" She heard him cry out when he felt her lips upon his
forehead, "Many a poor wretch does not know what love is!"
"Are you ill?" said her husband, coming into her room to take her to
breakfast.
"I am dreadfully worried about a matter that is happening at my
sister's," she replied, without actually telling a lie.
"Your sister has fallen into bad hands," replied Felix. "It is a shame
for any family to have a du Tillet in it,--a man without honor of any
kind. If disaster happened to her she would get no pity from him."
"What woman wants pity?" said the countess, with a convulsive motion.
"A man's sternness is to us our only pardon."
"This is not the first time that I read your noble heart," said the
count. "A woman who thinks as you do needs no watching."
"Watching!" she said; "another shame that recoils on you."
Felix smiled, but Marie blushed. When women are secretly to blame they
often show ostensibly the utmost womanly pride. It is a dissimulation
of mind for which we ought to be obliged to them. The deception is
full of dignity, if not of grandeur. Marie wrote two lines to Nathan
under the name of Monsieur Quillet, to tell him that all went well,
and sent them by a street porter to the hotel du Mail. That night, at
the Opera, Felix thought it very natural that she should wish to leave
her box and go to that of her sister, and he waited till du Tillet had
left his wife to give Marie his arm and take her there.
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