Part 118 (2/2)

Blanche did not reply.

She was deliberating, forcing herself to weigh the probable consequences of all these events which had succeeded each other with such marvellous rapidity.

”Perhaps the hour of my revenge is almost here,” murmured Blanche, as if communing with herself.

”What do you say?” inquired Aunt Medea, with evident curiosity.

”I say, aunt, that in less than a month I shall be Marquise de Sairmeuse in reality as well as in name. My husband will return to me, and then--oh, then!”

”G.o.d grant it!” said Aunt Medea, hypocritically.

In her secret heart she had but little faith in this prediction, and whether it was realized or not mattered little to her.

”Still another proof that your jealousy led you astray; and that--that what you did at the Borderie was unnecessary,” she said, in that low tone that accomplices always use in speaking of their crime.

Such had been the opinion of Blanche; but she now shook her head, and gloomily replied:

”You are wrong; that which took place at the Borderie has restored my husband to me. I understand it all, now. It is true that Marie-Anne was not Martial's mistress, but Martial loved her. He loved her, and the rebuffs which he received only increased his pa.s.sion. It was for her sake that he abandoned me; and never, while she lived, would he have thought of me. His emotion on seeing me was the remnant of the emotion which had been awakened by another. His tenderness was only the expression of his sorrow. Whatever happens, I shall have only her leavings--what she has disdained!” the young marquise added, bitterly; and her eyes flashed, and she stamped her foot in ungovernable anger.

”And shall I regret what I have done?” she exclaimed; ”never! no, never!”

From that moment, she was herself again, brave and determined.

But horrible fears a.s.sailed her when the inquest began.

Officials came from Montaignac charged with investigating the affair.

They examined a host of witnesses, and there was even talk of sending to Paris for one of those detectives skilled in unravelling all the mysteries of crime.

Aunt Medea was half crazed with terror; and her fear was so apparent that it caused Blanche great anxiety.

”You will end by betraying us,” she remarked, one evening.

”Ah! my terror is beyond my control.”

”If that is the case, do not leave your room.”

”It would be more prudent, certainly.”

”You can say that you are not well; your meals shall be served in your own apartment.”

Aunt Medea's face brightened. In her inmost heart she was enraptured. To have her meals served in her own room, in her bed in the morning, and on a little table by the fire in the evening, had long been the ambition and the dream of the poor dependent. But how to accomplish it! Two or three times, being a trifle indisposed, she had ventured to ask if her breakfast might be brought to her room, but her request had been harshly refused.

”If Aunt Medea is hungry, she will come down and take her place at the table as usual,” had been the response of Mme. Blanche.

To be treated in this way in a chateau where there were a dozen servants standing about idle was hard indeed.

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