tignac, the 'English system' at my finger-ends,
and I very soon saw myself without a penny. I fell at once into that
precarious way of life which industriously hides cold and miserable
depths beneath an elusive surface of luxury; I was a coxcomb without
conquests, a penniless fop, a nameless gallant. The old sufferings were
renewed, but less sharply; no doubt I was growing used to the painful
crisis. Very often my sole diet consisted of the scanty provision of
cakes and tea that is offered in drawing-rooms, or one of the countess'
great dinners must sustain me for two whole days. I used all my time,
and exerted every effort and all my powers of observation, to penetrate
the impenetrable character of Foedora. Alternate hope and despair had
swayed my opinions; for me she was sometimes the tenderest, sometimes
the most unfeeling of women. But these transitions from joy to sadness
became unendurable; I sought to end the horrible conflict within me by
extinguishing love. By the light of warning gleams my soul sometimes
recognized the gulfs that lay between us. The countess confirmed all my
fears; I had never yet detected any tear in her eyes; an affecting scene
in a play left her smiling and unmoved. All her instincts were selfish;
she could not divine another's joy or sorrow. She had made a fool of me,
in fact!

"I had rejoiced over a sacrifice to make for her, and almost humiliated
myself in seeking out my kinsman, the Duc de Navarreins, a selfish man
who was ashamed of my poverty, and had injured me too deeply not to hate
me. He received me with the polite coldness that makes every word and
gesture seem an insult; he looked so ill at ease that I pitied him. I
blushed for this pettiness amid grandeur, and penuriousness surrounded
by luxury. He began to talk to me of his heavy losses in the three per
cents, and then I told him the object of my visit. The change in his
manners, hitherto glacial, which now gradually, became affectionate,
disgusted me.

"Well, he called upon the countess, and completely eclipsed me with her.

"On him Foedora exercised spells and witcheries unheard of; she drew him
into her power, and arranged her whole mysterious business with him; I
was left out, I heard not a word of it; she had made a tool of me! She
did not seem to be aware of my existence while my cousin was present;
she received me less cordially perhaps than when I was first presented
to her. One evening she chose to mortify me before