pting in
public? Have you detected in my eyes----?'--'No,' said I, 'but in his.
And you have eight times made me go to Saint-Thomas d'Aquin to see you
listening to the same mass as he.'--'Ah!' she exclaimed, 'then I have
made you jealous!'--Oh! I only wish I could be!' said I, admiring the
pliancy of her quick intelligence, and these acrobatic feats which can
only be successful in the eyes of the blind. 'But by dint of going to
church I have become very incredulous. On the day of my first cold, and
your first treachery, when you thought I was in bed, you received the
Duke, and you told me you had seen no one.'--'Do you know that your
conduct is infamous?'--'In what respect? I consider your marriage to the
Duke an excellent arrangement; he gives you a great name, the only rank
that suits you, a brilliant and distinguished position. You will be one
of the queens of Paris. I should be doing you a wrong if I placed any
obstacle in the way of this prospect, this distinguished life, this
splendid alliance. Ah! Charlotte, some day you will do me justice by
discovering how unlike my character is to that of other young men. You
would have been compelled to deceive me; yes, you would have found it
very difficult to break with me, for he watches you. It is time that we
should part, for the Duke is rigidly virtuous. You must turn prude;
I advise you to do so. The Duke is vain; he will be proud of his
wife.'--'Oh!' cried she, bursting into tears, 'Henri, if only you
had spoken! Yes, if you had chosen'--it was I who was to blame, you
understand--'we would have gone to live all our days in a corner,
married, happy, and defied the world.'--'Well, it is too late now,' said
I, kissing her hands, and putting on a victimized air.--'Good God! But I
can undo it all!' said she.--'No, you have gone too far with the Duke. I
ought indeed to go a journey to part us more effectually. We should both
have reason to fear our own affection----'--'Henri, do you think the
Duke has any suspicions?' I was still 'Henri,' but the _tu_ was lost for
ever.--'I do not think so,' I replied, assuming the manner of a friend;
'but be as devout as possible, reconcile yourself to God, for the Duke
waits for proofs; he hesitates, you must bring him to the point.'

"She rose, and walked twice round the boudoir in real or affected
agitation; then she no doubt found an attitude and a look beseeming the
new state of affairs, for she stopped in front of me, held out her han