of calling Rosalie,
who was in the kitchen at the moment watching the cook and the coachman
playing a puzzling hand at cards, Monsieur de Merret made his way to his
wife's room by the light of his lantern, which he set down at the lowest
step of the stairs. His step, easy to recognize, rang under the vaulted
passage.

"At the instant when the gentleman turned the key to enter his wife's
room, he fancied he heard the door shut of the closet of which I have
spoken; but when he went in, Madame de Merret was alone, standing in
front of the fireplace. The unsuspecting husband fancied that Rosalie
was in the cupboard; nevertheless, a doubt, ringing in his ears like a
peal of bells, put him on his guard; he looked at his wife, and read in
her eyes an indescribably anxious and haunted expression.

"'You are very late,' said she.--Her voice, usually so clear and sweet,
struck him as being slightly husky.

"Monsieur de Merret made no reply, for at this moment Rosalie came in.
This was like a thunder-clap. He walked up and down the room, going from
one window to another at a regular pace, his arms folded.

"'Have you had bad news, or are you ill?' his wife asked him timidly,
while Rosalie helped her to undress. He made no reply.

"'You can go, Rosalie,' said Madame de Merret to her maid; 'I can put in
my curl-papers myself.'--She scented disaster at the mere aspect of her
husband's face, and wished to be alone with him. As soon as Rosalie
was gone, or supposed to be gone, for she lingered a few minutes in the
passage, Monsieur de Merret came and stood facing his wife, and said
coldly, 'Madame, there is some one in your cupboard!' She looked at her
husband calmly, and replied quite simply, 'No, monsieur.'

"This 'No' wrung Monsieur de Merret's heart; he did not believe it; and
yet his wife had never appeared purer or more saintly than she seemed
to be at this moment. He rose to go and open the closet door. Madame de
Merret took his hand, stopped him, looked at him sadly, and said in a
voice of strange emotion, 'Remember, if you should find no one there,
everything must be at an end between you and me.'

"The extraordinary dignity of his wife's attitude filled him with deep
esteem for her, and inspired him with one of those resolves which need
only a grander stage to become immortal.

"'No, Josephine,' he said, 'I will not open it. In either event we
should be parted for ever. Listen; I know all the purity of your soul, I
k