at de
Jars was capable of a lasting love, but Charlotte was young and possessed
great beauty, and the romance and mystery surrounding their connection
gave it piquancy. Charlotte's disguise, too, which enabled de Jars to
conceal his success and yet flaunt it in the face, as it were, of public
morality and curiosity, charmed him by its audacity, and above all he was
carried away by the bold and uncommon character of the girl, who, not
content with a prosaic intrigue, had trampled underfoot all social
prejudices and proprieties, and plunged at once into unmeasured and
unrestrained dissipation; the singular mingling in her nature of the
vices of both sexes; the unbridled licentiousness of the courtesan
coupled with the devotion of a man for horses, wine, and fencing; in
short, her eccentric character, as it would now be called, kept a passion
alive which would else have quickly died away in his blase heart.
Nothing would induce him to follow Jeannin's advice to leave Paris for at
least a few weeks, although he shared Jeannin's fear that the statement
they had been forced to give the stranger would bring them into trouble.
The treasurer, who had no love affair on hand, went off; but the
commander bravely held his ground, and at the end of five or six days,
during which no one disturbed him, began to think the only result of the
incident would be the anxiety it had caused him.

Every evening as soon as it was dark he betook himself to the doctor's,
wrapped in his cloak, armed to the teeth, and his hat pulled down over
his eyes. For two days and nights, Charlotte, whom to avoid confusion we
shall continue to call the Chevalier de Moranges, hovered between life
and death. Her youth and the strength of her constitution enabled her at
last to overcome the fever, in spite of the want of skill of the surgeon
Perregaud.

Although de Jars was the only person who visited the chevalier, he was
not the only one who was anxious about the patient's health. Maitre
Quennebert, or men engaged by him to watch, for he did not want to
attract attention, were always prowling about the neighbourhood, so that
he was kept well informed of everything that went on: The instructions he
gave to these agents were, that if a funeral should leave the house, they
were to find out the name of the deceased, and then to let him know
without delay. But all these precautions seemed quite useless: he always
received the same answer to all his questions