Marquis had piqued her curiosity.

M. de Champignelles had no mind to cut a ridiculous figure. He said,
with the air of a man who can keep another's counsel, that the
Vicomtesse must know the purpose of this visit perfectly well; while
the Vicomtesse, in all sincerity, had no notion what it could be. Mme.
de Beauseant, in perplexity, connected Gaston with people whom he had
never met, went astray after various wild conjectures, and asked
herself if she had seen this M. de Nueil before. In truth, no
love-letter, however sincere or skilfully indited, could have produced
so much effect as this riddle. Again and again Mme. de Beauseant
puzzled over it.

When Gaston heard that he might call upon the Vicomtesse, his rapture
at so soon obtaining the ardently longed-for good fortune was mingled
with singular embarrassment. How was he to contrive a suitable sequel
to this stratagem?

"Bah! I shall see /her/," he said over and over again to himself as he
dressed. "See her, and that is everything!"

He fell to hoping that once across the threshold of Courcelles he
should find an expedient for unfastening this Gordian knot of his own
tying. There are believers in the omnipotence of necessity who never
turn back; the close presence of danger is an inspiration that calls
out all their powers for victory. Gaston de Nueil was one of these.

He took particular pains with his dress, imagining, as youth is apt to
imagine, that success or failure hangs on the position of a curl, and
ignorant of the fact that anything is charming in youth. And, in any