ad been agreed for a long time that the entire
family should return to Paris on the first of September. The very
proximity of the time fixed upon for the general departure would only
serve to make the pretext invoked to explain this sudden separation appear
more unlikely. It was almost impossible that it should not awaken in the
mind of Clotilde, and in that of the count, irreparable suspicions and a
light fatal to the happiness of both. The remedy seemed indeed more to be
dreaded than the evil itself; for, if the evil was great, it was at least
unknown to those whose lives and whose hearts it would have shattered, and
it could still be hoped that it might remain so forever. Monsieur de Lucan
thought for a moment of going away himself; but it was still more
impossible to justify his departure than it was that of Julia's.

All these reflections being made, he resolved to arm himself with patience
and courage. Once in Paris, separate dwellings, less frequent intercourse,
the obligations of the world, and the activity of life, would doubtless
afford relief and then a peaceful solution to a painful and formidable
situation which it was henceforth impossible for him not to view in its
true light. He relied upon himself, and also upon Julia's natural
generosity, for reaching without outburst and without rupture the
approaching term that was to put an end to their life in common and to its
incessant perils. It ought not to be impossible to endure, for the short
period of two weeks more, the threatenings of a storm that had been
brewing for months without revealing its lightning. He was forgetting with
what frightful rapidity the maladies of the soul, as well as those of the
body, after reaching slowly and gradually certain stages, suddenly
precipitate their progress and their ravages.

Monsieur de Lucan asked himself whether he should not inform Julia of the
conduct he had resolved to follow, and of the reasons that had dictated
it; but every shadow of an explanation between them appeared to him
eminently improper and dangerous. Their confidential understanding upon
such a subject would have assumed an air of complicity which was repugnant
to all his sentiments of honor. Despite the terrible light that had
flashed forth, there still remained between them something obscure,
undecided, and unconfessed that he thought best to preserve at any cost.
Far, therefore, from seeking opportunities for some private interview, he
avoided t