fe never to lend except on sound and solvent security, he was
still impelled to weigh the situation.

"Madame la comtesse," he said, "you reproached me just now for speaking
like a bourgeois, and I, in return, am afraid that you are talking like
a goddess. I admire you, I listen to you, but I am not convinced. Such
devotions, such sublime abnegations may be met with in heaven, but in
this low world who can hope to be the object of them?"

"You are mistaken, monsieur," replied the countess, with solemnity;
"such devotions are rare, but they are neither impossible nor
incredible; only, it is necessary to have the heart to find them, and,
above all, the hand to take them when they are offered to you."

So saying, the countess rose majestically.

La Peyrade saw that he had ended by displeasing her, and he felt that
she dismissed him. He rose himself, bowed respectfully, and asked to be
received again.

"Monsieur," said Madame de Godollo, "we Hungarians, primitive people
and almost savages that we are, have a saying that when our door is open
both sides of it are opened wide; when we close it it is double-locked
and bolted."

That dignified and ambiguous speech was accompanied by a slight
inclination of the head. Bewildered, confounded by this behavior, to him
so new, which bore but little resemblance to that of Flavie, Brigitte,
and Madame Minard, la Peyrade left the house, asking himself again and
again whether he had played his game properly.

CHAPTER V. SHOWING HOW NEAR THE TARPEIAN ROCK IS TO THE CAPITOL

On leaving Madame de Godollo, la Peyrade felt the necessity of gathering
himself together. Beneath the conversation he had just maintained
with this strange woman, what could he see,--a trap, or a rich and
distinguished marriage offered to him. Under such a doubt as this, to
press Celeste for an immediate answer was neither clever nor prudent;
it was simply to bind himself, and close the door to the changes,
still very ill-defined, which seemed offered to him. The result of the
consultation which Theodose held with himself as he walked along the
boulevard was that he ought, for the moment, to think only of gaining
time. Consequently, instead of going to the Thuilliers' to learn
Celeste's decision, he went home, and wrote the following little note to
Thuillier:--

My dear Thuillier,--You will certainly not think it extraordinary
that I should not present myself at your house to-day,--partly
becaus