tried to appear calm, careless, and playful;
but the contraction of his lips betrayed a horrible anguish, and
his look had the strange mobility of the wild beasts' eye, when,
almost at bay, they stop for a moment, listening to the barking of
the hounds.

"I was beginning to fear that you would disappoint me," he said to
Mme. Zelie.

"It took me some time to buy your breakfast."

"And is that all that kept you?"

"The porter detained me too, to hand me a letter, in which I found
one for you. Here it is."

"A letter!" exclaimed Vincent Favoral.

And, snatching it from her, he tore off the envelope. But he had
scarcely looked over it, when he crushed it in his hand, exclaiming,

"It is monstrous! It is a mean, infamous treason!" He was
interrupted by a violent ringing of the door-bell.

"Who can it be?" stammered Mme. Cadelle.

"I know who it is," replied the former cashier. "Open, open quick."

She obeyed; and almost at once a woman walked into the parlor,
wearing a cheap, black woolen dress. With a sudden gesture, she
threw off her veil; and M. de Tregars recognized the Baroness de
Thaller.

"Leave us!" she said to Mme. Zelie, in a tone which one would hardly
dare to assume towards a bar-maid.

The other felt indignant.

"What, what!" she began. "I am in my own house here."

"Leave us!" repeated M. Favoral with a threatening gesture.
"Go, go!"

She went out but only to take refuge by the side of M. de Tregars.

"You hear how they treat me," she said in a hoarse voice.

He made no answer. All his attention was centred upon the parlor.
The Baroness de Thaller and the former cashier were standing
opposite each other, like two adversaries about to fight a duel.

"I have just read your letter," began Vincent Favoral.

Coldly the baroness said, "Ah!"

"It is a joke, I suppose."

"Not at all."

"You refuse to go with me?"

"Positively."

"And yet it was all agreed upon. I have acted wholly under your
urgent, pressing advice. How many times have you repeated to me
that to live with your husband had become an intolerable torment
to you! How many times have you sworn to me that you wished to be
mine alone, begging me to procure a large sum of money, and to fly
with you!"

"I was in earnest at the time. I have discovered, at the last
moment, that it would be impossible for me thus to abandon my
country, my daughter, my friends."

"We can take Cesarine with us."

"Do not insist."