s decided to send for you."

"I shall certainly not go; she has her own physician."

"Do not imagine that I have come to ask you to pay her a visit; all is
arranged with Monsieur Balzajette, who will write to you or see you, I
do not know which."

"That will be very extraordinary on the part of Balzajette!"

"Perhaps you judge him harshly. When Madame Dammauville spoke to him of
you he did not raise the smallest objection; on the contrary, he praised
you. He says that you are one of the rare young men in whom one may have
confidence. These are his own words that Madame Dammauville told me."

"What do I care for the opinion of this old beast!"

"I am explaining how it happens that you are called into consultation;
it is not because I spoke of you, but because you have inspired Monsieur
Balzajette with confidence. However stupid he may be, he is just to you,
and knows your value."

It was come then, the time for the meeting that he did not wish to
believe possible; and it was brought about in such a way that he did not
see how he could escape it. He might refuse Phillis; but Balzajette? A
colleague called him in consultation, and why should he not go? Had he
foreseen this blow he would have left Paris until the trial was over,
but he was taken unawares. What could he say to justify a sudden
absence? He had no mother or brothers who might send for him, and with
whom he would be obliged to remain. Besides, he wished to go to court;
and since his testimony would carry considerable weight with the jury,
it was his duty to be present on account of Florentin. It would be a
contemptible cowardice to fail in this duty, and more, it would be an
imprudence. In the eyes of the world he must appear to have nothing to
fear, and this assurance, this confidence in himself, was one of the
conditions of his safety. Now, if he went to court, and from every point
of view it was impossible that he should not go, he would meet Madame
Dammauville, as she intended to be carried there if she were unable to
go in any other way. Whether it was at her house, or at the Palais de
justice, the meeting was then certain, and in spite of what he had done,
circumstances stronger than his will had prepared it and brought it
about; nothing that he could do would prevent it.

The only question that deserved serious consideration just now was to
know where this meeting would be the least dangerous for him--at Madame
Dammauville's or at the Palais?