I
shall never be free, I know that, so long as he lives. My life is
regulated like that of a queen; my meals are served with the utmost
formality; at a given hour I must drive to the Bois; I am always
accompanied by two footmen in full dress; I am obliged to return at a
certain hour. Instead of giving orders, I receive them. At a ball, at
the theatre, a servant comes to me and says: 'Madame's carriage is
ready,' and I am obliged to go, in the midst, perhaps, of something I
enjoy. Ferdinand would be furious if I did not obey the etiquette he
prescribes for his wife; he frightens me. In the midst of this hateful
opulence, I find myself regretting the past, and thinking that our
mother was kind; she left us the nights when we could talk together;
at any rate, I was living with a dear being who loved me and suffered
with me; whereas here, in this sumptuous house, I live in a desert."
At this terrible confession the countess caught her sister's hand and
kissed it, weeping.
"How, then, can I help you," said Eugenie, in a low voice. "He would
be suspicious at once if he surprised us here, and would insist on
knowing all that you have been saying to me. I should be forced to
tell a lie, which is difficult indeed with so sly and treacherous a
man; he would lay traps for me. But enough of my own miseries; let us
think of yours. The forty thousand francs you want would be, of
course, a mere nothing to Ferdinand, who handles millions with that
fat banker, Baron de Nucingen.
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