What a position for women who have nothing to
reproach themselves with but the happiness they have given! My
friend, I have taken all I have of any value to MY UNCLE'S; I have
nothing but the memory of you left, and here is the winter coming
on. I shall be fireless when it turns cold; for the boulevards are
to play only melodramas, in which I have nothing but little bits
of parts which don't POSE a woman. How could you misunderstand the
nobleness of my feelings for you?--for there are two ways of
expressing gratitude. You who seemed so happy in seeing me well-
off, how can you leave me in poverty? Oh, my sole friend on earth,
before I go back to the country fairs with Bouthor's circus, where
I can at least make a living, forgive me if I wish to know whether
I have lost you forever. If I were to let myself think of you when
I jump through the hoops, I should be sure to break my legs by
losing A TIME. Whatever may be the result, I am yours for life.
"Marguerite Turquet."
"That letter," thought Thaddeus, shouting with laughter, "is worth the
ten thousand francs I have spent upon her."
III
Clementine came home the next day, and the day after that Paz beheld
her again, more beautiful and graceful than ever. After dinner, during
which the countess treated Paz with an air of perfect indifference, a
little scene took place in the salon between the count and his wife
when Thaddeus had left them.
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