Had it come of despair over her decision to come to me? Had it come of
the fact that, presuming too much on my good fortune, I had seemed to
be intending to desert her (even as De Griers had done) when once I had
given her the fifty thousand francs? But, on my honour, I had never
cherished any such intention. What was at fault, I think, was her own
pride, which kept urging her not to trust me, but, rather, to insult
me--even though she had not realised the fact. In her eyes I
corresponded to De Griers, and therefore had been condemned for a fault
not wholly my own. Her mood of late had been a sort of delirium, a sort
of light-headedness--that I knew full well; yet, never had I
sufficiently taken it into consideration. Perhaps she would not pardon
me now? Ah, but this was THE PRESENT. What about the future? Her
delirium and sickness were not likely to make her forget what she had
done in bringing me De Griers' letter. No, she must have known what she
was doing when she brought it.

Somehow I contrived to stuff the pile of notes and gold under the bed,
to cover them over, and then to leave the room some ten minutes after
Polina. I felt sure that she had returned to her own room; wherefore, I
intended quietly to follow her, and to ask the nursemaid aid who opened
the door how her mistress was. Judge, therefore, of my surprise when,
meeting the domestic on the stairs, she informed me that Polina had not
yet returned, and that she (the domestic) was at that moment on her way
to my room in quest of her!

"Mlle. left me but ten minutes ago," I said. "What can have become of
her?" The nursemaid looked at me reproachfully.

Already sundry rumours were flying about the hotel. Both in the office
of the commissionaire and in that of the landlord it was whispered
that, at seven o'clock that morning, the Fraulein had left the hotel,
and set off, despite the rain, in the direction of the Hotel
d'Angleterre. From words and hints let fall I could see that the fact
of Polina having spent the night in my room was now public property.
Also, sundry rumours were circulating concerning the General's family
affairs. It was known that last night he had gone out of his mind, and
paraded the hotel in tears; also, that the old lady who had arrived was
his mother, and that she had come from Russia on purpose to forbid her
son's marriage with Mlle. de Cominges, as well as to cut him out of her
will if he should disobey her; also that, because he