He plunged his light eyes
into hers and said, coldly:--
"Your sister came here to borrow forty thousand francs for a man in
whom she takes an interest, who'll be locked up within three days in a
debtor's prison."
The poor woman was seized with a nervous trembling, which she
endeavored to repress.
"You alarm me," she said. "But my sister is far too well brought up,
and she loves her husband too much to be interested in any man to that
extent."
"Quite the contrary," he said, dryly. "Girls brought up as you two
were, in the constraints and practice of piety, have a thirst for
liberty; they desire happiness, and the happiness they get in marriage
is never as fine as that they dreamt of. Such girls make bad wives."
"Speak for me," said poor Eugenie, in a tone of bitter feeling, "but
respect my sister. The Comtesse de Vandenesse is happy; her husband
gives her too much freedom not to make her truly attached to him.
Besides, if your supposition were true, she would never have told me
of such a matter."
"It is true," he said, "and I forbid you to have anything to do with
the affair. My interests demand that the man shall go to prison.
Remember my orders."
Madame du Tillet left the room.
"She will disobey me, of course, and I shall find out all the facts by
watching her," thought du Tillet, when alone in the boudoir. "These
poor fools always think they can do battle against us.
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