her own person united all the youth, all the beauty, all the wealth,
sprinkled parsimoniously so far and wide over all the women in this
land, would she at that time have done aught else with this than
immolate it on the burning pyre of the General's affection? "And yet
be sure of nothing."

It is not necessary, perhaps, to explain that last clause. It is very
little consolation for wives that their husbands have forgotten, when
some one else remembers. Some one else! Ah! there could be so many
some one Else's in the General's life, for in truth he had been
irresistible to excess. But this was one particular some one else who
had been faithful for five years. Which one?

When Madame Honorine solves that enigma she has made up her mind how
to act.

As for Journel, it amused him more and more. He would go away from the
little cottage rubbing his hands with pleasure (he never saw Madame
Honorine, by the way, only the General). He would have given far more
than thirty dollars a month for this drama; for he was not only rich,
but a great _farceur_.




LA GRANDE DEMOISELLE


That was what she was called by everybody as soon as she was seen or
described. Her name, besides baptismal titles, was Idalie Sainte Foy