? Has she had any sickness? Has she aged?"

"Not at all. She has become rather stout, but I assure you you would take
her for a woman of thirty."

"I must be blind, or I cannot have seen her. I am going to write to her
now."

The woman went out, leaving me in astonishment, at the extraordinary
situation in which I was placed.

"Ought I to return to Aix immediately?" I asked myself. She has a town
house, but does not see company, but she might surely see me: She loves
me still. She cared for me all through my illness, and she would not have
done so if she had become indifferent to me. She will be hurt at my not
recognizing her. She must know that I have left Aix, and will no doubt
guess that I am here now. Shall I go to her or shall I write? I resolved
to write, and I told her in my letter that I should await her reply at
Marseilles. I gave the letter to my late nurse, with some money to insure
its being dispatched at once, and drove on to Marseilles where I alighted
at an obscure inn, not wishing to be recognized. I had scarcely got out
of my carriage when I saw Madame Schizza, Nina's sister. She had left
Barcelona with her husband. They had been at Marseilles three or four
days and were going to Leghorn.

Madame Schizza was alone at the moment, her husband having gone out; and
as I was full of curiosity I begged her to come up to my room while my
dinner was getting ready.

"What is your sister doing? Is she still at Barcelona?"

"Yes; but she will not be there long, for the bishop will not have her in
the town or the diocese, and the bishop is stronger than the viceroy. She
only returned to Barcelona on the plea that she wished to pass through
Catalonia of her way home, but she does not need to stay there for nine
or ten months on that account. She will have to leave in a month for
certain, but she is not much put out, as the viceroy is sure to keep her
wherever she goes, and she may eventually succeed in ruining him. In the
meanwhile she is revelling in the bad repute she has gained for her
lover."

"I know something of her peculiarities; but she cannot dislike a man who
has made her rich."

"Rich! She has only got her diamonds. Do you imagine this monster capable
of any feelings of gratitude? She is not a human being, and no one knows
her as I do. She has made the count commit a hundred acts of injustice so
that all Spain may talk of her, and know that she has made herself
mistress of his body and soul, an