her confidant?"

"She confessed to me her regard for M. Charles Robert,--nothing more;
neither did I seek to learn more; it would have annoyed and vexed her.
But, as for him, boiling over with love, or, rather, intoxicated with
pride, he came voluntarily to impart his good fortune, without, however,
entrusting me either with the time or place of the intended meeting."

"How, then, did you know it?"

"Why, Karl, by my order, hovered about the door of M. Robert during the
following day from an early hour; nothing, however, transpired till the
next day, when our love-stricken youth proceeded in a _fiacre_ to an
obscure part of the town, and finally alighted before a mean-looking
house in the Rue du Temple; there he remained for an hour and a half,
when he came out and walked away. Karl waited a long while to see
whether any person followed M. Charles Robert out of the house; but no
one came. The marquise had evidently failed in her appointment. This was
confirmed to me on the morrow, when the lover came to pour out all his
rage and disappointment. I advised him to assume even an increase of
wretchedness and despair. The plan succeeded; the pity of Clemence was
again excited; a fresh assignation was wrung from her, but which she
failed to keep equally with the former; the third and last rendezvous,
however, produced more decided effects, Madame d'Harville positively
going as far as the door of the house I have specified as the appointed
place; then, repenting so rash a step, returned home without having even
quitted the humble _fiacre_ in which she rode. You may judge by all
these capricious changes of purpose how this woman struggles to be free.
And wherefore? Why, because (and hence arises my bitter, deadly hatred
to Clemence d'Harville) because the recollection of Rodolph still
lingers in her heart, and, with pertinacious love she shrinks from aught
that she fancies breathes of preference for another; thus shielding
herself from harm or danger beneath his worshipped image. Now this very
night the marquise has made a fresh assignation with M. Charles Robert
for to-morrow, and this time I doubt not her punctuality; the Duke de
Lucenay has so grossly ridiculed this young man that, carried away by
pity for the humiliation of her admirer, the marquise has granted that
to compassion he would not else have obtained. But this time, I feel
persuaded she will keep her word, and be punctual to the appointed time
and hour."

"An