er visitors of
whom he had been told below stairs. As he knew nothing at all about
them, the servant who admitted them never having seen either of them
before, she acknowledged that two gentlemen had called earlier in the
evening; that they had refused to send in their names, but as they had
said they had come to inquire about the duke, she suspected them of
having been in league with the chevalier in the attempt to ruin her
reputation, perhaps they had even promised to help him to carry her off,
but she knew nothing positive about them or their plans. The duke,
contrary to his wont, did not allow himself to be easily convinced by
these lame explanations, but unfortunately for him the lady knew how to
assume an attitude favourable to her purpose. She had been induced, she
said, with the simple confidence born of love, to listen to people who
had led her to suppose they could give her news of one so dear to her as
the duke. From this falsehood she proceeded to bitter reproaches:
instead of defending herself, she accused him of having left her a prey
to anxiety; she went so far as to imply that there must be some
foundation for the hints of the chevalier, until at last the duke,
although he was not guilty of the slightest infidelity, and had excellent
reasons to give in justification of his silence, was soon reduced to a
penitent mood, and changed his threats into entreaties for forgiveness.
As to the shriek he had heard, and which he was sure had been uttered by
the stranger who had forced his way into her room after the departure of
the others, she asserted that his ears must have deceived him. Feeling
that therein lay her best chance of making things smooth, she exerted
herself to convince him that there was no need for other information than
she could give, and did all she could to blot the whole affair from his
memory; and her success was such that at the end of the interview the
duke was more enamoured and more credulous than ever, and believing he
had done her wrong, he delivered himself up to her, bound hand and foot.
Two days later he installed his mistress in another dwelling....

Madame Rapally also resolved to give up her rooms, and removed to a house
that belonged to her, on the Pont Saint-Michel.

The commander took the condition of Charlotte Boullenois very much to
heart. The physician under whose care he had placed her, after examining
her wounds, had not given much hope of her recovery. It was not th