"
He went to the Russian Embassy before dinner, and thence to the
Foreign office, and the next morning he had started for Havre before
the count and countess were up.
"I have lost a friend," said Adam, with tears in his eyes, when he
heard that Paz had gone,--"a friend in the true meaning of the word. I
don't know what has made him abandon me as if a pestilence were in my
house. We are not friends to quarrel about a woman," he said, looking
intently at Clementine. "You heard what he said yesterday about
Malaga. Well, he has never so much as touched the little finger of
that girl."
"How do you know that?" said Clementine.
"I had the natural curiosity to go and see Mademoiselle Turquet, and
the poor girl can't explain even to herself the absolute reserve which
Thad--"
"Enough!" said the countess, retreating into her bedroom. "Can it be
that I am the victim of some noble mystification?" she asked herself.
The thought had hardly crossed her mind when Constantin brought her
the following letter written by Thaddeus during the night:--
"Countess,--To seek death in the Caucasus and carry with me your
contempt is more than I can bear. A man should die untainted. When
I saw you for the first time I loved you as we love a woman whom
we shall love forever, even though she be unfaithful to us.
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