nocent and excusable
revenge, if we consider all the wrongs she had suffered), Mother Bunch
felt her heart sink within her; for she dreaded the malignity of the
princess, who replied, with the utmost calmness: "A thousand thanks,
madame, for your excellent intentions and sentiments. I appreciate them
as I ought, and I hope in a short time to prove it to you."

"Well, madame," said Adrienne, playfully, "let us have it all at once. I
am full of impatient curiosity."

"And yet," said the princess, feigning in her turn a bitter and ironical
delight, "you are far from having the least notion of what I am about to
announce to you."

"Indeed! I fear that your highness's candor and modesty deceive you,"
replied Adrienne, with the same mocking affability; "for there are very
few things on your part that can surprise me, madame. You must be aware
that from your highness, I am prepared for anything."

"Perhaps, madame," said the princess, laying great stress on her
words, "if, for instance, I were to tell you that within twenty-four
hours--suppose between this and to-morrow-thou will be reduced to
poverty--"

This was so unexpected, that Mdlle. de Cardoville started in spite of
herself, and Mother Bunch shuddered.

"Ah, madame!" said the princess, with triumphant joy and cruel mildness,
as she watched the growing surprise of her niece, "confess that I have
astonished you a little. You were right in giving to our interview the
turn it has taken. I should have needed all sorts of circumlocution to
say to you, 'Niece, to-morrow you will be as poor as you are rich to
day.' But now I can tell you the fact quite plainly and simply."

Recovering from her first amazement, Adrienne replied, with a calm
smile, which checked the joy of the princess: "Well, I confess frankly,
madame, that you have surprised me; I expected from you one of those
black pieces of malignity, one of those well-laid plots, in which you
are known to excel, and I did not think you would make all this fuss
about such a trifle."

"To be ruined--completely ruined," cried the princess, "and that by to
morrow--you that have been so prodigal, will see your house, furniture,
horses, jewels, even the ridiculous dresses of which you are so vain,
all taken from you--do you call that a trifle? You, that spend with
indifference thousands of louis, will be reduced to a pension inferior
to the wages you gave your foot-boy--do you call that a trifle?"

To her aunt's cruel