"
"In the first place, are you Florine?" said the count, speaking in his
natural voice.
"A pretty question! if you don't know that, my joking friend, why
should I believe you?"
"Go and ask Nathan, who has left you to look for his other mistress,
where he passed the night, three days ago. He tried to kill himself
without a word to you, my dear,--and all for want of money. That shows
how much you know about the affairs of a man whom you say you love,
and who leaves you without a penny, and kills himself,--or, rather,
doesn't kill himself, for his misses it. Suicides that don't kill are
about as absurd as a duel without a scratch."
"That's a lie," said Florine. "He dined with me that very day. The
poor fellow had the sheriff after him; he was hiding, as well he
might."
"Go and ask at the hotel du Mail, rue du Mail, if he was not taken
there that morning, half dead of the fumes of charcoal, by a handsome
young woman with whom he has been in love over a year. Her letters are
at this moment under your very nose in your own house. If you want to
teach Nathan a good lesson, let us all three go there; and I'll show
you, papers in hand, how you can save him from the sheriff and Clichy
if you choose to be the good girl that you are."
"Try that on others than Florine, my little man. I am certain that
Nathan has never been in love with any one but me."
"On the contrary, he has been in love with a woman in society for over
a year--"
"A woman in society, he!" cried Florine.
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