he
restarted his horse so quickly.

Was jealousy, then, gnawing at me? At all events, I felt exceedingly
depressed, despite the fact that I had no desire to ascertain what the
correspondence was about. To think that HE should be her confidant! "My
friend, mine own familiar friend!" passed through my mind. Yet WAS
there any love in the matter? "Of course not," reason whispered to me.
But reason goes for little on such occasions. I felt that the matter
must be cleared up, for it was becoming unpleasantly complex.

I had scarcely set foot in the hotel when the commissionaire and the
landlord (the latter issuing from his room for the purpose) alike
informed me that I was being searched for high and low--that three
separate messages to ascertain my whereabouts had come down from the
General. When I entered his study I was feeling anything but kindly
disposed. I found there the General himself, De Griers, and Mlle.
Blanche, but not Mlle.'s mother, who was a person whom her reputed
daughter used only for show purposes, since in all matters of business
the daughter fended for herself, and it is unlikely that the mother
knew anything about them.

Some very heated discussion was in progress, and meanwhile the door of
the study was open--an unprecedented circumstance. As I approached the
portals I could hear loud voices raised, for mingled with the pert,
venomous accents of De Griers were Mlle. Blanche's excited, impudently
abusive tongue and the General's plaintive wail as, apparently, he
sought to justify himself in something. But on my appearance every one
stopped speaking, and tried to put a better face upon matters. De
Griers smoothed his hair, and twisted his angry face into a smile--into
the mean, studiedly polite French smile which I so detested; while the
downcast, perplexed General assumed an air of dignity--though only in a
mechanical way. On the other hand, Mlle. Blanche did not trouble to
conceal the wrath that was sparkling in her countenance, but bent her
gaze upon me with an air of impatient expectancy. I may remark that
hitherto she had treated me with absolute superciliousness, and, so far
from answering my salutations, had always ignored them.

"Alexis Ivanovitch," began the General in a tone of affectionate
upbraiding, "may I say to you that I find it strange, exceedingly
strange, that--In short, your conduct towards myself and my family-- In
a word, your--er--extremely--"

"Eh! Ce n'est pas ca," interru