n," she continued,
after a pause, laying her hand on the hilt of rubies in her bosom and
showing him the blade of her dagger.

"What does all that mean?" thought Madame du Gua.

"But," she continued, "you still love me; at any rate, you desire me,
and the folly you have just committed," she added, taking his hand,
"proves it to me. I will again be that I desired to be; and I return to
Fougeres happy. Love absolves everything. You love me; I have regained
the respect of the man who represents to me the whole world, and I can
die."

"Then you still love me?" said the marquis.

"Have I said so?" she replied with a scornful look, delighting in the
torture she was making him endure. "I have run many risks to come here.
I have saved Monsieur de Bauvan's life, and he, more grateful than
others, offers me in return his fortune and his name. You have never
even thought of doing that."

The marquis, bewildered by these words, stifled the worst anger he had
ever felt, supposing that the count had played him false. He made no
answer.

"Ah! you reflect," she said, bitterly.

"Mademoiselle," replied the young man, "your doubts justify mine."

"Let us leave this room," said Mademoiselle de Verneuil, catching sight
of a corner of Madame du Gua's gown, and rising. But the wish to reduce
her rival to despair was too strong, and she made no further motion to
go.

"Do you mean to drive me to hell?" cried the marquis, seizing her hand
and pressing it violently.

"Did you not drive me to hell five days ago? are you not leaving me at
this very moment uncertain whether your love is sincere or not?"

"But how do I know whether your revenge may not lead you to obtain my
life to tarnish it, instead of killing me?"

"Ah! you do not love me! you think of yourself and not of me!" she said
angrily, shedding a few tears.

The coquettish creature well knew the power of her eyes when moistened
by tears.

"Well, then," he cried, beside himself, "take my life, but dry those
tears."

"Oh, my love! my love!" she exclaimed in a stifled voice: "those are the
words, the accents, the looks I have longed for, to allow me to prefer
your happiness to mine. But," she added, "I ask one more proof of your
love, which you say is so great. I wish to stay here only so long as may
be needed to show the company that you are mine. I will not even drink
a glass of water in the house of a woman who has twice tried to kill me,
who is now, perhaps, plottin