slight noise caused by this little
accident the countess started up from her chair; and for the first time
they looked at each other. Then, in spite of themselves, in spite of
the irritation of their nerves caused by every glance, they continued to
exchange looks, rapid as pistol shots.

The abbe, who felt that there was some cause for embarrassment which he
could not divine, attempted to begin a conversation and tried various
subjects, but his useless efforts gave rise to no ideas and did not
bring out a word. The countess, with feminine tact and obeying her
instincts of a woman of the world, attempted to answer him two or three
times, but in vain. She could not find words, in the perplexity of her
mind, and her own voice almost frightened her in the silence of the
large room, where nothing was heard except the slight sound of plates
and knives and forks.

Suddenly her husband said to her, bending forward: "Here, amid your
children, will you swear to me that what you told me just now is true?"

The hatred which was fermenting in her veins suddenly roused her, and
replying to that question with the same firmness with which she had
replied to his looks, she raised both her hands, the right pointing
toward the boys and the left toward the girls, and said in a firm,
resolute voice and without any hesitation: "On the head of my children,
I swear that I have told you the truth."

He got up and throwing his table napkin on the table with a movement of
exasperation, he turned round and flung his chair against the wall, and
then went out without another word, while she, uttering a deep sigh, as
if after a first victory, went on in a calm voice: "You must not pay any
attention to what your father has just said, my darlings; he was very
much upset a short time ago, but he will be all right again in a few
days."

Then she talked with the abbe and Miss Smith and had tender, pretty
words for all her children, those sweet, tender mother's ways which
unfold little hearts.

When dinner was over she went into the drawing-room, all her children
following her. She made the elder ones chatter, and when their bedtime
came she kissed them for a long time and then went alone into her room.

She waited, for she had no doubt that the count would come, and she made
up her mind then, as her children were not with her, to protect herself
as a woman of the world as she would protect her life, and in the pocket
of her dress she put the littl