your return from England."

"You are too amiable; but I could not on any consideration retard the
happiness of Mlle. Moriaz. There, my dear count, I congratulate you
sincerely. I had the pleasure to meet here the future Countess Larinski.
She is adorable! It is an exquisite nature, hers--a true poet's wife.
She must have brains, discernment; she has chosen you--that says
everything. As to her fortune, I dare not ask you if she has any; you
would turn away from me in disgust. Do idealists trouble their heads
with such vile questions?"

She leaned towards him, and, fanning herself excitedly, added: "These
poor idealists! they have one misfortune."

"And what is that, princess?"

"They dream with open eyes, and the awakening is sometimes disagreeable.
Ah, my dear Count Larinski, this, that, and the other, _et cetera_. Thus
endeth the adventure."

Then, stretching out her neck until her face was close to his, she
darted at him a venomous, viper-like look, and, in a voice that seemed
to cut into his tympanum like a sharp-toothed saw, she hissed, "Samuel
Brohl, the man with the green eyes, sooner or later the mountains must
meet!"

It seemed to him that the candelabra on the mantel-piece darted out jets
of flame, whose green, blue, and rose-coloured tongues ascended to
the ceiling; and it appeared to him as though his heart was beating as
noisily as a clock-pendulum, and that every one would turn to inquire
whence came the noise. But every one was occupied; no one turned round;
no one suspected that there was a man present on whom a thunderbolt had
just fallen.

The man passed his hand over his brow, which was covered with a cold
sweat; then dispelling, by an effort of will, the cloud that veiled his
eyes, he, in turn, leaned towards the princess, and with quivering lip
and evil, sardonic glance, said to her, in a low voice:

"Princess, I have a slight acquaintance with this Samuel Brohl of
whom you speak. He is not a man who will allow himself to be strangled
without a great deal of outcry. You are not much in the habit of
writing, nevertheless he received from you two letters, which he copied,
placing the originals in safety. If ever he sees the necessity of
appearing in a court of justice, these two letters can be made to create
quite a sensation, and unquestionably they will be the delight of all
the petty journals of Paris."

Thereupon he made a profound bow, respectfully took leave of Mme. de
Lorcy, and reti