stood, he saw that it would be necessary to have recourse to the
cleverest subtleties, the most elaborately wrapped up and disguised,
which were in use in the Courts, to detect the truth.

Bianchon sat cold and stern, as a man who has made up his mind to
endure torture without revealing his sufferings; but in his heart he
wished that his uncle could only trample on this woman as we trample
on a viper--a comparison suggested to him by the Marquise's long
dress, by the curve of her attitude, her long neck, small head, and
undulating movements.

"Well, monsieur," said Madame d'Espard, "however great my dislike to
be or seem selfish, I have been suffering too long not to wish that
you may settle matters at once. Shall I soon get a favorable
decision?"

"Madame, I will do my best to bring matters to a conclusion," said
Popinot, with an air of frank good-nature. "Are you ignorant of the
reason which made the separation necessary which now subsists between
you and the Marquis d'Espard?"

"Yes, monsieur," she replied, evidently prepared with a story to tell.
"At the beginning of 1816 M. d'Espard, whose temper had completely
changed within three months or so, proposed that we should go to live
on one of his estates near Briancon, without any regard for my health,
which that climate would have destroyed, or for my habits of life; I
refused to go. My refusal gave rise to such unjustifiable reproaches
on his part, that from that hour I had my suspicions as to the
soundness of his mind. On the following day he left me, leaving me his
house and the free use of my own income, and he went to live in the