uire after her; the marquise, without paying particular attention to
this excessive civility, which she remembered afterwards, sent word as
before that she was perfectly well. The marquise had remained in bed to
do the honours of her little feast, and never had she felt more cheerful.
At the hour named all her guests arrived; the abbe and the chevalier were
ushered in, and the meal was served. Neither one nor the other would
share it; the abbe indeed sat down to table, but the chevalier remained
leaning on the foot of the bed. The abbe appeared anxious, and only
roused himself with a start from his absorption; then he seemed to drive
away some dominant idea, but soon the idea, stronger than his will,
plunged him again into a reverie, a state which struck everyone the more
particularly because it was far from his usual temper. As to the
chevalier, his eyes were fixed constantly upon his sister-in-law, but in
this there was not, as in his brother's behaviour, anything surprising,
since the marquise had never looked so beautiful.

The meal over, the company took leave. The abbe escorted the ladies
downstairs; the chevalier remained with the marquise; but hardly had the
abbe left the room when Madame de Ganges saw the chevalier turn pale and
drop in a sitting position--he had been standing on the foot of the bed.
The marquise, uneasy, asked what was the matter; but before he could
reply, her attention was called to another quarter. The abbe, as pale and
as disturbed as the chevalier, came back into the room, carrying in his
hands a glass and a pistol, and double-locked the door behind him.
Terrified at this spectacle, the marquise half raised herself in her bed,
gazing voiceless and wordless. Then the abbe approached her, his lips
trembling; his hair bristling and his eyes blazing, and, presenting to
her the glass and the pistol, "Madame," said he, after a moment of
terrible silence, "choose, whether poison, fire, or"--he made a sign to
the chevalier, who drew his sword--"or steel."

The marquise had one moment's hope: at the motion which she saw the
chevalier make she thought he was coming to her assistance; but being
soon undeceived, and finding herself between two men, both threatening
her, she slipped from her bed and fell on her knees.

"What have I done," she cried, "oh, my God? that you should thus decree
my death, and after having made yourselves judges should make yourselves
executioners? I am guilty of no