and his uprightness of
conduct, as with those conquerors on the field of battle who shed tears
when they have gained a victory? "I must learn if it be so, and must
judge of that for myself," said the marquise. "Who can tell whether that
heart, so coveted, is not common in its impulses, and full of alloy? Who
can tell if that mind, when the touchstone is applied to it, will not
be found of a mean and vulgar character? Come, come," she said, "this
is doubting and hesitating too much--to the proof." She looked at the
timepiece. "It is now seven o'clock," she said; "he must have arrived,
it is the hour for signing his papers." With a feverish impatience she
rose and walked towards the mirror, in which she smiled with a resolute
smile of devotedness; she touched the spring and drew out the handle of
the bell. Then, as if exhausted beforehand by the struggle she had just
undergone, she threw herself on her knees, in utter abandonment, before
a large couch, in which she buried her face in her trembling hands.
Ten minutes afterwards she heard the spring of the door sound. The door
moved upon invisible hinges, and Fouquet appeared. He looked pale, and
seemed bowed down by the weight of some bitter reflection. He did not
hurry, but simply came at the summons. The pre-occupation of his mind
must indeed have been very great, that a man so devoted to pleasure,
for whom indeed pleasure meant everything, should obey such a summons
so listlessly. The previous night, in fact, fertile in melancholy ideas,
had sharpened his features, generally so noble in their indifference
of expression, and had traced dark lines of anxiety around his eyes.
Handsome and noble he still was, and the melancholy expression of his
mouth, a rare expression with men, gave a new character to his features,
by which his youth seemed to be renewed. Dressed in black, the lace in
front of his chest much disarranged by his feverishly restless hand, the
looks of the superintendent, full of dreamy reflection, were fixed
upon the threshold of the room which he had so frequently approached
in search of expected happiness. This gloomy gentleness of manner, this
smiling sadness of expression, which had replaced his former excessive
joy, produced an indescribable effect upon Madame de Belliere, who was
regarding him at a distance.

A woman's eye can read the face of the man she loves, its every feeling
of pride, its every expression of suffering; it might almost be said
tha