is ready to set sail in a light skiff on a rough
sea, having laid in a good store of imagination and of courage, of
childlike ignorance and self-esteem.

No doubt she would meet with some difficulties; that thought did but
excite her ardor. No doubt Madame de Nailles would try to keep her with
her, and Jacqueline had provided herself beforehand with some
double-edged remarks by way of weapons, which she intended to use
according to circumstances. But all these preparations for defense or
attack proved unnecessary. When she told the Baroness of her plans she
met with no opposition. She had expected that her project of separation
would highly displease her stepmother; on the contrary, Madame de Nailles
discussed her projects quietly, affecting to consider them merely
temporary, but with no indication of dissatisfaction or resistance. In
truth she was not sorry that Jacqueline, whose companionship became more
and more embarrassing every day, had cut the knot of a difficult position
by a piece of wilfulness and perversity which seemed to put her in the
wrong. The necessity she would have been under of crushing such a girl,
who was now eighteen, would have been distasteful and unprofitable; she
was very glad to get rid of her stepdaughter, always provided it could be
done decently and without scandal. Those two, who had once so loved each
other and who were now sharers in the same sorrows, became enemies--two
hostile parties, which only skilful strategy could ever again bring
together. They tacitly agreed to certain conditions: they would save
appearances; they would remain on outwardly good terms with each other
whatever happened, and above all they would avoid any explanation. This
programme was faithfully carried out, thanks to the great tact of Madame
de Nailles.

No one could have been more watchful to appear ignorant of everything
which, if once brought to light, would have led to difficulties; for
instance, she feigned not to know that her stepdaughter was in possession
of a secret which, if the world knew, would forever make them strangers
to each other; nor would she seem aware that Hubert Marien, weary to
death of the tie that bound him to her, was restrained from breaking it
only by a scruple of honor. Thanks to this seeming ignorance, she parted
from Jacqueline without any open breach, as she had long hoped to do, and
she retained as a friend who supplied her wants a man who was only too
happy to be allowed at t