ned the sanction
of my husband to an intimacy which I myself
dare not encourage?

"Very truly your debtor, if you accomplish
this, MADAME LETELLIER."

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XXIII.

IN THE SECRET CHAMBER.

Have only twenty-four hours elapsed? Is it but yesternight that all the
terrible events took place, the memory of which are now making my frame
tremble? So the clock says, and yet how hard it is to believe it. Madame
Letellier-- But I will preserve my old method. I will not anticipate
events, but relate them as they occurred.

To go back then to the note which I received from madame. I did not like
it. I did not see its consistency, and I did not mean to be its dupe. If
she intended remaining in the oak parlor, then over the oak parlor I
would keep watch; for from her alone breathed whatever danger there
might be for any of us, and to her alone did I look for the explanation
of her mysterious presence in a spot that should have held a thousand
repellent forces for her and hers. As for her sudden illness, that was
nonsense. She was as well as I was myself. Had I not seen her standing
at the window an hour or two before?

But here I made a mistake. Madame was really ill, as I presently had
occasion to observe. For not only was a physician summoned, but word
came that she wished to see me, also; and when I went to her room I
found her in bed, her face pallid and distorted with pain, and her whole
aspect betraying the greatest physical suffering.

It was a rheumatic attack, affecting mainly her right limb, and made her
so helpless that, for a moment, I stood aghast at what looked to me like
a dispensation of Providence. But in another instant I began to doubt
again; for though I knew it was beyond anybody's power to simulate the
suffering under which she evidently labored, I was made to feel, by her
penetrating and restless looks, that her mind retained its hold upon its
purpose, whatever that purpose might be, and that for me to relax my
vigilance now would be to give her an advantage that would be
immediately seized upon.

I therefore held my sympathies in check; and, while acting the part of
the solicitous landlady, watched for that glance or word which should
reveal her secret intentions. Her daughter, whose eyes were streaming
with tears, stood over her like a pitying angel, and not till we had
done all we could to relieve her mother, and subdue her pain, did she