ve exhausted its comments, and the story will have become old. So,
to work! This very evening the workmen shall be here; and, in the first
place, I must present you to my servants."

To put his purpose into execution, the count moved to touch the
bell-rope. Noel stopped him.

Since the commencement of this interview, the advocate had wandered in
the regions of the thousand and one nights, the wonderful lamp in his
hand. The fairy reality cast into the shade his wildest dreams. He was
dazzled by the count's words, and had need of all his reason to struggle
against the giddiness which came over him, on realising his great good
fortune. Touched by a magic wand, he seemed to awake to a thousand novel
and unknown sensations. He rolled in purple, and bathed in gold.

But he knew how to appear unmoved. His face had contracted the habit of
guarding the secret of the most violent internal excitement. While all
his passions vibrated within him, he appeared to listen with a sad and
almost indifferent coldness.

"Permit me, sir," he said to the count "without overstepping the bounds
of the utmost respect, to say a few words. I am touched more than I
can express by your goodness; and yet I beseech you, to delay its
manifestation. The proposition I am about to suggest may perhaps appear
to you worthy of consideration. It seems to me that the situation
demands the greatest delicacy on my part. It is well to despise public
opinion, but not to defy it. I am certain to be judged with the utmost
severity. If I install myself so suddenly in your house, what will be
said? I shall have the appearance of a conqueror, who thinks little,
so long as he succeeds, of passing over the body of the conquered. They
will reproach me with occupying the bed still warm from Albert's body.
They will jest bitterly at my haste in taking possession. They will
certainly compare me to Albert, and the comparison will be to my
disadvantage, since I should appear to triumph at a time when a great
disaster has fallen upon our house."

The count listened without showing any signs of disapprobation,
struck perhaps by the justice of these reasons. Noel imagined that his
harshness was much more feigned than real; and this idea encouraged him.

"I beseech you then, sir," he continued, "to permit me for the present
in no way to change my mode of living, By not showing myself, I leave
all malicious remarks to waste themselves in air,--I let public opinion
the better