banks, whom the public
applauded rapturously at every feat. And contemptuously and haughtily
she compared those two men, who were as vigorous as wild animals that
have grown up in the open air, with the rickety limbs, which look so
awkward in the dress of an English groom, that had tried to inflame her
heart.

* * * * *

Count de Villegby had gone back to the country, to prepare for his
election as Councilor-General, and the very evening that he started,
Regina again took the stage box at the _Eden Reunis_. Consumed by
sensual ardor as if by some love philter, she scribbled a few words on a
piece of paper--the eternal formula that women write on such occasions:

"A carriage will be waiting for you at the stage door after the
performance--An unknown woman who adores you."

And then she gave it to a box opener, who handed it to the Montefiore
who was the champion pistol shot.

Oh! that interminable waiting in a malodorous cab, the overwhelming
emotion, and the nausea of disgust, the fear, the desire of waking the
coachman who was nodding on the box, of giving him her address, and
telling him to drive her home. But she remained with her face against
the window, mechanically looking at the dark passage, that was
illuminated by a gas lamp, at the "actors' entrance," through which men
were continually hurrying, who talked in a loud voice, and chewed the
end of a cigar which had gone out. She remained as if she were glued to
the cushions, and tapped impatiently on the bottom of the cab with her
heels.

When the actor who thought it was a joke, made his appearance, she could
hardly utter a word, for evil pleasure is as intoxicating as adulterated
liquor, so face to face with this immediate surrender, and this
unconstrained immodesty, he at first thought that he had to do with a
street walker.

Regina felt various sensations, and a morbid pleasure throughout her
whole person. She pressed close to him, and raised her veil to show how
young, beautiful, and desirable she was. They did not speak a word, like
wrestlers before a combat. She was eager to be locked up with him, to
give herself to him, and, at last, to know that moral uncleanness, of
which, she was, of course, ignorant, as a chaste wife; and when they
left the room in the hotel together, where they had spent hours like
amorous deer, the man dragged himself along, and almost groped his way
like a blind man, while Regina was smiling,