r been any understanding between them, but that as
she came to him to say: "I will be your wife," he felt authorized in
keeping her, in hiding her, in fact, until he had obtained a reply from
her parents, whose wishes were to him of more value than those of his
betrothed.

Georges and Suzanne spent a week at La Roche-Guyon. Never had the young
girl enjoyed herself so thoroughly. As she passed for his sister, they
lived in a chaste and free intimacy, a kind of living companionship. He
thought it wiser to treat her with respect, and when he said to her:
"We will return to Paris to-morrow; your father has bestowed your hand
upon me" she whispered naively: "Already? This is just as pleasant as
being your wife."

CHAPTER XVIII.

ATTAINMENT

It was dark in the apartments in the Rue de Constantinople, when
Georges du Roy and Clotilde de Marelle, having met at the door, entered
them. Without giving him time to raise the shades, the latter said:

"So you are going to marry Suzanne Walter?"

He replied in the affirmative, adding gently: "Did you not know it?"

She answered angrily: "So you are going to marry Suzanne Walter? For
three months you have deceived me. Everyone knew of it but me. My
husband told me. Since you left your wife you have been preparing for
that stroke, and you made use of me in the interim. What a rascal you
are!"

He asked: "How do you make that out? I had a wife who deceived me; I
surprised her, obtained a divorce, and am now going to marry another.
What is more simple than that?"

She murmured: "What a villain!"

He said with dignity: "I beg of you to be more careful as to what you
say."

She rebelled at such words from him: "What! Would you like me to handle
you with gloves? You have conducted yourself like a rascal ever since I
have known you, and now you do not want me to speak of it. You deceive
everyone; you gather pleasure and money everywhere, and you want me to
treat you as an honest man."

He rose; his lips twitched: "Be silent or I will make you leave these
rooms."

She cried: "Leave here--you will make me--you? You forget that it is I
who have paid for these apartments from the very first, and you
threaten to put me out of them. Be silent, good-for-nothing! Do you
think I do not know how you stole a portion of Vaudrec's bequest from
Madeleine? Do you think I do not know about Suzanne?"

He seized her by her shoulders and shook her. "Do not speak of that; I
forbid you