he innocent colonel, without discovering either in him or in
Pierrette, or in the house or out of it, anything that betrayed their
understanding. She sent Pierrette to confession, and seized that moment
to search the child's room, with the method and penetration of a spy or
a custom-house officer. She found nothing. Her fury reached the apogee
of human sentiments. If Pierrette had been there she would certainly
have struck her remorselessly. To a woman of her temper, jealousy was
less a sentiment than an occupation; she existed in it, it made her
heart beat, she felt emotions hitherto completely unknown to her;
the slightest sound or movement kept her on the qui vive; she watched
Pierrette with gloomy intentness.

"That miserable little wretch will kill me," she said.

Sylvie's severity to her cousin reached the point of refined cruelty,
and made the deplorable condition of the poor girl worse daily. She had
fever regularly, and the pains in her head became intolerable. By the
end of the week even the visitors at the house noticed her suffering
face, which would have touched to pity all selfishness less cruel than
theirs. It happened that Doctor Neraud, possibly by Vinet's advice, did
not come to the house during that week. The colonel, knowing himself
suspected by Sylvie, was afraid to risk his marriage by showing any
solicitude for Pierrette. Bathilde explained the visible change in
the girl by her natural growth. But at last, one Sunday evening, when
Pierrette was in the salon, her sufferings overcame her and she fainted
away. The colonel, who first saw her going, caught her in his arms and
carried her to a sofa.

"She did it on purpose," said Sylvie, looking at Mademoiselle Habert and
the rest who were playing boston with her.

"I assure you that your cousin is very ill," said the colonel.

"She seemed well enough in your arms," Sylvie said to him in a low
voice, with a savage smile.

"The colonel is right," said Madame de Chargeboeuf. "You ought to send
for a doctor. This morning at church every one was speaking, as they
came out, of Mademoiselle Lorrain's appearance."

"I am dying," said Pierrette.

Desfondrilles called to Sylvie and told her to unfasten her cousin's
gown. Sylvie went up to the girl, saying, "It is only a tantrum."

She unfastened the gown and was about to touch the corset, when
Pierrette, roused by the danger, sat up with superhuman strength,
exclaiming, "No, no, I will go to bed."

S