, lost no time in taking Hector apart and begging
him to prepare the poor, devoted, loving young lady for the terrible
blow about to ensue.

"For you see," added he, "I don't think Monsieur Sauvresy can live
more than two days!"

Bertha, with her ear at the keyhole, had heard the doctor's
prediction; and when Hector returned from conducting the physician
to the door, he found her radiant. She rushed into his arms.

"Now" cried she, "the future truly belongs to us. Only one black
point obscured our horizon, and it has cleared away. It is for me
to realize Doctor R---'s prediction." They dined together, as usual,
in the dining-room, while one of the chambermaids remained beside
the sick-bed. Bertha was full of spirits which she could scarcely
control. The certainty of success and safety, the assurance of
reaching the end, made her imprudently gay. She spoke aloud, even
in the presence of the servants, of her approaching liberty.
During the evening she was more reckless than ever. If any of the
servants should have a suspicion, or a shadow of one she might be
discovered and lost. Hector constantly nudged her under the table
and frowned at her, to keep her quiet; he felt his blood run cold
at her conduct; all in vain. There are times when the armor of
hypocrisy becomes so burdensome that one is forced, cost what it
may, to throw it off if only for an instant.

While Hector was smoking his cigar, Bertha was more freely pursuing
her dream. She was thinking that she could spend the period of her
mourning at Valfeuillu, and Hector, for the sake of appearances,
would hire a pretty little house somewhere in the suburbs. The
worst of it all was that she would be forced to seem to mourn for
Sauvresy, as she had pretended to love him during his lifetime.
But at last a day would come when, without scandal, she might throw
off her mourning clothes, and then they would get married. Where?
At Paris or Orcival?

Hector's thoughts ran in the same channel. He, too, wished to see
his friend under the ground to end his own terrors, and to submit
to Bertha's terrible yoke.

XX

Time passed. Hector and Bertha repaired to Sauvresy's room; he was
asleep. They noiselessly took chairs beside the fire, as usual,
and the maid retired. In order that the sick man might not be
disturbed by the light of the lamp, curtains had been hung so that,
when lying down, he could not see the fireplace and mantel. In