"'My interests are in no way separate from my husband's, sir,' said she.
'There is nothing to prevent your addressing yourself to me----'

"'The business which brings me here concerns no one but M. le Comte,' I
said firmly.

"'I will let him know of your wish to see him.'

"The civil tone and expression assumed for the occasion did not impose
upon me; I divined that she would never allow me to see her husband. I
chatted on about indifferent matters for a little while, so as to study
her; but, like all women who have once begun to plot for themselves, she
could dissimulate with the rare perfection which, in your sex, means the
last degree of perfidy. If I may dare to say it, I looked for anything
from her, even a crime. She produced this feeling in me, because it was
so evident from her manner and in all that she did or said, down to
the very inflections of her voice, that she had an eye to the future. I
went.

"Now, I will pass on to the final scenes of this adventure, throwing in
a few circumstances brought to light by time, and some details guessed
by Gobseck's perspicacity or by my own.

"When the Comte de Restaud apparently plunged into the vortex of
dissipation, something passed between the husband and wife, something
which remains an impenetrable secret, but the wife sank even lower in
the husband's eyes. As soon as he became so ill that he was obliged to
take to his bed, he manifested his aversion for the Countess and the two
youngest children. He forbade them to enter his room, and any attempt
to disobey his wishes brought on such dangerous attacks that the doctor
implored the Countess to submit to her husband's wish.

"Mme. de Restaud had seen the family estates and property, nay, the very
mansion in which she lived, pass into the hands of Gobseck, who appeared
to play the fantastic ogre so far as their wealth was concerned.
She partially understood what her husband was doing, no doubt. M. de
Trailles was traveling in England (his creditors had been a little too
pressing of late), and no one else was in a position to enlighten the
lady, and explain that her husband was taking precautions against her
at Gobseck's suggestion. It is said that she held out for a long while
before she gave the signature required by French law for the sale of
the property; nevertheless the Count gained his point. The Countess was
convinced that her husband was realizing his fortune, and that somewhere
or other there would be