madame," said Adrienne, playfully, "let us have it all at once. I
am full of impatient curiosity."

"And yet," said the princess, feigning in her turn a bitter and ironical
delight, "you are far from having the least notion of what I am about to
announce to you."

"Indeed! I fear that your highness's candor and modesty deceive you,"
replied Adrienne, with the same mocking affability; "for there are very
few things on your part that can surprise me, madame. You must be aware
that from your highness, I am prepared for anything."

"Perhaps, madame," said the princess, laying great stress on her words,
"if, for instance, I were to tell you that within twenty-four
hours--suppose between this and to-morrow-thou will be reduced to
poverty--"

This was so unexpected, that Mdlle. de Cardoville started in spite of
herself, and Mother Bunch shuddered.

"Ah, madame!" said the princess, with triumphant joy and cruel mildness,
as she watched the growing surprise of her niece, "confess that I have
astonished you a little. You were right in giving to our interview the
turn it has taken. I should have needed all sorts of circumlocution to
say to you, 'Niece, to-morrow you will be as poor as you are rich to
day.' But now I can tell you the fact quite plainly and simply."

Recovering from her first amazement, Adrienne replied, with a calm smile,
which checked the joy of the princess: "Well, I confess frankly, madame,
that you have surprised me; I expected from you one of those black pieces
of malignity, one of those well-laid plots, in which you are known to
excel, and I did not think you would make all this fuss about such a
trifle."

"To be ruined--completely ruined," cried the princess, "and that by to
morrow--you that have been so prodigal, will see your house, furniture,
horses, jewels, even the ridiculous dresses of which you are so vain, all
taken from you--do you call that a trifle? You, that spend with
indifference thousands of louis, will be reduced to a pension inferior to
the wages you gave your foot-boy--do you call that a trifle?"

To her aunt's cruel disappointment, Adrienne, who appeared quite to have
recovered her serenity was about to answer accordingly, when the door
suddenly opened, and, without being announced, Prince Djalma entered the
room. A proud and tender expression of delight beamed from the radiant
brow of Adrienne at sight of the prince, and it is impossible to describe
the look of triumphant happin