little by little, weariness overcoming her, she
closed her eyes. She dozed for a few minutes, with that deep sleep
of people who are tired out and have not the energy to undress and
go to bed, that heavy sleep, broken by dreams, when the head nods
upon the breast.

She did not go to bed until the first break of day, when the cold of
the morning, chilling her, compelled her to leave the window.

The next day and the day after, she maintained a reserved and
melancholy attitude. Her thoughts were busy; she was learning to spy
out, to guess at conclusions, to reason. A light, still vague,
seemed to illumine men and things around her in a new manner; she
began to entertain suspicions against all, against everything that
she had believed, against her mother. She imagined all sorts of
things during these two days. She considered all the possibilities,
taking the most extreme resolutions with the suddenness of her
changeable and unrestrained nature. Wednesday she hit upon a plan,
an entire schedule of conduct and a system of spying. She rose
Thursday morning with the resolve to be very sharp and armed against
everybody.

She determined even to take for her motto these two words: "Myself
alone," and she pondered for more than an hour how she should
arrange them to produce a good effect engraved about her crest, on
her writing paper.

Saval and Servigny arrived at ten o'clock. The young girl gave her
hand with reserve, without embarrassment, and in a tone, familiar
though grave, she said:

"Good morning, Muscade, are you well?" "Good morning, Mam'zelle,
fairly, thanks, and you?" He was watching her. "What comedy will she
play me," he said to himself.

The Marquise having taken Saval's arm, he took Yvette's, and they
began to stroll about the lawn, appearing and disappearing every
minute, behind the clumps of trees.

Yvette walked with a thoughtful air, looking at the gravel of the
pathway, appearing hardly to hear what her companion said and
scarcely answering him.

Suddenly she asked: "Are you truly my friend, Muscade?"

"Why, of course, Mam'zelle."

"But truly, truly, now?"

"Absolutely your friend, Mam'zelle, body and soul."

"Even enough of a friend not to lie to me once, just once?"

"Even twice, if necessary."

"Even enough to tell me the absolute, exact truth?"

"Yes, Mam'zelle."

"Well, what do you think, way down in your heart, of the Prince of
Kravalow?"

"Ah, the devil!"

"You see that you ar