tess," thought he as he went up the steps.

Derville had without knowing it laid his finger on the hidden wound, put
his hand on the canker that consumed Madame Ferraud.

She received him in a pretty winter dining-room, where she was at
breakfast, while playing with a monkey tethered by a chain to a little
pole with climbing bars of iron. The Countess was in an elegant wrapper;
the curls of her hair, carelessly pinned up, escaped from a cap, giving
her an arch look. She was fresh and smiling. Silver, gilding, and
mother-of-pearl shone on the table, and all about the room were rare
plants growing in magnificent china jars. As he saw Colonel Chabert's
wife, rich with his spoil, in the lap of luxury and the height of
fashion, while he, poor wretch, was living with a poor dairyman among
the beasts, the lawyer said to himself:

"The moral of all this is that a pretty woman will never acknowledge as
her husband, nor even as a lover, a man in an old box-coat, a tow wig,
and boots with holes in them."

A mischievous and bitter smile expressed the feelings, half
philosophical and half satirical, which such a man was certain to
experience--a man well situated to know the truth of things in spite of
the lies behind which most families in Paris hide their mode of life.

"Good-morning, Monsieur Derville," said she, giving the monkey some
coffee to drink.

"Madame," said he, a little sharply, for the light tone in which she
spoke jarred on him. "I have come to speak with you on a very serious
matter."

"I am so _grieved_, M. le Comte is away--"

"I, madame, am delighted. It would be grievous if he could be present at
our interview. Besides, I am informed through M. Delbecq that you like
to manage your own business without troubling the Count."

"Then I will send for Delbecq," said she.

"He would be of no use to you, clever as he is," replied Derville.
"Listen to me, madame; one word will be enough to make you grave.
Colonel Chabert is alive!"

"Is it by telling me such nonsense as that that you think you can make
me grave?" said she with a shout of laughter. But she was suddenly
quelled by the singular penetration of the fixed gaze which Derville
turned on her, seeming to read to the bottom of her soul.

"Madame," he said with cold and piercing solemnity, "you know not the
extent of the danger that threatens you. I need say nothing of the
indisputable authenticity of the evidence nor of the fulness of proof
which test