Part 5 (1/2)

_Severine, watching near the window, with the curtain drawn a little aside, then Rosalie_

_Severine._ Rosalie! At last! What a night I have gone through!

Sixteen hours of waiting! (_To Rosalie, who enters._) Well?

_Rosalie._ Madame, the Princess must be calm.

_Severine._ Don't call me Princess. That's wasting time.

_Rosalie._ Madame has not slept?

_Severine._ No.

_Rosalie._ I suspected as much.

_Severine._ Tell me, is it true?

_Rosalie._ Yes.

_Severine._ The details, then.

_Rosalie._ Well, then, last evening I followed the Prince, who went to the Western Railway, as he had told Madame that he would do, to take the train at half past nine; only, instead of buying a ticket for Versailles, he took one for Rouen.

_Severine._ But he was alone?

_Rosalie._ Yes. But five minutes after he arrived, she came.

_Severine._ Who was the woman?

_Rosalie._ Alas, Madame knows her better than I!

_Severine._ It is some one whom I know?

_Rosalie._ Yes.

_Severine._ Not one of those women?--

_Rosalie._ It is one of your intimate friends, of the best social position.

_Severine._ Valentine? Bertha? No.--The Baroness?

_Rosalie._ The Countess Sylvanie.

_Severine._ She? Impossible! She stayed here, with me, until at least nine o'clock. We dined alone together.

_Rosalie._ She was making sure that you didn't suspect anything.

_Severine._ Indeed, nothing. And she came to the train at what hour?

_Rosalie._ At twenty-five minutes past nine.

_Severine._ So, in twenty-five minutes--

_Rosalie._ She went home; she changed her dress (she arrived all in black); she went to the St. Lazare Station. It is true that only your garden and hers separate her house from yours; that she has the best horses in Paris; and that she is accustomed to doing this sort of thing, if I may believe what I have heard.

_Severine._ To what a pa.s.s we have come! My most intimate friend! Did they speak to each other?[10]