n; it was a question of meeting a bill of exchange. An unlucky
idea occurred to her; she put a tolerably large sum in gold into an
exquisitely embroidered purse and went to him.

"'Who has taught you as to be so bold as to meddle with my household
affairs?' La Palferine cried angrily. 'Mend my socks and work slippers
for me, if it amuses you. So!--you will play the duchess, and you turn
the story of Danae against the aristocracy.'

"He emptied the purse into his hand as he spoke, and made as though
he would fling the money in her face. Claudine, in her terror, did not
guess that he was joking; she shrank back, stumbled over a chair, and
fell with her head against the corner of the marble chimney-piece. She
thought she should have died. When she could speak, poor woman, as she
lay on the bed, all that she said was, 'I deserved it, Charles!'

"For a moment La Palferine was in despair; his anguish revived Claudine.
She rejoiced in the mishap; she took advantage of her suffering to
compel La Palferine to take the money and release him from an awkward
position. Then followed a variation on La Fontaine's fable, in which a
man blesses the thieves that brought him a sudden impulse of tenderness
from his wife. And while we are upon this subject, another saying will
paint the man for you.

"Claudine went home again, made up some kind of tale as best she could
to account for her bruised forehead, and fell dangerously ill. An
abscess formed in the head. The doctor--Bianchon, I believe--yes, it was
Bianchon--wanted to cut off her hair. The Duchesse de Berri's hair is
not more beautiful than Claudine's; she would not hear of it, she told
Bianchon in confidence that she could not allow it to be cut without
leave from the Comte de Palferine. Bianchon went to Charles Edward.
Charles Edward heard him with much seriousness. The doctor had explained
the case at length, and showed that it was absolutely necessary to
sacrifice the hair to insure the success of the operation.

"'Cut off Claudine's hair!' cried he in peremptory tones. 'No. I would
sooner lose her.'

"Even now, after a lapse of four years, Bianchon still quotes that
speech; we have laughed over it for half an hour together. Claudine,
informed of the verdict, saw in it a proof of affections; she felt sure
that she was loved. In the face of her weeping family, with her husband
on his knees, she was inexorable. She kept the hair. The strength that
came with the belief that s