n, but it abides in my memory as one of
the most dangerous encounters in my career. Nature had bestowed on her
all the qualities which, combined, are irresistibly fascinating; she
could be pliant and proud by turns, and confiding and coaxing in
her manner; she even went so far as to try to subjugate me. It was a
failure. As I took my leave of her, I caught a gleam of hate and rage
in her eyes that made me shudder. We parted enemies. She would fain have
crushed me out of existence; and for my own part, I felt pity for her,
and for some natures pity is the deadliest of insults. This feeling
pervaded the last representations I put before her; and when I left her,
I left, I think, dread in the depths of her soul, by declaring that,
turn which way she would, ruin lay inevitably before her.

"'If I were to see M. le Comte, your children's property at any rate
would----'

"'I should be at your mercy,' she said, breaking in upon me, disgust in
her gesture.

"Now that we had spoken frankly, I made up my mind to save the family
from impending destitution. I resolved to strain the law at need to gain
my ends, and this was what I did. I sued the Comte de Restaud for a sum
of money, ostensibly due to Gobseck, and gained judgment. The Countess,
of course, did not allow him to know of this, but I had gained on my
point, I had a right to affix seals to everything on the death of the
Count. I bribed one of the servants in the house--the man undertook to
let me know at any hour of the day or night if his master should be
at the point of death, so that I could intervene at once, scare
the Countess with a threat of affixing seals, and so secure the
counter-deed.

"I learned later on that the woman was studying the Code, with her
husband's dying moans in her ears. If we could picture the thoughts of
those who stand about a deathbed, what fearful sights should we not see?
Money is always the motive-spring of the schemes elaborated, of all the
plans that are made and the plots that are woven about it! Let us leave
these details, nauseating in the nature of them; but perhaps they may
have given you some insight into all that this husband and wife endured;
perhaps too they may unveil much that is passing in secret in other
houses.

"For two months the Comte de Restaud lay on his bed, alone, and resigned
to his fate. Mortal disease was slowly sapping the strength of mind and
body. Unaccountable and grotesque sick fancies preyed upon him; h