ad never thought of the possibility of winning the
marquise; but from the moment in which his brother, with no apparent
motive of personal interest, aroused the idea that he might be beloved,
every spark of passion and of vanity that still existed in this automaton
took fire, and he began to be doubly assiduous and attentive to his
sister-in-law. She, who had never suspected any evil in this quarter,
treated the chevalier at first with a kindliness that was heightened by
her scorn for the abbe. But, before long, the chevalier,
misunderstanding the grounds of this kindliness, explained himself more
clearly. The marquise, amazed and at first incredulous, allowed him to
say enough to make his intentions perfectly clear; then she stopped him,
as she had done the abbe, by some of those galling words which women
derive from their indifference even more than from their virtue.

At this check, the chevalier, who was far from possessing his brother's
strength and determination, lost all hope, and came candidly to own to
the latter the sad result of his attentions and his love. This was what
the abbe had awaited, in the first place for the satisfaction of his own
vanity, and in the second place for the means of carrying out his
schemes. He worked upon the chevalier's humiliation until he had wrought
it into a solid hatred; and then, sure of having him for a supporter and
even for an accomplice, he began to put into execution his plan against
the marquise.

The consequence was soon shown in a renewal of alienation on the part of
M. de Ganges. A young man whom the marquise sometimes met in society,
and to whom, on account of his wit, she listened perhaps a little more
willingly than to others, became, if not the cause, at least the excuse
of a fresh burst of jealousy. This jealousy was exhibited as on previous
occasions, by quarrels remote from the real grievance; but the marquise
was not deceived: she recognised in this change the fatal hand of her
brother-in-law. But this certainty, instead of drawing her towards him,
increased her repulsion; and thenceforward she lost no opportunity of
showing him not only that repulsion but also the contempt that
accompanied it.

Matters remained in this state for some months. Every day the marquise
perceived her husband growing colder, and although the spies were
invisible she felt herself surrounded by a watchfulness that took note of
the most private details of her life. As to th