, whether Djalma knew or not, that
she would be a spectator of the indignity. But when she saw herself
recognized by the prince, when he carried the insult so far as to look
full at her, and, at the same time, raise to his lips the creature's
bouquet who accompanied him, Adrienne was seized with noble indignation,
and felt sufficient courage to remain: instead of closing her eyes to
evidence, she found a sort of barbarous pleasure in assisting at the
agony and death of her pure and divine love. With head erect, proud and
flashing eye, flushed cheek, and curling lip, she looked in her turn at
the prince with disdainful steadiness. It was with a sardonic smile that
she said to the marchioness, who, like many others of the spectators
was occupied with what was passing in the stage-box: "This revolting
exhibition of savage manners is at least in accordance with the rest of
the performance."

"Certainly," said the marchioness; "and my dear uncle will have lost,
perhaps, the most amusing part."

"Montbron?" said Adrienne, hastily, with hardly repressed bitterness;
"yes, he will regret not having seen all. I am impatient for his
arrival. Is it not to him that