t is
habitable nevertheless. But when one enters it, one rarely leaves it.
The device that you will bear is not very cheerful, but it is eloquent,
you know it: _Hasta la muerte!_--"Until death!"--What do you say about
it?--We shall be at Toledo in three days. There are Duchesses de Rosas
who will look on you, as you pass, over their plaited collars, and as
there were neither adulteresses nor courtesans among them, they will
probably ask what the Parisian is doing among them. Well, I will answer
them myself, that she is there to live out her life, you understand,
there, face to face with me, as you have _desired_, as you said, and no
one will have the right to sneer before the Duc de Rosas, who will see
no one. Oh! yes, I know that I belong to another period! I am
ridiculous, romantic!--I am just that!--You have awakened the half-Arab
that lurks in the Castilian. So much the worse for you if you have made
me remember that I am a Rosas!"

She remained there, thunderstruck, hearing the duke come and go, his
heels ringing in spite of the muffling of the carpet, like the heels of
an armed man.

At times, when he passed quite close to her, his attenuated shadow was
cast at full length over her and she was filled with terror.

She experienced a feeling of fear, as if she were before an open tomb,
or that a puff of damp air chilled her face, or that she was suddenly
enveloped by the odor of a cellar. She shuddered and wished to plead
with him, murmuring:

"Pity!--Pardon!--"

"Madame la duchesse," Rosas replied coldly, "I am one of those who may
be deceived, no one is beyond the reach of treason; but I am not one of
those who pardon. I have been extremely foolish, ridiculous, credulous!
So much the worse for me! So much the worse for you! Rosas you are,
Rosas you will be! I have been your victim, eh? Exactly, that is
admitted: you shall be mine! Nothing could be juster, I think! I wish no
scandal resulting from a lawsuit or the notoriety of one or more duels.
I should become ridiculous in the eyes of others. But in my own and your
eyes, I do not propose to be! I did not desire to be your lover, I have
hardly been your husband. Now I am your companion forever. _Hasta la
muerte!_ For me, the cold of an Escurial has no terror. I am accustomed
to it. If it makes you quake, whose fault is it? You willed it. A double
suicide! We leave this evening!"

"This evening!" repeated Rosas, terribly, while Marianne, terrified,
felt sti