who is uncertain as to whether
she can come. She acted very strangely. Never mind, perhaps she can
manage it anyway."

He replied: "She will come."

He was not, however, certain and was rendered uneasy until the day of
the dinner. That morning Madeleine received a message from Mme. Walter
to this effect: "I have succeeded in arranging matters and I shall be
with you, but my husband cannot accompany me."

Du Roy thought: "I did right not to return there. She has calmed down."
Still he awaited her arrival anxiously.

She appeared very composed, somewhat reserved, and haughty. He was very
humble, very careful, and submissive. Mmes. Laroche-Mathieu and
Rissolin were accompanied by their husbands. Mme. de Marelle looked
bewitching in an odd combination of yellow and black.

At Du Roy's right sat Mme. Walter, and he spoke to her only of serious
matters with exaggerated respect. From time to time he glanced at
Clotilde.

"She is really very pretty and fresh looking," thought he. But Mme.
Walter attracted him by the difficulty of the conquest. She took her
leave early.

"I will escort you," said he.

She declined his offer. He insisted: "Why do you not want me? You wound
me deeply. Do not let me feel that I am not forgiven. You see that I am
calm."

She replied: "You cannot leave your guests thus."

He smiled: "Bah! I shall be absent twenty minutes. No one will even
notice it; if you refuse me, you will break my heart."

"Very well," she whispered, "I will accept."

When they were seated in the carriage, he seized her hand, and kissing
it passionately said: "I love you, I love you. Let me tell it to you. I
will not touch you. I only wish to repeat that I love you."

She stammered: "After what you promised me--it is too bad--too bad."

He seemed to make a great effort, then he continued in a subdued voice:
"See, how I can control myself--and yet--let me only tell you this--I
love you--yes, let me go home with you and kneel before you five
minutes to utter those three words and gaze upon your beloved face."

She suffered him to take her hand and replied in broken accents: "No, I
cannot--I do not wish to. Think of what my servants, my daughters,
would say--no--no--it is impossible."

He continued: "I cannot live without seeing you; whether it be at your
house or elsewhere, I must see you for only a moment each day that I
may touch your hand, breathe the air stirred by your gown, contemplate
the outlines of you