and the sun seemed to be descending onto it, showering fiery dust on it
from the sky.

The stream of carriages, with the sun reflecting from the bright, plated
harness and the shining lamps, caused a double current to flow towards
the town and towards the wood, and the Count de Mascaret continued: "My
dear Gabrielle!"

But then, unable to bear it any longer, she replied in an exasperated
voice: "Oh! do leave me in peace, pray; I am not even at liberty to have
my carriage to myself, now." He, however, pretended not to hear her, and
continued: "You have never looked so pretty as you do to-day."

Her patience was decidedly at an end, and she replied with irrepressible
anger: "You are wrong to notice it, for I swear to you, that I will
never have anything to do with you in that way again." He was decidedly
stupefied and agitated, and his violent nature gaining the upper hand,
he exclaimed: "What do you mean by that?" in such a manner as revealed
rather the brutal master, than the amorous man. But she replied in a
low voice, so that the servants might not hear amidst the deafening
noise of the wheels: "Ah! What do I mean by that? What do I mean by
that? Now I recognize you again! Do you want me to tell everything?"
"Yes." "Everything that has been on my heart, since I have been the
victim of your terrible selfishness?"

He had grown red with surprise and anger, and he growled between his
closed teeth: "Yes, tell me everything."

He was a tall, broad-shouldered man, with a big, red beard, a handsome
man, a nobleman, a man of the world, who passed as a perfect husband and