t Marie to
save herself by confessing all to Felix.

She drove to her sister's house, but Marie was not at home. Felix was
there. A voice within her cried aloud to Eugenie to save her sister; the
morrow might be too late. She took a vast responsibility upon herself,
but she resolved to tell all to the count. Surely he would be indulgent
when he knew that his honor was still safe. The countess was deluded
rather than sinful. Eugenie feared to be treacherous and base in
revealing secrets that society (agreeing on this point) holds to be
inviolable; but--she saw her sister's future, she trembled lest
she should some day be deserted, ruined by Nathan, poor, suffering,
disgraced, wretched, and she hesitated no longer; she sent in her name
and asked to see the count.

Felix, astonished at the visit, had a long conversation with his
sister-in-law, in which he seemed so calm, so completely master of
himself, that she feared he might have taken some terrible resolution.

"Do not be uneasy," he said, seeing her anxiety. "I will act in a manner
which shall make your sister bless you. However much you may dislike
to keep the fact that you have spoken to me from her knowledge, I must
entreat you to do so. I need a few days to search into mysteries which
you don't perceive; and, above all, I must act cautiously. Perhaps I can
learn all in a day. I, alone, my dear sister, am the guilty person.
All lovers play their game, and it is not every woman who is able,
unassisted, to see life as it is."

Madame du Tillet returned home comforted. Felix de Vandenesse drew forty
thousand francs from the Bank of France, and went direct to Madame de
Nucingen He found her at home, thanked her for the confidence she had
placed in his wife, and returned the money, explaining that the countess
had obtained this mysterious loan for her charities, which were so
profuse that he was trying to put a limit to them.

"Give me no explanations, monsieur, since Madame de Vandenesse has told
you all," said the Baronne de Nucingen.

"She knows the truth," thought Vandenesse.

Madame de Nucingen returned to him Marie's letter of guarantee, and sent
to the bank for the four notes. Vandenesse, during the short time that
these arrangements kept him waiting, watched the baroness with the
eye of a statesman, and he thought the moment propitious for further
negotiation.

"We live in an age, madame, when nothing is sure," he said. "Even
thrones rise and fall in F