ng her who was the
object of it, by revealing it?"

"Let me entreat of you," said Madame d'Harville, after a long silence,
"to speak of something else; indeed I dare not listen further: what you
but just now intimated of his depressed and unhappy appearance has
caused me much pain."

"Nay, my dear friend, I meant not to grieve you, but merely to point out
the probability that a man, rendered doubly sensitive by the succession
of past misfortunes, might feel his courage insufficient to encounter
the fresh trial of your rejection of his suit, and thus be induced to
end his hopeless love and his life together."

"Oh, no more! no more!" almost shrieked Madame d'Harville, interrupting
Sarah; "this fearful idea has glanced across my mind already." Then,
after a second silence of some minutes, the marquise resumed, "Let us,
as I said before, talk of somebody else,--of your mortal enemy, for
instance," added she, with assumed gaiety of manner; "come, we will take
the prince for a fresh theme of conversation; I had not seen him,
previously to this evening, for a very long time. Do you know that I
think he looks handsomer than ever? Though all but king, he has lost
none of the winning sweetness and affability of his manner, and, spite
of my republicanism, I must confess I have seldom, if ever, known so
irresistible a person."

Sarah threw a side glance of deep and scrutinising hatred upon her
unconscious rival, but, quickly recovering herself, she said, gaily:

"Now, my dear Clemence, you must confess to being a most capricious
little lady; you have regular alternating paroxysms of admiration and
violent dislike for the prince; why, a few months ago, I mean about his
first arrival here, you were so captivated by him, that, between
ourselves, I was half afraid you had lost your heart past all hope of
recall."

"Thanks to you," replied Madame d'Harville, smiling, "my admiration was
very short-lived; for so well did you act up to your character of the
prince's sworn foe, and such fearful tales did you tell me of his
profligacy and misconduct, that you succeeded in inspiring me with an
aversion as powerful as had been the infatuation which led you to fear
for the safety of my heart; which, by the way, I cannot think would ever
have been placed in any danger from the attempts of your enemy to
disturb its repose, since, shortly before you gave me those frightful
particulars of the prince's character, he had quite ceased to honou