You asked me
what reason I had to believe myself betrayed. I spoke to you of vague
suspicions, refusals, coldness. That is not all--this evening--"

"Go on!"

"This evening--she made an appointment--with a man that she prefers to
me."

"Who told you so?"

"A stranger who pitied my blindness."

"And suppose the man deceived you--or deceives himself?"

"He has offered me proofs of what he advances."

"What proofs?"

"He will enable me this evening to witness the interview. 'It may be,'
said he, 'that this appointment may have no guilt in it, notwithstanding
appearances to the contrary. Judge for yourself, have courage, and your
cruel indecision will be at an end.'"

"And what did you answer?"

"Nothing, my lord. My head wandered as it does now and I came to you for
advice."

Then, making a gesture of despair, he proceeded with a savage laugh:
"Advice? It is from the blade of my kand-jiar that I should ask counsel!
It would answer: 'Blood! blood!'"

Faringhea grasped convulsively the long dagger attached to his girdle.
There is a sort of contagion in certain forms of passion. At sight of
Faringhea's countenance, agitated by jealous fury, Djalma shuddered--for
he remembered the fit of insane rage, with which he had been possessed,
when the Princess de Saint-Dizier had defied Adrienne to contradict her,
as to the discovery of Agricola Baudoin in her bed-chamber. But then,
reassured by the lady's proud and noble bearing, Djalma had soon learned
to despise the horrible calumny, which Adrienne had not even thought
worthy of an answer. Still, two or three times, as the lightning will
flash suddenly across the clearest sky, the remembrance of that shameful
accusation had crossed the prince's mind, like a streak of fire, but had
almost instantly vanished, in the serenity and happiness of his ineffable
confidence in Adrienne's heart. These memories, however, whilst they
saddened the mind of Djalma, only made him more compassionate with regard
to Faringhea, than he might have been without this strange coincidence
between the position of the half-caste and his own. Knowing, by his own
experience, to what madness a blind fury may be carried, and wishing to
tame the half-caste by affectionate kindness, Djalma said to him in a
grave and mild tone: "I offered you my friendship. I will now act towards
you a friend."

But Faringhea, seemingly a prey to a dull and mute frenzy, stood with
fixed and haggard eyes, as though