sible to your love, but that you had
a fortunate rival. The resistance manifested by her would have been
beyond her strength in a single combat. For you should be well
advised, Marquis, that a woman is never more intractable than when she
assumes a haughtiness toward all other men, for the sake of her
favorite lover.

I see in everything you have told me, proofs that you are loved, and
that you are the only one. I will be able to give you constant news on
that score, for I am going to investigate the Countess for myself.
This will surprise you, no doubt. Your astonishment will cease,
however, when you call to mind that Madame de la Sabliere's house,
where I am going to spend a week, adjoins the grounds of your amiable
widow. You told me that she was at home, and, add to the neighborhood,
the unmeasured longing I have to make her acquaintance, you will not
be surprised at the promise I have just made you.

I have not the time to finish this letter, nor the opportunity to
send it. I must depart immediately, and my traveling companion is
teasing me in a strange fashion, pretending that I am writing a love
letter. I am letting her think what she pleases, and carry the letter
with me to the country. Adieu. What! Madame de Grignan's illness will
not permit you to visit us in our solitude?

Du Chateau de---.

I am writing you from the country house of the Countess, my dear
Marquis, this is the third day I have been with her, which will enable
you to understand that I am not in bad favor with the mistress of the
house. She is an adorable woman, I am delighted with her. I sometimes
doubt whether you deserve a heart like hers. Here I am her confidante.
She has told me all she thinks about you, and I do not despair of
discovering, before I return to the city, the reasons for the change
in her character which you have remarked. I dare not write you more
now, I may be interrupted, and I do not wish any one to know that I am
writing you from this place. Adieu.

XXXI

The Opinion and Advice of Monsieur de la Sabliere

How many things I have to tell you, Marquis! I was preparing to keep
my word with you, and had arranged to use strategy upon the Countess
to worm her secret from her, when chance came to my aid.

You are not ignorant of her confidence in Monsieur de la Sabliere. She
was with him just now in an arbor of the garden, and I was passing
through a bushy path intending to join them, when the mention of your
n